Teenage Pregnancy: Why Do Children of Teen Mothers Tend to Be Teen Mothers - Research Paper Example

? Teenage Pregnancy: Why Do Children of Teen Mothers Tend to be Teen Mothers? Outline I. Introduction II. Review of Related Literature III. Methodology IV. Findings V. ConclusionI. Introduction Because of the growing numbers of teenagers who untimely become parents, various researches had been investigated regarding teenage pregnancy (Barth and Schinke, 1984; Colleta, 1981; Crockenberg, 1987). This was not just a personal problem among those who had experienced this situation but together with the continuous trend, the society was also alarmed. Different institutions like government, economy, education, church, and most specially, the institution of the family were upset with the increasing numbers of young mothers. Basically, the reason that had pushed me to investigate the social issue of teenage pregnancy was because I personally considered that being in that position meant being at a disadvantageous point. To be a young mother took away lots of opportunities in life. Instead of studying, some cases of young pregnant women had to stop. Their foundations to get a better career and to build a better future were ruined. At an early age, these young girls had to take on the responsibility of another life, their children. Moreover, it was unquestionable that stigma always had come along these teenagers who got pregnant. According to Whitehead (1994), different ‘imaginative measures’ had existed for a goal of making unwed teenage motherhood look nasty, disagreeable and immoral. Indeed, such measures occurred just to ‘uglify’ teenage pregnancy. For that reason, these young girls were stigmatized for they had become mothers at a very young age. In some cases, it could be observed that being a teen mother was just a repetition of history. This was because some children of teen mothers had tended to be teen mothers themselves. The necessity to conduct this study could be backed-up by the present conditions of the country in relation to the growing issues regarding teenage pregnancy. Thus, my research investigation shall delve on “Teenage Pregnancy: Why Do Children of Teen Mothers Tend to be Teen Mothers?” II. Review of Related Literature This section would first present an overview of the literatures related to the topic regarding teenage pregnancy. The books and the articles reviewed might not be a representative of the complete array of the information concerning teenage pregnancy. Its expediency was to help the readers grasp a sociological outlook on how to understand the topic under study. Motherhood was one among the characteristics of a woman. According to Chodorow (1978), mothering was a central role among women. For Jacobson (1950), to bear, to deliver, to nurse and to rear children were regarded as the biological destiny of a woman. However, there was what we used to call bad and good mothering. For Chodorow (1978), good mothering was characterized by extreme selflessness. An ideal mother was seen to have no interests of her own. To be a mother meant playing her role and responsibility in her family as well as in the society. As a mother, she should understand what family, child-rearing and mothering within meant. Being a mother, generally involved herself in marriage where she showed her passivity, subordination, as well as her dependence to her husband. Indeed, the existing assumptions of gender roles and inequality in married life shaped the ideals of mothering. No child should be brought in the world without a man was considered to be the most moral and legal rule concerning the physiological side of kinship (Malinowski, 1960). Conceiving a child should be seen within the context of marriage which had meant unwed motherhood was highly forbidden. Because of this, women who were pregnant or had been pregnant outside the context of marriage suffered different forms of stigma such as disgrace, humiliation and isolation. Kelly (1997) recognized the hardship of challenging and dispelling the stereotypes surrounding teenage motherhood. This was by the reason that these stereotypes had signified numerous stigmatized yet conflicting meanings. Some of the stereotypes attached to the teenage motherhood were that they were promiscuous, ignorant, welfare – dependent, childish, neglectful, love – starved, emotionally unbalanced, victimized by abuse or poverty, inappropriate, incompetent, selfish, lazy, lacking in self-control, irresponsible, and so on. Lots among those considered stigmatizing adolescent pregnancy to prevent early welfare activity as well as to prevent welfare dependency. Kelly’s ethnographic data were from a larger ethnographic research project whose focus was building a play regarding the experiences of teen mothers. The play aimed to depict the aspects of a young mom, to counter the existing stigmas, to warn teenagers and to prevent unwanted pregnancies. All these moms had experienced prejudices from their own family, from their set of friends, from strangers, and sometimes, even from the guys who impregnated them. They were associated to ‘Ho,’ a slung for whore, to evidence the sexual stereotype to these women. One of the teenage mothers had suffered the stereotype of being promiscuous and slut since she engaged in multiple sex partners and had two fathers of her babies. The other teenage mother was impregnated by her boyfriend yet denied the child to be his and told her of being a slut, for committing an abortion once in the past. However, this judgment was not applicable for every woman who has been pregnant out of wedlock. In fact, some of them had steady nature of relationship while some had been failed by the birth control method they used. Teenage mothers claimed that they were not the stereotype. It was not appropriate to have these generalizations about them since they were so much different in many ways. These women had particular situations that had brought them to the early pregnancy. Negative statements about them were based on their age, marital status, breastfeeding in public, welfare status, and knowledge of birth control. Though, what was left unsaid in the play was the likelihood of being child abusers and negligence. III. Methodology In this study, qualitative research was most suitable for inquiries into subjective issues and interpersonal relations. According to Lincoln (1995), qualitative research generally meant the gathering and analysing of material which had aimed to disclose meaning in order to understand that particular experience. A qualitative research method through in-depth interviews would allow respondents to openly share needs and insights on the topic. The preference of this method was also because of taking into consideration the sensitivity of the topic on teenage pregnancy. Since the respondent’s private life would be exposed, I told her what the study was all about. The interview was conducted only with the permission of the respondent to be part of the research. It was done in strict assurance that everything would be held