Pregnancy in early and late adolescence

The degree to which adolescent pregnancy is viewed as a social problem varies with the age of the adolescent: the younger the adolescent, the greater the perceived risks and costs. The young adolescent has been found to be at greater risk medically; both the young adolescent and her infant are subject more frequently to prenatal and postpartum complications. A sample of 130 pregnant adolescents and adolescent mothers was surveyed to determine the factors that discriminate between girls who become pregnant in early years versus late adolescence. The younger group had begun dating and particularly steady dating at a significantly earlier age than the older group. The age discrepancy between the groups is even greater for the average age at which subjects began steady dating, that is, dating 1 boyfriend exclusively. While ages at which the adolescent began dating and particularly steady dating were found to be significantly related to early pregnancy, this vulnerability was increased by the subjects' lack of knowledge and use of birth control. Subjects in both groups reported that prior to pregnancy they desired quite frequently to leave their parents' home and be on their own. Early pregnancy appeared instead to have increased the adolescents' dependence upon her parents, especially the mother. The findings point to a need for instruction in reproduction and birth control to begin at an earlier age. Opportunity is needed for guided discussion among peers about their feelings regarding the costs and benefits of relationships and how one might deal with potential problems.     

Pregnancy Loss,Skin-Based Body Modifications and Agency

This article utilizes notions of ‘agency’ to explore the relationship between experiences of pregnancy loss and narratives about related skin-based body modifications. The term ‘pregnancy loss’ is used to denote a range of medical events with potentially far-reaching emotional and social consequences. The research from which the empirical content of this article is drawn seeks to bring together feminist interests and the discipline of human geography to examine experiences of pregnancy loss. Different aspects regarding ‘agency’ are attended to through several practices—namely, the acquisition, display/concealment and narration of skin-based bodily marks like stretch marks and memorial tattoos. This includes a discussion on notions of ‘choice’ in terms of receiving/acquiring changes to the skin through pregnancy and pregnancy loss, regarding which stretch marks and tattoos are often pitted as oppositional. A more complex picture of agency is explored and illustrated with the narratives of several women with pregnancy-loss experiences, highlighting that both kinds of skin-based modifications can be framed in more agential ways, including as appreciated reminders of simultaneous love and loss. In doing so, this article constitutes an attempt to engage with pregnancy loss from a feminist perspective, as encouraged by Linda Layne, and to contribute to feminist scholarship on body modifications.     

The Effects of Pregnancy Experience on Contraceptive Practice

Retrospective reports of contraceptive use on two occasions of intercourse (separated by 2 years on average) were used to examine change in contraceptive practice as a function of intervening pregnancy experience in a randomly selected biracial (Black, White) sample of 466 female adolescents. Although all groups of adolescents regardless of pregnancy experience improved their contraceptive use, adolescents experiencing an unplanned pregnancy or pregnancy scare appeared to improve relatively more. However, differences between groups could be explained by the differential passage of time, and this was true among both Black and White adolescents. Specifically, ever-pregnant adolescents had been sexually active the longest and showed the most improvement; never-pregnant adolescents who had never had a pregnancy scare had been sexually active the shortest period and showed the least improvement, while adolescents experiencing a pregnancy scare were intermediate on both variables. These findings suggest that prior research may have drawn faulty conclusions about the effects of pregnancy experience on subsequent contraceptive behavior, and that future research on these topics may need to pay greater attention to the passage of time as an important substantive and methodological factor in its own right.     

The Perils of Pregnancy Ferguson v. City of Charleston

The United States Supreme Court, in its decision Ferguson v. City of Charleston,ruled that to conduct drug tests on pregnant women in public hospitals and to share that information with the police without obtaining a search warrant amounted to a violation of the women's constitutional rights under the Fourth Amendment. Set within the political context of public policy designed to monitor the activities of pregnant women and the ongoing incidence of prosecutions for ‘foetal abuse’,this note shows how the Supreme Court’s decision, while on the one hand vindicating the rights of pregnant women to be free from unlawful searches upon their person, does not definitively determine the important question of the extent to which the state may regulate women’s behaviour during pregnancy. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

孕期、产期、哺乳期内的女职工的法律保护问题研究--一种法律社会学的分析进路

由于我国目前劳动市场人力资源供大于求的紧张关系和用工制度上的身份差别,孕期、哺乳期、产期内女职工的法律保护问题突出,劳动法庭依据用工制度的差别,根据社会实际情况,做出具体的具有可操作性且可适用性的决定,以切实保护三期内的女职工,尤其是女性临时工的合法权益.     

