Women and gender studies are closely connected with such an important topic as teenage pregnancy. Despite the fact that the number of teenage pregnancies each year significantly reduces, still there are a lot of cases of adolescence pregnancy. This topic is worth considering, because teenage pregnancy has a significant impact on the future women`s life. Therefore, this research study is about teen pregnancy and how it was analyzed in Chen et al. (2007) research study and articles from peer reviewed journals. The method of the current research is mixed, as it allows applying the advantages of a wide range of methods.
Not only society, but also many scientists believe that teenage pregnancy may have adverse consequences for the birth. Teenage pregnancy is unfavorable not only because of the high risk of adverse birth outcomes, but also because of the impact, which it may have on young people`s social life, their families, and subsequent challenges (Spear & Lock, 2003). In fact, teenage motherhood is often identified as a route to social exclusion due to social disapproval and material hardship (Graham & McDermott, 2006). There is a broad range of variables, which affect the risk of teenage pregnancy: these are biological characteristics, such as hormones or genes, and contextual and structural features of families (Miller, Benson, & Galbraith, 2001). In addition, a systematic review by Harden et al. (2009) showed that early parenthood often emerge from dislike of school, low expectations for the future, material hardship and unhappy childhood.
Nevertheless, the authors of this study (Chen et al., 2007) decided to find out whether these are social and environmental factors, which negatively influence teenage pregnancy outcome, or that is biological immaturity, which causes a risk of adverse birth outcome.
The object of this paper is "Teenage pregnancy and adverse birth outcomes: a large population based retrospective cohort study" by Xi-Kuan Chen, Shi Wu Wen, Nathalie Fleming, Kitaw Demissie, George G. Rhoads and Mark Walker (2007). This research study deals with teenage pregnancy as a risk factor for adverse birth outcome. It is a large population based retrospective research study. The method, which was used in the research by Chen et al. (2007) should be called mixed, as the researchers used analytical, quantitative, qualitative, statistical and experimental methods in order to perform the research study.
The study by Chen et al. (2007) included 3 886 364 participants, who were pregnant women up to 25 years. It is important to note that that was the first pregnancy for every participant of the research study. Moreover, all women used to have a live singleton birth.
The results showed that women who were in the teen group were more prone to premature birth. Moreover, they faced with low birth weight of the fetus and sometimes even with neonatal death. Mothers, who were older than teenager participants, used to have a significantly lower risk for low Apgar score at 5 min. It is important to notice that the researchers obtained similar results even when they limited the number of participants in the group just to women with necessary prenatal care, sufficient level of education, who did not have smoking or alcohol habits.
References
Chen, X. K., Wen, S. W., Fleming, N., Demissie, K., Rhoads, G. G., & Walker, M. (2007). Teenage pregnancy and adverse birth outcomes: a large population based retrospective cohort study. International journal of epidemiology, 36(2), 368-373.
Spear, H. J., & Lock, S. (2003). Qualitative research on adolescent pregnancy: a descriptive review and analysis. Journal of Pediatric Nursing, 18(6), 397-408.
Miller, B. C., Benson, B., & Galbraith, K. A. (2001). Family relationships and adolescent pregnancy risk: A research synthesis. Developmental review, 21(1), 1-38.
Harden, A., Brunton, G., Fletcher, A., & Oakley, A. (2009). Teenage pregnancy and social disadvantage: systematic review integrating controlled trials and qualitative studies. BMj, 339, b4254.
Graham, H., & McDermott, E. (2006). Qualitative research and the evidence base of policy: insights from studies of teenage mothers in the UK. Journal of Social Policy, 35(01), 21-37.
