ERIC Number: EJ1358920
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2022-Dec
Pages: 28
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: N/A
EISSN: EISSN-2518-6833
Available Date: N/A
The 2020 Pandemic in South Sudan: An Exploration of Teenage Mothers' and Pregnant Adolescent Girls' Resilience and Educational Continuity
Corwith, Anne; Ali, Fatimah
Journal on Education in Emergencies, v8 n3 p136-163 Dec 2022
On March 13, 2020, the government of South Sudan implemented emergency lockdown measures in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Fears that the pandemic would reverse efforts by the government and civil society to keep girls in school were realized and reported incidences of teen pregnancy increased. Prior to the pandemic, early marriage and teen pregnancy in South Sudan were already of extreme concern, as the country reported the seventh-highest child marriage rate in the world. Countrywide data from 2019 indicated that only 34 percent of the students who sat for primary exams were girls. We conducted this qualitative study to explore the resilience factors that adolescent mothers and pregnant adolescents relied on during the COVID-19 lockdowns in Maiwut Town, South Sudan, to enable them to return to school and continue their education. Our research revealed that, despite struggling to meet their basic needs, receiving weak support from their social networks, and experiencing violence and persistent negative gender roles, these adolescent mothers and pregnant adolescents exhibited resilience in their aspirations to return to school and become financially independent. By centering this research on the voices of this vulnerable population, we are able to recommend what we argue are more effective and targeted interventions for organizations that are working in this and similar emergency contexts.
Descriptors: Pregnancy, Academic Persistence, Foreign Countries, COVID-19, Pandemics, Early Parenthood, Social Networks, Violence, Females, Access to Education, Marriage, Adolescents, Resilience (Psychology), Educational Attainment, Mothers, Sex Role, Barriers, Academic Aspiration, Intervention
Inter-agency Network for Education in Emergencies. 122 East 42nd Street, 14th Floor, New York, NY 10168. e-mail: journal@inee.org; Web site: https://inee.org/evidence/journal
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
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Language: English
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Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: Sudan
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