Pregnancy in the single adolescent girl: The role of cognitive functions

Interviews were conducted with 211 single adolescent girls, free of known psychiatric disturbance, who had undergone an elective abortion at a metropolitan municipal hospital. Besides providing help for the possible emotional stress connected with their situation, it was learned to what extent they were acquainted with birth control methods and had actually attempted to avoid their pregnancy. Similar data relating to birth control were obtained in interviews with a group of 200 single adolescents pregnant for the first time, and from 50 girls serving as controls who had effectively practiced birth control for at least 6 months. The great majority of the girls came from the same socioeconomic background, close to the subsistence level. The results indicate that about three-fourths of the pregnancies were unintended. Besides the implied external difficulty involved in finding a congenial low-cost birth control clinic, three psychological cognitive mechanisms were uncovered which virtually block the conversion of birth control knowledge into its successful practice. This finding suggests that adolescent out-of-wedlock pregnancies do not exclusively arise from motivational factors.Received M.A. and Ph.D. in sociology from Columbia University, New York. Associated with René A. Spitz, M.D. (Denver), for many years. Collaborated on latter's book,The First Year of Life, International Universities Press, New York, 1965. Current interests are in psychology of adolescence and infancy; prenatal psychological phenomena.     

Resolution of Unwanted Pregnancy During Adolescence Through Abortion Versus Childbirth: Individual and Family Predictors and Psychological Consequences

Using data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, various demographic, psychological, educational, and family variables were explored as predictors of pregnancy resolution. Only 2 of the 17 variables examined were significantly associated with pregnancy resolution (risk-taking and the desire to leave home). After controlling for these variables, adolescents who aborted an unwanted pregnancy were more inclined than adolescents who delivered to seek psychological counseling and they reported more frequent problems sleeping and more frequent marijuana use. No significant differences were observed for cigarette smoking, frequency of alcohol use, and problems with parents based on alcohol use after the controls were instituted; however without controls, significant associations were observed, underscoring the importance of the use of psychological and situational controls in studies of the consequences of abortion. The information derived from this study is potentially useful to parents and professionals who provide guidance to adolescents regarding pregnancy resolution.     

Sexual Activity,Pregnancy, and Deviance in a Representative Urban Sample of African American Girls

The primary goal of this paper is to investigate the interrelationship between sexual activity, pregnancy, and deviance among a cohort of urban African American adolescent girls and compare the risk factors that predict these behaviors. The data are drawn from the Rochester Youth Development Study (RYDS), a multiwave panel study designed to examine the causes and correlates of delinquent behavior and drug use in a representative urban sample. This study relies on data from the 196 African American girls in the panel. Results indicate that girls who engage in early sexual activity and those who become pregnant are more likely to be involved in substance use and status offenses than girls who are not sexually active and who do not become pregnant. Additionally, sexual behavior and pregnancy are both influenced by socioeconomic disadvantage, unlike the other kinds of deviance examined. However, the proximal predictors of early sexual activity and pregnancy differ, with the profile of sexually active girls being more similar to the profile of girls involved in substance use and status offenses.     

年鉴条目的文体与文风

年鉴,是系统汇辑上一年度重要文献信息、逐年编纂并连续出版的资料性工具书.由于年鉴的性质和功能,年鉴大多为条目体,决定其条目的文体及文风.条目的记述文体与其它相近文体不同,而准确、简洁、质朴应为条目文风的要旨.     

安全生产与科技进步

当前,我国安全生产形势仍十分严峻,究其原因,同我国安全科学技术水平不高直接相关。因此,要从根本上扭转安全生产的严峻形势,就必须推动安全科技的进步。