South Australian study aims to break the cycle of intergenerational abuse by helping young mums

Almost a quarter of young mums who spent time in state care while growing up have gone on to have their own children removed by authorities, new figures reveal.

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Huge numbers of children in state care are coming from a tiny group of struggling young parent households, new figures reveal.

About 6 per cent of mothers aged younger than 20 when they have their first child go on to give birth to more than half of the children who end up in state care.

About a quarter of those mothers had been in state care themselves and more than two-thirds had been the subject of reports to child protection authorities in their childhood.

The trend emerged from analysis of 10,361 mothers who gave birth between 1999 and 2013. Of those young women, 644 (or six per cent) gave birth to 57 per cent of the children who were taken into state care between 1999 and 2015 — a total of 2053 children.

In a bid to reach troubled families before children are put in danger, the State Government will create an Intensive Support Unit within the Human Services Department.

The unit will focus on at-risk groups including young parents and those with infants.

Centacare specialist therapist Jackie Amos said trauma experienced as a child could resurface for young parents.

“When you’ve got those mums under 20, and their partners, they’re still very young themselves and some of their trauma is going to still be quite raw,” she said.

Dr Amos said these young parents needed a combination of therapy, education and practical support, such as with housing or parenting skills.

Government researchers say there is a gap in data on young fathers but of children born to young mums who are reported to child-protection authorities, 35 per cent had a father aged under 20 and 45 per cent aged 20 to 24.

Human Services Department deputy chief executive Lois Boswell said the data showed the need to “disrupt intergenerational patterns by better supporting young parents and adolescents with complex trauma histories, even before they become parents”.

Human Services Minister Michelle Lensink said current strategies focused on “offering supports as early in a child’s life as possible” but a new approach would also look at “how we can support vulnerable adolescents to be better equipped for parenthood”.

Opposition child protection spokeswoman Jayne Stinson said it was not surprising that “young parents who were themselves deprived of strong parenting models can struggle to cope with raising children”.

However, she noted teen pregnancy rates had dropped and “the majority of young mums and dads … are wonderful parents”.

Data from New South Wales shows that almost half of children who were in state care there in 2014-15 had a parent who had either been in state care, or was the subject of a report to child protection authorities when they were young.