How families experience the phenomenon of adolescent pregnancy and parenting: Implications for family therapists and educators
type: CreativeWork
description: The purpose of this qualitative study was to describe how family members experience the phenomenon of adolescent pregnancy and parenting in the family unit, over time, and to examine the meanings family members attach to the experience. The participants were six nuclear families (20 individuals) of six adolescent mothers who had previously participated in a pregnant and parenting students support group at a large suburban North Texas high school. The families were interviewed using semi-structured interview questions, and the interviews were audio and video-taped. Transcriptions were made and analyzed for themes, based on coding by the researcher and coding checks by another researcher and a faculty member. Seven themes emerged as the transcripts were qualitatively analyzed. The themes were Just a Lot of Emotions – A Rollercoaster, Estrangement – They Wouldn't Talk to Me, Mom's Gonna Kill You – Sibling Relationships, Family Healing – A Joy in the House, Unconditional Support – Someone Stepped Up, Musings on Family Therapy – We Thought about That, and Unresolved Family Issues – Residual Anger and Resentment. Implications for family therapists and educators working in partnership for families like the ones in the study were discovered. Conclusions were drawn based on the three research questions that guided the study. The first research question addressed how family relationships changed and/or remained the same as the family experienced adolescent pregnancy and parenting within the family unit. Family relationships remained constant, overall, and the majority of families reported increased closeness, especially between adolescent mothers and their own mothers. However, most of the adolescent mothers perceived that they lost status in the family as a result of their pregnancy, with half of the young mothers specifically stating that they had lost their status as "the good one" after the pregnancy was disclosed. Sibling relationships were significant in the narratives …
abstract: The purpose of this qualitative study was to describe how family members experience the phenomenon of adolescent pregnancy and parenting in the family unit, over time, and to examine the meanings family members attach to the experience. The participants were six nuclear families (20 individuals) of six adolescent mothers who had previously participated in a pregnant and parenting students support group at a large suburban North Texas high school. The families were interviewed using semi-structured interview questions, and the interviews were audio and video-taped. Transcriptions were made and analyzed for themes, based on coding by the researcher and coding checks by another researcher and a faculty member. Seven themes emerged as the transcripts were qualitatively analyzed. The themes were Just a Lot of Emotions – A Rollercoaster, Estrangement – They Wouldn't Talk to Me, Mom's Gonna Kill You – Sibling Relationships, Family Healing – A Joy in the House, Unconditional Support – Someone Stepped Up, Musings on Family Therapy – We Thought about That, and Unresolved Family Issues – Residual Anger and Resentment. Implications for family therapists and educators working in partnership for families like the ones in the study were discovered. Conclusions were drawn based on the three research questions that guided the study. The first research question addressed how family relationships changed and/or remained the same as the family experienced adolescent pregnancy and parenting within the family unit. Family relationships remained constant, overall, and the majority of families reported increased closeness, especially between adolescent mothers and their own mothers. However, most of the adolescent mothers perceived that they lost status in the family as a result of their pregnancy, with half of the young mothers specifically stating that they had lost their status as "the good one" after the pregnancy was disclosed. Sibling relationships were significant in the narratives …
author: Boyer, Glenda
language: en_US
keywords: School counseling, Counseling psychology, Individual & family studies, Pregnant students, Adolescent pregnancy
date published: 2012-12
date modified: 2026-07-24T05:05:09Z
provider: Texas Woman's University
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: Texas Woman's University

PropertyValue
property ID: Handle
value: http://hdl.handle.net/11274/10400