Robert Letendre, Pierre Doray : experience of pregnancy in adolescence

With the following three questions in mind, 1 – Why do adolescents become pregnant ? 2 – What is an adolescent’s subjective experience of her pregnancy ? and 3 – What function do pregnancy and the fetus play for the expectant adolescent mother ?, the authors conducted semi-directed interviews of 46 pregnant adolescents residing in metropolitan Montreal. Qualitative analysis revealed three principal functions of adolescent pregnancy : 1 – To repair the past and to have a better life ; 2 – To be adult and autonomous, or ; 3 – To intensify dependence on the family circle. Across these three independent groupings, notable psychological differences were found in subjective representation of the expected baby, self-image, lability, and the expectant mother’s relationships with her parents.