confidential. Pseudonym was also used to conceal the identity of the respondent. Only one teenage mother, a cousin of my friend, was interviewed aided with a discussion guide asking some personal information like her name, age, place where she lives, educational attainment, occupation, economic status and family set-up, and also open-ended questions on being a teenage mother like how she was as a teenage mom, personal experiences as a teenage mom, reactions upon finding out the pregnancy, to whom the pregnancy was first disclosed, things came up to mind about pregnancy (like plans with the baby), current relationship with the father of the baby, relationship to her family, how was the baby and outlook based on experience as a young mom. We had talked about her life for about 2 hours in a coffee shop. IV. Findings Like her son, Camille was a product of an early child bearing of her mom at an early age of 17 years old. Indeed, it was like a repetition of history for her and her mom. Currently, she’s 19 years old. But unlike her mom, she was not stopped from school. Unlike her mom, she was not married with the father of her baby. While her mother was happily married, she was not married but she was happy. It was her choice not to be engaged in a shotgun marriage though she recognized that marriage was a very important factor on how to lessen the stigmas given to her case. This view of Camille could be supported by the conservative views on marriage by Malinowski (1960) because conceiving a child should be within the context of marriage. On the one hand, she and the father of her baby were still together as a couple but not living in together. This set up was their parents’ decisions for both of them were still in school. Their parents were around them, supporting them. Camille was a young mom depending on her family for her and her child’s survival. Indeed, this dependency as discussed by Kelly (1997) was one among the common stereotypes given to teenage mom like Camille. Since she was studying and had no means to support her child, she had no choice but to depend on her family. This dependence did not make her comfortable at some points. This was because she had acknowledged that every consequence of her early child bearing was not only experienced by her and her boyfriend, but their families as well. Every need of her baby was provided by their parents. Though she was lucky enough because they were economically well off, she was not experiencing the usual economic dilemmas suffered by those teenage mothers. But according to her, even though she was born rich, being a teenage mom was really a struggle especially with the presence of different stereotypes given to her. She was called a slut by many including those she had thought to be her friends. Even if she was just sleeping with one guy, others thought of her to be sleeping with different men. She was even told of having abortion in the past even though it was just her first time to be pregnant. The stereotypes of being a teenage mom just like what Kelly (1997) had discussed was also suffered by Camille. Through her experience of being pregnant at a very young age, she acknowledged that she was considered by the others as promiscuous, incompetent, and irresponsible. All she felt was that she was being judged too much. For her, she highly claimed that it was so unfair because it was only her who suffered that kind of humiliation and stigma. She was saying this because while she was dishonored, her boyfriend was admired by the others. What happened was a plus point to her boyfriend’s masculinity. Her pregnancy was hard but she was lucky enough to have very supportive mom by her side. Some judged her that being promiscuous ran in their genes but for her, it was not. She did not believe that the reason why she had become a teenage mom was because her mom was a teenage mother herself. For her, there was no one to blame but themselves for not being careful. They were aware of contraceptives but because of too much love, they had forgotten of the safe sex. Camille was not ignorant just like the typical judgment on teenage moms. Also, she said that pre-marital sex was so prevalent among this generation. V. Conclusion With the growing number of teenage moms, the society was alarmed indeed. Through the various reviewed literatures as well as Camille’s case, pregnancies among teenagers were different cases. Its cases tended to vary depending on the particular experience of the teenager. Indeed, teenage pregnancy was not just a personal concern but a social problem for the continuous increase of teenagers who become moms. Those young teens who untimely had become pregnant suffer from varying degrees of stigma. Stereotypes such as promiscuous, slut, incompetent, irresponsible, and dependent as claimed by Kelly (1997) were experienced by Camille. To be pregnant at a young age was always accompanied by stigma. Withdrawal of some support groups was also a possibility like that of some friends who suddenly turned their backs on her upon knowing her pregnancy. The support of family and the father of the baby were seen to be crucial in having a positive outlook in life despite the early pregnancy. Marriage also played a strong role on the intensification of stigma since pregnancy must always come within marriage. However, despite the similarity of the situation of Camille and her mom of being teenage moms themselves, I would not say that children of teen mothers always tend to be teen mothers. However, what I had observed was that being too much in love and engaging in sex can lead to pregnancy. The case of Camille’s pregnancy was brought by the influence of her environment and not by her mom’s. Generalizations could only be made on Camille’s personal experience on being a teenage mom since her experience was not the same as the experience of the others. This might be true for the particular others but not for the universal experience of teenage mothers. References: Barth, R. P., & Schinke, S. P. (1984). Enhancing the social supports of teenage mothers. Social Casework: The Journal of Contemporary Social Work 65. 523-531. Chodorow, Nancy (1978). The reproduction of Mmothering: psychoanalysis and the sociology of gender. Berkeley: University of California. Colletta, N. D. (1981). Social support and the risk of maternal rejection by adolescent mothers. The Journal of Psychology 109. 191-197. Crockenberg, S. (1987). Predictors and correlates of anger toward and punitive control of toddlers by adolescent mothers. Child Development 58. 964-975. Jacobson, Edith (1950). Development of a wish for a child in boys. Psychoanalytic Study of the Child 5. 139 – 152. Kelly, Deirdre M. (1997). Warning labels: stigma and the popularizing of teen mothers’ stories. Curriculum Inquiry 27(2). 165 – 186. Lincoln, Y. S. (1995). Emerging criteria for quality in qualitative and interpretative research. Qualitative Inquiry 1. 275 -289. Malinowski (1960). Parenthood – the basis of social structure.” In Roberts, R.W. The Unwed Mother. New York and London: Harper and Row Publishers. Read More