“Students Getting Pregnant Are Not Gonna Go Nowhere”: Manifestations of Stigma in Adolescent Mothers’ Educational Environment

Autumn M. Bermea, Michelle L. Toews, Leila G. Wood

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

20 Scopus citations

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine adolescent mothers’ perceptions of how individuals within the schools viewed them and how those views shaped their educational experiences. The sample consisted of 83 primarily Hispanic adolescent mothers who participated in one of 19 semi-structured focus group interviews during the 2014-2015 school year. Although we did not specifically explore stigma, the adolescent mothers described feeling stigmatized by school personnel and their non-parenting classmates. They also discussed how school policies were not conducive to parenting. Based on the results, recommendations are provided that will help school personnel effectively meet the needs of this population by creating an atmosphere in which the students feel safe, supported, and are able to learn.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)423-436
Number of pages14
JournalYouth and Society
Volume50
Issue number3
DOIs
StatePublished - Apr 1 2018
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • education
  • policy
  • pregnancy
  • qualitative methods

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Social Sciences (miscellaneous)
  • Sociology and Political Science
  • General Social Sciences

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