Predicting decisions made by unmarried pregnant adolescents
Description
The aim of the present research was to document characteristics of adolescent pregnant women that would predict pregnancy outcome decisions. Outcome decisions included (1) whether the young women planned to surrender their infants for adoption or raise them themselves; and (2) for those women who planned to keep their infants (a) whether or not they planned to apply for welfare; (b) whether or not they were making adaptive living arrangements for themselves and their infants; and (c) whether they planned to continue their educations or not. The characteristics that were examined in relation to these outcome decisions included identity statuses in the domains of parenthood and occupation, age, the awareness of the importance of good parenting to infant development, and the availability and suitability of extended family. The participants were 77 pregnant adolescents. A questionnaire format was used to collect relevant demographic information, information regarding the young women's extended families, and information about the plans being made for the period immediately following the infants' births. Knowledge of the relationship between caregiving practices and developmental outcomes was assessed using the Revised Infant Caregiving Inventory (RICI). Identity statuses in the domains of parenthood and occupation were determined using a semi-structured interview similar to the one designed by Marcia (1964). Four hypothesized prediction models were examined using multiple regression analyses. The importance of the various predictors within the regression models was tested using the complete vs. reduced model testing procedure. Results indicate that, for the entire sample, achieved status in the parenthood domain, moratorium status in the career domain and low family suitability were significant predictors of intention to surrender for adoption. For those young women who planned to keep their infants, achieved status in the parenthood domain predicted the making of adaptive living arrangements, and low family suitability predicted the intention of applying for welfare. The results are discussed in terms of the usefulness of the identity construct for predicting pregnancy outcome decisions and directions for future research