>>From: rh0i+@andrew.cmu.edu (Richard Warren Harris):


SOURCES:
From: Psychology Today, 15 May (1991?)


TEEN PREGNANCY:  WHO OPTS FOR ADOPTION?
by Judy Folkenberg

Why don't more unmarried pregnant teenagers relinquish their children
for adoption?

White, black and Hispanic pregnant teenagers, as well as service providers,
were surveyed in urban, small city and rural settings.  Although most of the
teenagers quickly cited adoptions as a possible outcome of an unwed pregnancy,
they were equally adamant that they would not choose it.  According to the
authors, "They believed that once a girl becomes pregnant, it is her
responsibility to have and keep her baby."

As one teenager commented, "If she can lay down and do it, she can lay down
and have it."

But there were other reasons why the pregnant teenager didn't choose adoption.
Not only has society become more accepting of the unwed mother, but according
to the survey data, the girls' families strongly opposed adoption as an
alternative.  "Despite almost universal verbal disapproval [of adoption], some
girls had in fact considered it, but the resultant community and familial
pressures against it were so pervasive that they were unable to carry through
with their plans," say the researchers.

Even the agencies were at fault.  Service providers were hesitant to discuss
adoption for fear of alienating their clients.  Should the subject come up in
conversation, the social worker treated it very gingerly.  Such ambivalence
communicated itself to the pregnant teenager.

Often the buildings themselves communicated a mixed message.  Said one service
provider:  "We used to work in the teen clinic... it was just the pits.  I
mean, you talk about a raunchy place to get birth control... you had to go in
the basement under the swimming pool with the mice and flies to try and be an
effective contraceptor.  But you get pregnant, you go down the street in the
really nice clinic that's clean and everybody's waiting on you...."

Minority clients -- especially blacks -- expressed another reluctance
concerning adoption:  knowing the difficulty of finding homes for black, mixed-
race and hispanic babies, they feared that giving up their infants condemned
them to a childhood of foster or institutiOnal care.

Yet some teenagers did give up their babies for adoption.  These young women
were described as "extremely determined and self-confident."  According to
one service provider, "There are a lot of girls who were poor... who had
really pretty much gotten it together mentally and cognitively and were strong
enough to make a decision regardless [of the opposition they encountered]."

By and large, these young women had a modicum of self-esteem and plans for
the future.  Said another service provider, "If you are an achiever, if you
have these expectations for yourself and these plans for yourself, this [the
pregnancy] is an interruption in the plans."

This attitude of planning for the future contrasts sharply with that of the
young women who kept their babies.  Their inability to connect the present
with the future became readily apparent when they were asked to project
themselves five years into the future.  The young women had difficulty
imagining that far ahead, and most spoke of highly unrealistic goals:  "I
want a whole bunch of money," said one.  A second one hoped to "find a nice,
rich husband and retire."

The findings of the survey were included in the November-December (1984)
CHILDREN TODAY

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