Association of Conventional Goals and Perceptions of Pregnancy with Female Teenagers’ Pregnancy Avoidance Behavior and Attitudes

Abstract

Conventional goals appear to motivate teenagers to avoid getting pregnant only if they believe pregnancy will be an impediment. Thus, it may be less important to encourage young women to formulate goals than to ensure that they consider adolescent childbearing a threat to their plans.

Aspiraciones educativas y familiares como condicionantes en la prevención de embarazos tempranos en México

“…Si bien los estudios que exploran intenciones sobre un embarazo no son nuevos para otros países, 10,22 en AL no son abundantes. Estudios futuros podrían complementar este campo de investigación empleando metodologías rigurosas.…”

“…9 En el ámbito internacional estudios previos han mostrado que existe claramente un vínculo entre las aspiraciones educativas de los adolescentes y el riesgo de embarazo. [10][11][12] Las aspiraciones de continuar los estudios pueden promover el deseo de postergar la formación de una familia, ya que para obtener mayores logros profesionales se requiere de más años de estudio, 13,14 lo que implica aplazar la maternidad o paternidad.…”

Family Formation Expectations and Early Pregnancy in Mexican Adolescents

“…The procedure used here to explore family formation plans could be useful to address important aspects of adolescent pregnancy. This measure could also be explored in research from countries other than Mexico such as the U.S., where similar topics have been explored (Jumping-Eagle et al 2008;Plotnick 2007;Willoughby and Dworkin 2009) and where a large proportion of adolescent births are from Latina women (Schwartz et al 2011).…”

“…When adolescents express their desire to postpone marriage and pregnancy, interventions and teachers should support them so they can achieve their goals (Jumping-Eagle et al 2008), through the promotion of permanence in school and access to contraceptive methods in order to prevent pregnancies and combine professional and reproductive plans. When adolescents prioritize family formation and parenthood over professional development, they should be encouraged to understand what their aspirations respond to and increase their opportunities for a healthier development, with information and skills that will allow them to effectively plan parenthood.…”

Adolescents: Their Futures and Their Contraceptive Decisions

“…Many adolescents do not believe that being a parent will be an impediment to achieving these goals, despite evidence to the contrary. 15 Teen mothers are less likely to complete high school and less likely to attend college. They are also more likely to end up on welfare.…”