title: Becoming and being a teenage mother: how teenage girls in South Western Sweden view their situation.
abstract: Our aim in this study was to describe the perspectives, experiences, and reasoning about becoming and being a teenage mother by Swedish teenage girls. Twenty pregnant and parenting teenage girls, aged 15 to 19 years, were interviewed. The teenagers described a pattern of early childbirth in their families, lack of opportunity in life, and ambivalence in contraceptive use as reasons for becoming a teenage mother. They experienced being pregnant and a teenage mother as both a positive transition into adulthood but also as a physiological and psychological hardship. Furthermore, the teenagers emphasized the importance of supportive relationships with families, friends, and society as a prerequisite for successful parenting. The results of our study may be viewed as generating a working hypothesis that can be transferred to other settings on the basis of the information gathered.
authors.affiliation: Skaraborg Institute for Research and Development, Skövde, Sweden. wahn@telia.com
authors.forename: Elisabeth Hertfelt
authors.initials: EH
authors.lastname: Wahn
authors.forename: Eva
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Nissen
authors.forename: Beth Maina
authors.initials: BM
authors.lastname: Ahlberg
mesh_terms: D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D000293:Adolescent; D000294:Adolescent Behavior / Q000523:psychology*; D005195:Family Relations; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D008016:Life Change Events; D016389:Maternal-Child Nursing / Q000592:standards; D009035:Mothers / Q000523:psychology*; D033262:Narration; D011247:Pregnancy; D011253:Pregnancy in Adolescence / Q000523:psychology*; D011295:Prenatal Care / Q000592:standards; D000297:Psychology, Adolescent; D012649:Self Concept; D012944:Social Support; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D013548:Sweden