Homeless adolescent women face increased risk of sexual and reproductive health problems, including sexual abuse, violence, complications of pregnancy, and poor outcomes of birth and parenting. Although the reasons adolescent women become pregnant, why they decide to parent, and outcomes of their choices have been studied over the past several decades, little is known about the meanings of pregnancy and parenting for homeless young women, the trajectory of their pregnancy and parenting experiences, or their self-care beliefs and practices. Effective nursing interventions to improve health outcomes for homeless adolescent women and their babies require greater understanding of these meanings, beliefs, and experiences. Therefore, the current study proposes to explore the meanings attributed to pregnancy and parenting by a multi-ethnic sample of homeless pregnant young women in Seattle during the course of pregnancy and up to the first few weeks post- partum. This study will focus around two research questions: 1) How do homeless young women describe becoming pregnant and deciding to carry to term, and how (if at all) does this narrative change during the pregnancy? and 2) What elements of their life histories do the young women consider important influences on their pregnancy and parenting decisions? Using participant observation and ethnographic interviewing methods, the investigator will gather data from 15-30 pregnant homeless adolescents over several months; participants will be recruited from day shelters, free clinics for homeless youth, and through snowball sampling. The resulting field notes and transcriptions will be analyzed for patterns, themes, and differences, both between participants and across the course of each participants pregnancy, using accepted ethnographic and narrative analytical techniques.
| Saewyc, Elizabeth M (2003) Influential life contexts and environments for out-of-home pregnant adolescents. J Holist Nurs 21:343-67 |
