文章基本信息

标题：Constructing and Deconstructing Teen Pregnancy as a Social Problem
本地全文：下载
作者：Elena Neiterman
期刊名称：Qualitative Sociology Review
印刷版ISSN：1733-8077
电子版ISSN：1733-8077
出版年度：2012
卷号：VIII
期号：3
出版社：Lodz University
摘要：The purpose of this paper is to examine teenage pregnancy as a social problem using social constructionist perspective. Analyzing qualitative interviews with 11 young mothers and relying on the media analysis of popular North American news-papers and magazines, I examine claims-making activity around the definition of teenage pregnancy as a social problem. I start this paper, situating my arguments in the social constructionist literature on social problems. In the second part of this paper I review the literature on teen pregnancy and identify three major themes that dominate academic and public discourse on pregnancy as a social problem. After describing the methodological approach I took to conduct this study, I move on to present my findings. I demonstrate that in negotiating their mothering skills, young teenage mothers construct their claims about pregnancy, parenthood and their future vis-à-vis the dominant public discourse on teen pregnancy. They recon-struct their pregnancy and mothering as non-deviant, claim their status as mature and responsible mothers and challenge the importance of biological age as a predic-tor of successful mothering. I summarize this paper suggesting that these young women's narratives should be considered the claims-making activity of a marginal-ized population of young mothers who are rarely heard in public, yet they do chal-lenge our assumptions about teen mothering and find their own way to resist the dominant discourse on teen pregnancy
关键词：Teen Pregnancy; Social Problems; Social Constructionism; Mothering; Canada