More than half of mothers who give birth when under 20 years old claim that the father is unknown, according to figures given this morning during a conference on strengthening families. 39% of mothers aged between 20 and 24 also claim unknown fathers.

Social Policy Minister John Dalli told the conference this morning that his greastest concerns were teen prgnancy when the father did not assume responsibility for the child.

"The rate of births outside marriage by Maltese mothers has increased at an alarming rate in a very short span of time, from 12.9% in 2002 to 25% in 2008. One in every four births are from young mothers under 20 and 53% of these register their baby as father unknown.

"Another 30% are from mothers between the age of 20 and 24. Again even here a high percentage (39%) register the births as father unknown. The percentage of those who register as father unknown goes down to 24% and 23% respectively for those mothers who are in the 25 to 29 and the 30 to 34 age bracket but nevertheless this rate is still high. It is much lower after that."

The minister said the questions he asked himself were: How do we make sense of this phenomenon? How are we to prevent this growing trend?

"Certainly we need to set up a think tank to work in a more focused way on this issue. I am sure that the Centre for Family Studies will help us in this. We are very much aware that this new phenomenon will not disappear on its own and especially in the case of teenage mothers the situation is particularly worrying"

Local research, he said, had shown that being brought up in a single parent family doubled the children’s chances of living in poverty. Moreover most teenage mothers dropped out of school and very often ended up living on the margin. This had a very detrimental effect on the child’s future and ultimately on society's future as a country that wantsed to move forward and maximise the full potential of everyone.

"We believe that we need to work hand in hand with other departments, especially with the Education Department, in order to make better use of our resources in schools and even increase those resources in order to minimise the chances of teenagers engaging in risky sexual behaviour. We also need to support parents and help them learn how to talk about sexual relationships with their children rather than avoid raising this subject or at best talk down to their adolescent children by resorting to warnings and threats"

Mr Dalli said he noted two opposing trends related to men and fathers. On the one hand , society was placing a greater emphasis on the importance of fatherhood, and how beneficial it was that fathers became more involved in child raising. On the other hand, the increase in non-marital births registered as father unknown pulled in the opposite direction.

"Has this simply come about because cohabiting families would like to cash in on an extra monetary allowance or is the situation more complex in fact? "

Mr Dalli said it was high time that these parents were interviewed and one got to know them more closely.

"We need to learn first hand how best we can support them in bringing up their children."

"As I talk to you about the challenges our Maltese families face, I have to tell you that I also remain very hopeful about our families. It is true that they need our support but they are also very resourceful and resilient and we hope that together with them, through dialogue and respect we will succeed in building the future of our children together."