The Current State of Adolescent Parents and Its Implications for Policy

Abstract

Adolescent parents are young people in their early youth—a socioeconomically vulnerable phase—who have to juggle school, work, pregnancy, childbirth, and parenting. Adolescent parent families, however, have not been looked upon as a policy target group in their own right, with the support given to them provided in limited ways via such support programs as those intended for grandparent families and single-parent families. As a legal basis on which to provide support for adolescent parents has been laid with the amendment made in March 2021 to the Youth Welfare Support Act, I attempt in this article to discuss the current state and characteristics of adolescent parents, analyze the policy support programs that are in place for those young people, and make policy suggestions to provide improved support for adolescent parents.