ABSTRACT
Much media attention has recently been focused in the UK on young single mothers (Kershaw, 1993; Phillips, 1995), who have variously been accused of being ‘wedded to welfare’ (Jones, 1993); of contributing, through their lack of a male partner, to increases in crime and delinquency; and of creating a growing financial burden on the Welfare State. Responses to this ‘moral panic’ have consisted of an unhelpful mixture of realistic policy priorities and ideological rhetoric. For example, on the one hand official health policy targets include a halving in the rates of conception among women under age 16 by the year 2000 (Department of Health, 1992a, 1992b). On the other hand, there has been controversy over the teaching of sex education to younger teenagers and calls for official enquiries into sex education teaching in some schools. There have also been widespread allegations by politicians and the media that the availability of welfare benefits and housing to single mothers actually encourages out-of-wedlock childbearing; therefore, it is asserted, these births could be reduced by reducing access to such welfare provisions (Helm, 1993).
