Under-examined importance of context in understanding teenage pregnancy

Social context remains an under-examined factor in teenage pregnancy. Most studies operationalize context as socioeconomic status assessed at the individual and/or neighborhood level. This strategy provides little insight into how youth experience the environments in which they live and fails to look beyond socioeconomic context. We explored teenagers' personal and social narratives about teenage pregnancy; the latter rooted in the pervasive context of such pregnancies in their daily lives. This mixed method study consisted of in-depth interviews and short survey questionnaires with two samples (n==44 and 15 respectively) of 14-16 year old females in Austin Texas. Respondents were recruited from the 2011 Travis County Summer Youth Employment Program serving economically disadvantaged youth, the overwhelming majority of whom were Latino or African-American. Study findings detail the nature of a dual narrative surrounding teenage pregnancy. While their personal beliefs are negative and reinforce intentions to prevent pregnancy, the social narratives are more split; they both enable and undermine pregnancy prevention. In short, girls' personal beliefs about teenage pregnancy are challenged by much of what they see, hear and experience every day. We will discuss the implications of these findings for pregnancy prevention programs.