THE IMPACT OF TEENAGED PREGNANCY ON FAMILY DEVELOPMENT STAGE TRANSITIONS AND HEALTH
Family development typically occurs in stages. Transitions from one stage to the next are critical periods in the family developmental process. A great number of factors may induce stress into a family environment that interferes with an orderly transition from stage to stage. This research is concerned with the effects of one health related stressor, teenaged pregnancy, on the process of family development.
Adolescent pregnancy continues to be one of the most challenging public health issues in the United States (Jaskiewicz and McAnarney, 1994, p. 32). Annually, more than one million teenagers in the United States become pregnant, and one half of these teenagers give birth (Stevens Simon, 1992, p. 295). Of the remaining 50 percent, from three to four fifths obtain therapeutic abortions, while the remainder abort spontaneously (Stevens Simon, 1992, p. 295). Either birth or abortion can be stressful on a family.
The Teenaged Girl and the Family As Behavioral Systems
A teenaged girl is an individual behavioral system who, in turn, is a component of the larger family behavioral system. For individuals and for families, the external environment includes all forces (objects, events, and situations) capable of impinging on either the individual or the family (Fawcett, 1989, p. 191). For individuals, the internal environment involves the psychological and physical characteristics of the person that
permit and facilitate reaction and adjustment to external forces, of which for the teenaged girl the family system is one such force. For families, the internal environment involves the psychological and physical characteristics of the family as a whole that permit and facilitate reaction and adjustment to external forces.
Behavioral system balance within a family is a manifestation of successful adjustments and adaptations, even though...