Pasifika youth pregnancy and climate change

We're researching how young Pasifika people in Australia and the Pacific are finding their way into parenthood during this time of major change.

Youth pregnancy is common in many Pasifika communities. Becoming a parent young often happens alongside school, growing up and planning for the future.

Right now, most policies focus on lowering pregnancy rates rather than giving young parents safe and respectful maternity care.

We’re aiming to address this by focusing on stories of young Pasifika parents instead.

Pasifika refers to Indigenous peoples from the Pacific Islands region, including those who now live in Australia.

How climate affects Pasifika health

There can be shame and stigma around being a young parent. Judgement from healthcare services can lead young parents to avoid getting care.

For Pasifika communities, climate disasters add more challenges. Climate change disrupts families, traditions and knowledge passed down from generations. Climate disasters are also linked to:

more relationship violence

heavier caring duties for women

more problems during pregnancy, including early birth

constrained access to health services.

In Australia, there’s limited research that looks at how climate risk, culture and young parenthood connect for Pasifika communities. This project aims to help change that.

Fonofale: a Pasifika model of health

Our study uses the Fonofale model of health.

Fonofale means 'meeting house' in Samoan. Family and community are the foundation of the house. Culture is the roof. Physical, mental and spiritual wellbeing are the posts that hold it up, all shaped by time, place and environment.

The Fonofale model puts Pasifika ways of being at the centre. Using this model, young Pasifika people are invited to share their own ideas about strength and healing through pregnancy, parenthood, identity and the possible loss of their homeland.

A drawing of a house where the ground is labelled 'family', 'community' and 'kin', the pillars labelled 'physical', 'mental', 'spiritual', and 'other', the roof is 'culture' and the trees surrounding are 'environment', 'context' and 'time'.

R Coe

Illustrated from components described in 'Fonofale model of health' by Pulotu-Endemann (1995).

Listening through talanoa and photovoice

Our study also uses talanoa and photovoice methods.

Talanoa is a Pacific way of storytelling through conversation.

Photovoice is a way for people to take photos that help share their experiences.

Community advisors are part of our research team. Our study is led by Rowena Coe, a Pasifika woman and registered midwife, who uses her community connections to keep the research safe and respectful.

What we're doing

Our project explores:

how young Pasifika people move into parenthood during a time of big change

how family relationships and cultural knowledge help young Pasifika people through pregnancy and early parenthood, especially amid climate disasters

how the risk of losing their homeland shapes identity, pregnancy and parenting for Pasifika communities living away from home.

We’re working to:

build a better understanding of how young Pasifika people experience pregnancy and parenthood during climate change

help improve maternity care for young Pasifika people and their families in Australia

learn more about how climate displacement affects health equity

support the decolonising of maternal health research

find ways to reduce stigma and discrimination against young parents.

Climate and young people's health in the Pacific

This study is part of our work on climate change and adolescent health across the Pacific. That includes research in Vanuatu, youth-led climate research in the Philippines, and a new health and climate plan for Melanesia.

It also extends this work closer to home, to Pasifika communities in Australia and to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander young people. Together, we're building a fuller picture of how climate change is shaping young people's health, across the Pacific and here in Australia.

We encourage Pasifika communities and health services who want to be part of this work to contact us.