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“We’ll Figure a Way”: Teenage Mothers’ Experiences in Shifting Social and Economic Contexts

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Abstract

The current economic and social context calls for a renewed assessment of the consequences of an early transition to parenthood. In interviews with 55 teenage mothers in Colorado, we find that they are experiencing severe economic and social strains. Financially, although most are receiving substantial help from family members and sometimes their children’s fathers, basic needs often remain unmet. Macroeconomic and family structure trends have resulted in deprived material circumstances, while welfare reform and other changes have reduced the availability of aid. Socially, families’ and communities’ disapproval of early childbearing negatively influences the support young mothers receive, their social interactions, and their experiences with social institutions.

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Notes

  1. One pilot interview, recruited through a personal contact, was conducted in the first author’s office.

  2. All names have been changed to keep the participants’ identities confidential, and racial/ethnic identifications are based on the participant’s own terminology.

  3. These ideas were not without their detractors; for example, Kaplan (1997) found in her ethnographic research that black grandmothers frequently disapproved of their granddaughters becoming teenage mothers.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Colorado at Boulder, Boulder, USA

    Stefanie Mollborn & Janet Jacobs

  2. Institute of Behavioral Science and Department of Sociology, University of Colorado at Boulder, 483 UCB, Boulder, CO, 80309-0483, USA

    Stefanie Mollborn

Authors
  1. Stefanie Mollborn
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  2. Janet Jacobs
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Correspondence to Stefanie Mollborn.

Additional information

This research was conducted with support from the University of Colorado’s Innovative Grant Program and Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program. We thank Devon Thacker, Leith Lombas, Nicole Moore, Aleeza Zabriskie , and members of the Sociology junior faculty reading group for their assistance, as well as the study’s participants for sharing their time and stories with us.

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Mollborn, S., Jacobs, J. “We’ll Figure a Way”: Teenage Mothers’ Experiences in Shifting Social and Economic Contexts. Qual Sociol 35, 23–46 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11133-011-9213-1

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