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International Handbook of Adolescent Pregnancy pp 147–157Cite as

Teenage Pregnancy as a Social Problem: A Comparison of Sweden and the United States

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Abstract

In this chapter, adolescent pregnancy in the United States is examined as a socially constructed problem. Teenage pregnancy has been treated as an urgent social problem in the United States since the 1970s. Scholars, politicians, interest groups, and media actors have all contributed to a seemingly ceaseless debate about what can and should be done about teenage pregnancy. Fueling the debate is the persistent high pregnancy rate among teenagers in the United States in comparison with their peers in other developed nations. In sharp contrast, teenage pregnancy in Sweden is not a recognizable problem in its own right. No one studies only teenage pregnancy, and no one in the public debate focuses exclusively on teenage pregnancy. In combination with a very low teenage pregnancy rate, it is as if the problem does not exist. And yet, even if teenage pregnancy itself is not a distinct problem in Sweden, more comprehensive activities involving teenagers and sexuality are certainly subject to concern and debate. Therefore, it would be a mistake to conclude that the different statuses of teenage pregnancy as a social problem in the United States and Sweden are all about objective magnitude. A number of observers of teenage pregnancy in the United States have concluded that it is a socially constructed problem in the sense that claims about it are exaggerated and/or misguided and that the problem is fundamentally misrepresented in the public debate. Indeed, teenage pregnancy in the United States displays most of the spectacular features that typically accompany the problems selected for social constructionist analyses (crisis language, front-page stories, extensive debate, and high public visibility). In contrast, none of these features characterize the Swedish case. Comparing the two countries therefore provides an opportunity to examine aspects of social problem construction that are not readily available in the analyses of one country.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Sociology, 1018 Crosley Tower, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH, 45221-0378, USA

    Annulla Linders & Cynthia Bogard

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  1. Annulla Linders
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  2. Cynthia Bogard
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Correspondence to Annulla Linders .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Oklahoma, Tulsa, Oklahoma, USA

    Andrew L. Cherry

  2. University of Central Florida, Orlando, Florida, USA

    Mary E. Dillon

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Linders, A., Bogard, C. (2014). Teenage Pregnancy as a Social Problem: A Comparison of Sweden and the United States. In: Cherry, A., Dillon, M. (eds) International Handbook of Adolescent Pregnancy. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-8026-7_7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-8026-7_7

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