Accepted for/Published in: JMIR Pediatrics and Parenting
Date Submitted: Mar 6, 2019
Date Accepted: Apr 23, 2019
Date Submitted to PubMed: Sep 19, 2019
Gender Perspectives on Social Norms Regarding Teen Pregnancy: An Analysis of Social Media Data
ABSTRACT
Background:
Social concern with teen pregnancy emerged in the 1970s, and today’s popular and professional health literature continues to draw on social norms that view teen pregnancy as a problem—for the teen mother, her baby, and society in general.
Objective:
It is unclear, however, how the individuals directly affected by teen pregnancy, adolescent males and females, draw upon social norms against teen pregnancy in their own lives, nor whether the norms operate differently for girls versus boys, nor how these social norms affect pregnant or parenting adolescents. This study seeks to fill these gaps in knowledge through the analysis of contemporary exchanges among American adolescents.
Methods:
Online ethnographic methods are utilized in the analysis of peer-to-peer exchanges from an online social network site designed for adolescents. Data were collected between March 2010 and February 2015 (n=1,662). Thematic analysis was conducted using NVivo software.
Results:
American adolescents in this online platform draw on dominant social norms against teen pregnancy to provide rationales for why pregnancy in adolescence is wrong or should be avoided. Rationales range from potential socio-economic harms to life-course rationales that view adolescence as a special, carefree period in life. Despite males’ and females’ joint contributions to a pregnancy, it is primarily females who report pregnancy-related concerns, including experiences of bullying, social isolation, and fear.
Conclusions:
Peer exchanges in this online forum indicate that American adolescents reproduce prevailing U.S. social norms of teen pregnancy as a social problem. These norms intersect with norms on age, gender, and female sexuality. Female adolescents who transgress these norms experience bullying, shame, and stigma. Health professionals must ensure that strategies designed to prevent unintended adolescent pregnancy do not simultaneously create hardship and stigma in the lives of pregnant and parenting young women.
Citation
