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Teen Motherhood and Pregnancy Prototypes: The Role of Social Context in Changing Young African American Mothers’ Risk Images and Contraceptive Expectations

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Abstract

Despite the declining rate of teen pregnancies in the United States, academic and public health experts have expressed concern over the still relatively high rate of rapid repeat pregnancies among adolescents, particularly among minority youth. Using a sample of over 300 African American female adolescents, the current study used insights from the prototype/willingness model of adolescent risk behavior to explore this risk. More specifically, it assessed the relationship between entry into unwed motherhood during mid-to-late adolescence and changes in prototypes of unmarried pregnant teens. Further, it explored the extent to which these changing prototypes accounted for young mothers’ later contraceptive expectations. We tested the possibility that social images were affected not only by personal experience (the birth of a child) but also by the family and community context in which this experience took place. The findings show that the early entrance into teen motherhood was associated with a shift toward more favorable prototypes of unwed pregnant teens, but that this was only the case for young mothers in disadvantaged contexts. Given this, prototype changes helped to explain the link between teen motherhood and contraceptive expectations only for those in disadvantaged contexts. We discuss these findings in terms of their practical and theoretical implications.

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Acknowledgments

This research was supported by the National Institute of Mental Health (MH48165, MH62669) and the Center for Disease Control (029136-02). Additional funding for this project was provided by the National Institute on Drug Abuse, the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, and the Iowa Agriculture and Home Economics Experiment Station (Project #3320).

Author contributions

ABB conceived of the study, performed the statistical analyses, and authored the manuscript; RLS participated in the study design and interpretation of the data; LGS participated in the study design, interpretation of the data, and helped draft manuscript revisions. FXG participated in the study design, interpretation of the data, and helped draft manuscript revisions. MG participated in the study design, interpretation of the data, and helped draft manuscript revisions. All authors have read and approved the final manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Sociology, University of Georgia, 214A Baldwin Hall, Athens, GA, 30602, USA

    Ashley B. Barr

  2. Department of Sociology, University of Georgia, 116 Baldwin Hall, Athens, GA, 30602, USA

    Ronald L. Simons

  3. Department of Human Development and Family Science, 208 Family Science Center (House A), University of Georgia, Athens, GA, 30602, USA

    Leslie Gordon Simons

  4. Department of Psychology, Unit 1020, University of Connecticut, 406 Babbidge Road, Storrs, CT, 06269, USA

    Frederick X. Gibbons & Meg Gerrard

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  1. Ashley B. Barr
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  2. Ronald L. Simons
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  4. Frederick X. Gibbons
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  5. Meg Gerrard
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Correspondence to Ashley B. Barr.

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Barr, A.B., Simons, R.L., Simons, L.G. et al. Teen Motherhood and Pregnancy Prototypes: The Role of Social Context in Changing Young African American Mothers’ Risk Images and Contraceptive Expectations. J Youth Adolescence 42, 1884–1897 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-013-9912-x

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