Summary of After the Adolescent Pregnancy

Parents, Teens, and Families

Life Span Development SC 506

University of West Alabama

Introduction

In the article, After the Adolescent Pregnancy: Parents, Teens, and Families author Benson provides information to help understand adolescent conditions and decisions during and after pregnancy. Benson focuses on five dimensions and frameworks that are associated with adolescent pregnancy. The five dimensions and frameworks include: pregnancy, abortion, childbearing, adoption, and teen parenthood. Benson addresses the role of social workers in helping adolescents deal with the issues mentioned above. Benson conducted an investigation to determine a solution to help adolescents deal with issues of pregnancy.

According to Benson (2004), most social workers will work with a pregnant or parenting adolescent sooner or later. Adolescent pregnancy and parenthood have many important consequences. Social Workers can provide valuable assistance to adolescents and their families as they deal with these life changing events. Being that most Social Workers have had many different areas of practice relating to the issue, they are able to be more helpful, and informing of the issues to guide adolescents to make healthy decisions. Social Workers play an important role with families concerning common problems, and they are the key concept to helping promote a good outcome.

Dimensions and Framework

The first dimension in the framework is pregnancy. During pregnancy the adolescents are often very stressed and depressed. The support of the family is important to help keep the stress level down. It is important to communicate and encourage good health during the adolescent’s pregnancy. Good health is extremely important for an adolescent, because their body is not fully developed to carry a baby and they have a greater risk of complications; therefore it is important for them to eat health for them and the baby.

The second dimension in the framework is abortion. Most adolescents want to have abortions because they feel their family will not support their decision to conceive a baby. This notion goes back to the first dimension, where it states the importance of family support. The dimension stated that if an adolescent chooses to have an abortion, she has to comply with the state law. It is important to help adolescents cope with the decision to have an abortion. If an adolescent chooses to have an abortion, it is important to support them in any decision they make.

The third dimension is childbearing and adoption. Childbearing for an adolescent is considering being associated with lower likelihood to finish school. Poverty could also contribute to early childbearing, because if an adolescent gets pregnant, and have the baby, she then may have to drop out of school to support them. As a result she will end up with a very low paying job or no job at all. Benson mentions that only 1-2 % of adolescents put their baby up for adoptions. If they don’t have the baby then they have an abortion. Most adolescents are provided with very little information on adoption.

The last dimension is parenthood. Becoming an adolescent parent changes the individual in society. The adolescent is put into a different view. The expectance of the adolescent change from a child to an adult.

Importance

The article is extremely important as it relates to my field of work. The article mentions the important roles of a Social Worker with adolescent pregnancy. Being that I am a Social Worker and I work with young adult’s everyday, I felt this was a very helpful article to gather information from and use as a resource for my clients in the near future. The article shared information about the different decisions an adolescent has, and the importance of family support. Not all adolescents will have family support, or support at all, and that is when my job as a Social Worker will come into play. Also it is important to be knowledgeable of the information in this article, because as a Social Worker we need to be aware of all options available for a client. As the article stated that most adolescent do not know about adoptions, so the Social Worker can share that information with them, and maybe they can use adoption as an option.

Personal

The article discusses the different dimensions of adolescent pregnancy. In my opinion the article was informative. The information from the article will now make me be sure that my clients are aware of all options that are available. I will teach the family the important of family support, and the importance of teaching the adolescent all she needs to know about the issue. The article did raise some questions for me, because it stated that most adolescent that choose to have the baby, will drop out of school. I believe that is when family support comes into play. If the adolescent has a baby, the family needs to work out a plan so that the adolescents life can stay as normal as possible.

Conclusion

Overall, the article provides information to help Social Workers understand conditions and decisions before and after pregnancy. The framework emphasizes individualization, family support, and future orientation. The article provided helpful information.

Reference

Benson, M. J. (2004). After the Adolescent Pregnancy Parents,

Teens, and Families. Child and Adolescent Social Work Journal, 21, 435-455.