ABSTRACT
Teenage pregnancy and parenthood is a complex contemporary issue. Although current statistical evidence collected within the European Union (EU) and the USA suggests that absolute numbers of teenage mothers are falling, the number of infants born to young mothers is still large and the number of recorded conceptions even larger. Moreover, the available statistics, while reflecting a decline in teenage pregnancies, clearly indicate that the rate at which the reduction in numbers is occurring is variable across Europe, with the United Kingdom still showing the highest number of births relative to its population. Generally construed as a ‘problem’ not only for the young mother and the child but also for society at large, numerous writers have attempted to explore and identify the possible reasons why an adolescent becomes pregnant. Research and writing reflect both the complexity of the issues surrounding young motherhood and the pertinence of differing theoretical frameworks to the development of an understanding of the issues. Inevitably, the varying analyses reflect the disciplinary bases from which researchers launch their accounts, incorporating their particular worldview and moral position and, powerfully, the principles and values that guide their own psychological engagement with the phenomenon. Landy and Walsh (1988) suggested that three major types of explanation have emerged to account for young (as low as at 11 years of age) motherhood, as follows:
• lack of information about contraception and knowledge of its availability to young teenagers;
• socio-cultural factors such as poverty and cultural acceptance; • psychological and psychodynamic perspectives.
