Justifying and excusing young motherhood in Singapore

Young motherhood is predominantly perceived as a social problem despite the declining rate of teen births in Singapore. This suggests that the problematic nature of young motherhood stems not entirely from statistics of teen births rate but also from young mothers’ resistance to the “normal” life tr...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Chow, Janice Yu Shan
Other Authors: Premchand Dommaraju
Format: Final Year Project (FYP)
Language:English
Published: 2015
Subjects:
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/10356/62434
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author Chow, Janice Yu Shan
author2 Premchand Dommaraju
author_facet Premchand Dommaraju
Chow, Janice Yu Shan
author_sort Chow, Janice Yu Shan
collection NTU
description Young motherhood is predominantly perceived as a social problem despite the declining rate of teen births in Singapore. This suggests that the problematic nature of young motherhood stems not entirely from statistics of teen births rate but also from young mothers’ resistance to the “normal” life trajectory of securing educational and career security before forming a family. This research thus explores the stigma faced by young mothers and how their stigmatizing experiences reveal the influence of social class and the workings of dominant modes of defining “good mothers” and the role of adolescents in society. Drawing on the perspectives of Goffman (1959, 1963) and Scott and Lyman (1968), this paper examines young mothers’ coping mechanisms – the way they justify and/or excuse their “deviant” behaviours and their negotiation of social norms to translate damaged identities into desirable ones.
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spelling ntu-10356/624342019-12-10T12:12:29Z Justifying and excusing young motherhood in Singapore Chow, Janice Yu Shan Premchand Dommaraju School of Humanities and Social Sciences DRNTU::Social sciences::Sociology Young motherhood is predominantly perceived as a social problem despite the declining rate of teen births in Singapore. This suggests that the problematic nature of young motherhood stems not entirely from statistics of teen births rate but also from young mothers’ resistance to the “normal” life trajectory of securing educational and career security before forming a family. This research thus explores the stigma faced by young mothers and how their stigmatizing experiences reveal the influence of social class and the workings of dominant modes of defining “good mothers” and the role of adolescents in society. Drawing on the perspectives of Goffman (1959, 1963) and Scott and Lyman (1968), this paper examines young mothers’ coping mechanisms – the way they justify and/or excuse their “deviant” behaviours and their negotiation of social norms to translate damaged identities into desirable ones. Bachelor of Arts 2015-04-04T06:27:49Z 2015-04-04T06:27:49Z 2015 2015 Final Year Project (FYP) http://hdl.handle.net/10356/62434 en Nanyang Technological University 30 p. application/pdf
spellingShingle DRNTU::Social sciences::Sociology
Chow, Janice Yu Shan
Justifying and excusing young motherhood in Singapore
title Justifying and excusing young motherhood in Singapore
title_full Justifying and excusing young motherhood in Singapore
title_fullStr Justifying and excusing young motherhood in Singapore
title_full_unstemmed Justifying and excusing young motherhood in Singapore
title_short Justifying and excusing young motherhood in Singapore
title_sort justifying and excusing young motherhood in singapore
topic DRNTU::Social sciences::Sociology
url http://hdl.handle.net/10356/62434
work_keys_str_mv AT chowjaniceyushan justifyingandexcusingyoungmotherhoodinsingapore