Teenage pregnancies: who are these teen-mothers?
The pregnancies adolescents do not form a homogeneous group but cover a very wide variety of situations, ranging from pregnancy desired to pregnancies arriving after unprotected reports. Pregnant adolescents come from all walks of life, even though pregnancies are more often involved in underprivileged areas and unstructured families.
Those that continue are generally found in the 15-17 age group. The image of the very young mother of 15 years is quite exceptional. More pregnancy occurs early, the more the Voluntary Interruption of Pregnancy (IVG). Apart from this age criterion, the adolescent girls concerned have quite a variety of profiles. There are still some typical situations. We can distinguish the well-rounded teenager, born of a favorable social environment and who is slow to realize that she is pregnant. Using random contraception, young girls, unconscious or afraid to talk to the family, drag their contact with a medical professional.
We can also note pregnancies which are more cultural in nature. Many customary societies consider thathave a baby is rewarding. The pregnancy consti¬tue a ritual passage from childhood to the world of adults. These pregnancies programmed and expected by a couple, a family, a clan follow the usual evolution of pregnancies and for the vast majority of them, they are very simple. Prosecution of pregnancy differs according to the environment Sometimes these pregnancies fill a gap, a lack of affection during childhood. This pregnancy allows to get a baby and, most importantly, to become a mother. Access to motherhood allows one to identify with one's mother and often to materialize a latent conflict. All surveys show that a large number of young mothers have suffered in childhood from difficult living conditions and poor relations with their parents. These pregnancies are described as pregnancies "Miserable." The child compensates for the anxieties and the feeling of abandonment.
There is one last profile of adolescent girls in whom the pregnancy seems to be the expression of aggressive conduct directed directly at their own body. It's here pregnancy "risk taking" or pregnancy "Violent". If boys choose risky behaviors such as speeding or delinquency, girls are more likely to turn to direct attacks on their bodies such as suicide attempts, eating disorders. In general these pregnancies Impulsives occur as part of unprotected and risky sexuality and are part of acting out.
Even though pregnancies adolescents affect all social groups, the decision to continue or not to follow pregnancy is probably socially differentiable: young girls wishing to continue their studies will more often resort to an abortion than those who have stopped their studies.
Not just accidents
The sociologist Nathalie Bajos claims that "it would be wrong to believe that all these pregnancies are accidents". Some teenage girls, as well as older women, test their fertility more or less consciously. Others have a real desire for maternity. This is generally the case of young girls from disadvantaged social backgrounds, who have a chaotic path of abuse and placement "The child is seen as a magical solution that will change everything, who will repair them," is the teenager that this unborn baby will be reborn. " Is this a real desire for a child or rather a desire to pregnancy?
Psychologists distinguish them. Teenage girls may need to check that their body is "working". In these cases, the pregnancy most often results in an abortion. So¬cologists, meanwhile, are unanimous: "whether it is a sign of contestation or unconsciousness, the desire and the occurrence of a child in a teenager would correspond to a desire for recognition in a context of economic and social crisis ".
But what happens to mothers and their children? Are those at school going back to school? Are the others able to find employment and to assume their child? What is the rate of child placed? Fundamental questions but unfortunately very little studied, or local and punctual, in France.
