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The Women's Center of Jamaica Foundation's (WCJF) Programme for Adolescent Mothers)--has supported pregnant girls and adolescent mothers to have uninterrupted access to education and allied services since 1978. This paper analyzes the conception, establishment, scale up and sustainability of the Programme. The Programme evolved from a small, local initiative into a national and international model. Repeat pregnancy has remained under 2% among programme beneficiaries since inception. While the core package of interventions has remained for the past 40 years, some new dimensions have been added, with the most recent one being support for transition to higher education, all of which are aimed at strengthening the impact of the Programme. The achievements of the Programme were propelled prominently by a progressive national policy environment with the support of several non-state actors. The PAM demonstrates the value of sustained cross-sectoral support, spearheaded, or fully supported by the state in providing opportunities for adolescent mothers.

A large body of literature suggests a clear, concurrent association between peer approval and self-esteem in adolescence. However, little empirical work exists on either the prospective or reciprocal relation between peer approval and self-esteem during this age period. Moreover, it is unclear from past research whether both "subjectively perceived peer approval" and "objectively measured peer approval" are related to subsequent self-esteem over time (and vice versa) and whether these paths have long-term associations into adulthood. Using data from a large longitudinal study that covers a time span of 2 decades, we examined reciprocal, prospective relations between self-esteem and peer approval during ages 12-16 in addition to long-term relations between these variables and later social constructs at age 35. Cross-lagged regression analyses revealed small but persistent effect sizes from both types of peer approval to subsequent self-esteem in adolescence, controlling for prior self-esteem. However, effects in the reverse direction were not confirmed. These findings support the notion that peer relationships serve an important function for later self-esteem, consistent with many theoretical tenets of the importance of peers for building a strong identity. Finally, we found long-term relations between adult social constructs and adolescent objective and subjective peer approval as well as self-esteem. Therefore, not only do peer relationships play a role in self-esteem development across adolescence, but they remain impactful throughout adulthood. In sum, the current findings highlight the lasting, yet small link between peer relationships and self-esteem development and call for investigations of further influential factors for self-esteem over time.