Ibis Reproductive Health, Oakland, California, United States of America.
Independent consultant, Ibis Reproductive Health, Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States of America.
PLoS One. 2019 May 23;14(5):e0217308. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0217308. eCollection 2019.
Unintended pregnancy in adolescence and early adulthood is stigmatized in the United States because it deviates from social norms that consider young people's sexuality as a social problem. While limited, prior research has found that this stigma prevents young people from telling people in their lives about their pregnancies, for fear of judgment or negative reactions. We hypothesized that this selective disclosure of unintended pregnancy due to stigma would reduce the social support available to young pregnant people at a particularly vulnerable time-social support that we know is important for optimal physical and mental health of the young person, and the pregnancy (should they choose to carry to term). To explore this hypothesis, we conducted a qualitative study among young people to understand if and how they experienced stigma in relation to an unintended pregnancy, how this stigma shaped patterns of pregnancy disclosure, the implications for received social support, and participant thoughts on how to alleviate the influence of this stigma on their lives. In in-depth interviews with 25 young people in the San Francisco Bay area who had experienced at least one unintended pregnancy, using a thematic analysis approach, we found that the stigma of unintended pregnancy led participants to selectively disclose the pregnancy to limited people, which in turn cut them off from needed sources of social support. Black and Hispanic women disproportionately described this experience. Participants expressed a desire for programs that would connect young people who had experienced unplanned pregnancy to each other-either via the internet, organized groups through clinical care sites, college or high school campuses, or other forums-as a way to alleviate stigma, share perspectives and lessons learned, and otherwise build emotional and informational support networks for themselves where their usual support had fallen away.
在美国，青少年和刚成年的人怀孕会被污名化，因为这偏离了社会规范，社会规范认为年轻人的性行为是一个社会问题。尽管之前的研究有限，但已经发现这种污名化会阻止年轻人向生活中的人透露自己的怀孕情况，因为他们担心会受到评判或负面反应。我们假设，由于这种污名化，年轻人会选择性地隐瞒意外怀孕的情况，这会减少在他们特别脆弱的时期可获得的社会支持——我们知道，这种支持对年轻人的身心健康以及他们怀孕（如果他们选择继续怀孕）都很重要。为了探索这一假设，我们在旧金山湾区的年轻人中进行了一项定性研究，以了解他们是否以及如何经历与意外怀孕相关的污名化，这种污名化如何影响怀孕的披露模式，以及对他们收到的社会支持的影响，以及参与者对如何减轻这种污名化对他们生活的影响的想法。在对 25 名在旧金山湾区经历过至少一次意外怀孕的年轻人进行的深入访谈中，我们使用主题分析方法发现，意外怀孕的污名化导致参与者向有限的人选择性地透露怀孕情况，这反过来又使他们与需要的社会支持来源隔绝。黑人和西班牙裔女性不成比例地描述了这种经历。参与者表示希望有一些项目可以将经历过意外怀孕的年轻人联系起来，无论是通过互联网、通过临床护理场所、大学或高中校园或其他论坛组织的团体，作为一种减轻污名化、分享观点和经验教训的方式，以及建立情感和信息支持网络，以弥补他们通常的支持已经消失的情况。
