Permanence and change: Psychosocial factors in the outcome of adolescent pregnancy

Past work suggests that stressful life changes and the availability of social support exert opposing effects on the health of adolescent mothers and their infants. We have developed a theoretical perspective in which the effects of both stressful and protective social factors are viewed as acting on health through their capacity to either undermine or sustain an individual's sense of permanence and continuity in life experience. To examine this hypothesis, a population of 89 unmarried, pregnant adolescents were studied to ascertain psychosocial influences on maternal and infant health outcomes. This paper reports a cross-sectional analysis of perinatal complications and psychological well-being as they relate to a variety of psychosocial variables, including stressful life events, social network support and a questionnaire measure of the sense of permanence. Multivariate analyses indicate that while life events and social support had effects in the expected directions, the sense of permanence constituted an important, additional factor in the effects of social experience on pregnancy outcomes.