Against all odds : teenage girls on the doorstep of motherhood

Abstract

Teenage pregnancy; what goes through the adolescent mother-to-be during those nine months of the pregnancy? This dissertation set out to meet teenage girls who are currently pregnant and women who were pregnant in the 80s and who, at the time were adolescents. We looked into their experience, how they coped, who and what helped them cope, and, who and what may have hindered them. The aim behind this study was to see any changes that there might have been over the last two decades as regarding this topic. We sought to reach our aim through conducting two, semi-structured, open-ended interviews. For these interviews, we developed a guide which helped us in keeping a focus on those aspects which we wanted to draw upon for this dissertation. In the first interview, we gathered basic information about the respondents such as name, age, status and the level of education. The main aim behind this interview was to engage with our respondents. In the second interview, we delved deeper into their experience. After all the interviews were ready, we conducted a focus group in which the participants from both sample groups met and talked about their experiences. Through this research method, we aimed to examine, compare and analyse the experiences of our respondents. Every experience was unique in its' own way, in fact, we can say that every women put across an aspect which was exclusive to her own case. However, there were general findings. Yet, here it is imperative to point out that our study is a qualitative one.