Social networks and help-seeking experiences of pregnant teens.

OBJECTIVE

To describe low-income pregnant teens' perceptions of their social network characteristics and their prenatal help-seeking experiences.

DESIGN

Descriptive, cross sectional.

SETTING

Prenatal clinic of an urban hospital (n = 29) and two other sites (n = 2).

PARTICIPANTS

Thirty-one unmarried, low-income, pregnant teenage girls.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES

Social network characteristics, including social support; relationships between social network characteristics and demographic variables; and help-seeking characteristics.

RESULTS

Length of pregnancy was negatively correlated with network size (-.45, p = .011), emotional support (-.40, p = .026), tangible support (-.38, p = .033), and prenatal support (-.41, p = .022). Compared with older teens (18-19 years old), younger teens (16-17 years old) perceived their families, relatives, or both as providing a larger proportion of their total support (t(28) = 2.64, p = .014) and prenatal support (t(25.55) = 2.93, p = .007), and friends as providing a smaller proportion of their total support. Types of help most often needed were emotional and financial. The resource most used was the teen's mother, followed by the father of the unborn child. Barriers to help were most often the unavailability of someone on whom the teen relied and financial inadequacies.

CONCLUSIONS

The perception of less support as pregnancy progresses may indicate a gap between needs and resources. Differences in younger and older teens' support sources and the focus of help seeking on emotional and financial support have implications for nursing care.