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APHA Scientific Session and Event Listing

Marcela Smid, MA, MS¹, Karen Sokal-Gutierrez, MD, MPH¹, Philippe Bourgois, PhD², and Colette Auerswald, MD, MS³. (1) Health and Medical Sciences, University of California - Berkeley, 570 Univeristy Hall #1190, Berkeley, CA 94720, 510 642 5079, marcela@berkeley.edu, (2) Department of Anthropology, History and Social Medicine, University of California - San Francisco, 3333 California St., San Francisco, CA 94143, (3) Division of Adolescent Medicine, University of California, San Francisco, 3333 California Street, Suite 245, San Francisco, CA 94118

Homeless youth are a unique sub-group of the homeless population. Because high levels of sexual victimization and inconsistent use of contraception, young homeless women and their partners are at increased risk for pregnancy compared to their housed peers. However, there is little known about the process of pregnancy decision-making in this population. This qualitative study investigated the experiences of thirteen young (aged 18-26 years old) homeless women and eight men as they deliberated and actualized their decisions to resolve a pregnancy through semi-structured interviews. This sample represents 25 pregnancies among the men and women: eight were terminated, three ended in miscarriage and fifteen were carried to term. Findings revealed that pregnancy is a crisis at three levels of a homeless youth's existence: society, their homeless youth community and personal priorities. Homeless youth internalize society's idea of a “fit parent” and the incompatibility of parenting on the streets but resent the lack of available resources to meet this expectation. Within homeless youth communities, peers encourage pregnant women and their partners to leave the streets. On the individual level, homeless men and women engaged in the process of decision-making as a couple, but the women's opinion is preferentially weighted. In making a decision about pregnancy, women and men cited their willingness to change their lifestyle as the most important factor in decision-making. Those that chose to terminate found services relatively accessible. For those choosing to parent, only those who were able to rely on family were able to maintain custody of children.

Learning Objectives: At the conclusion of the session, the participant (learner) will be able to

• Understand how homeless youth's pregnancy decision-making is affected by social policies, the cultural values of the homeless youth community and their own individual factors.
• Identify major barriers in homeless youth's actualization of their pregnancy decisions
• Identify important factors in facilitating a homeless youth's pregnanct decisions

Keywords: Homelessness, Pregnancy

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Not Answered