Flick L H
Public Health Rep. 1986 Mar-Apr;101(2):132-47.
Adolescent pregnancy and parenthood are increasingly common today and pose many problems for both the individual persons involved and society as a whole. For programs to address these issues successfully, factors associated with unintended pregnancy and resulting parenthood must first be identified and understood. This paper is a review of current research on the factors associated with the four steps leading to an adolescent becoming a parent. Being an adolescent parent requires taking a particular path at four crossroads: becoming sexually active, not using or incorrectly using contraceptives, carrying rather than aborting a pregnancy, and parenting rather than placing a child for adoption. Much research in the last 15 years has explored adolescent childbearing, but many studies only compared adolescent parents to nonparents to reach conclusions about differences in these groups. This review focuses on recent studies that explore the four processes, or crossroads, separately and it excludes studies that generalize and overlap these processes. Factors that influence adolescent behavior at multiple points on the path to parenthood indicate areas particularly relevant for preventive intervention. For instance, boyfriends exert influence at all four crossroads. Sexual activity and contraceptive use increase with longevity of relationships, yet closer relationships are less often associated with raising a child. Better general communication skills, and particularly an increased ability to discuss sexuality, increases use of contraceptives, and low educational and occupational aspirations appear to influence each successive turn toward parenthood. This summary of current research serves to highlight those individual, family, dyadic, and social factors that exert great impact on adolescent parenthood by influencing young people at each of the four crossroads. These factors suggest potentially effective points for intervention to reduce the incidence of adolescent parenthood. However, poverty, unemployment, and racism also play central roles in early intercourse and childbearing, and any attempt at fundamental change must take these forces into account.
如今，青少年怀孕和生育现象日益普遍，给相关个体和整个社会都带来了诸多问题。要使项目成功解决这些问题，必须首先识别并理解与意外怀孕及由此导致的生育相关的因素。本文回顾了当前关于导致青少年成为父母的四个步骤相关因素的研究。成为青少年父母需要在四个关键节点走上特定的道路：开始有性行为、不使用或错误使用避孕措施、选择生育而非堕胎、选择养育孩子而非将孩子送去领养。过去15年里有许多研究探讨了青少年生育问题，但许多研究只是将青少年父母与非父母进行比较，以得出这些群体之间差异的结论。本综述聚焦于近期分别探讨这四个过程或关键节点的研究，排除了对这些过程进行笼统概括和重叠的研究。在通往为人父母的道路上，在多个节点影响青少年行为的因素表明了特别适合进行预防性干预的领域。例如，男朋友在所有四个关键节点都有影响。随着恋爱关系持续时间的延长，性行为和避孕措施的使用会增加，但关系越亲密，生育孩子的情况就越不常见。更好的一般沟通技巧，尤其是讨论性话题能力的增强，会增加避孕措施的使用，而低教育和职业期望似乎会影响每一个迈向为人父母的后续转变。对当前研究的这一总结旨在突出那些通过在四个关键节点影响年轻人而对青少年生育产生重大影响的个人、家庭、二元关系和社会因素。这些因素表明了可能有效减少青少年生育发生率的干预点。然而，贫困、失业和种族主义在过早发生性行为和生育方面也起着核心作用，任何根本性变革的尝试都必须考虑到这些因素。
