Risk-taking and decision-making in teenage pregnancy

Abstract

In recent years between 7500 and 8000 unmarried Scottish teenagers have become pregnant annually; this amounts to approximately 80 per cent of all pregnancies to girls aged nineteen years or less.

Of these pregnancies app roximately a third resulted in abortion, over a third in an ille gitimate birth, and less than a third in a legitimate birth, the mother having married between the time of concep tion and the birth of the baby.

A great deal of concern has been expressed about the number of teenage pregnancies which are both unplanned and unwanted, and strategies for preventing such conceptions have been sought.

This thesis has collected, by means of semi-structured in-depth interviews, a wide range of information about the background to these teenage pregnancies, the risk-taking involved and about the decision-making processes concerning their chosen outcome. The teenagers were also asked questions about their sexual career, the use of contraception, the intention regarding pregnancy, the reaction to the pregnancy, and attitudes to the choice of outcome.

Equal numbers of girls were interviewed from each of the three categories, those who had an illegitimate birth.