IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v19y2022i24p16906-d1005294.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

“It Was Just Really Hard to Be Pregnant in a Smaller Town …”: Pregnant and Parenting Teenagers’ Perspectives of Social Support in Their Rural Communities

Author

Listed:
  • Lauren Baney

    (School of Public Health, Indiana University-Bloomington, Bloomington, IN 47405, USA)

  • Alison Greene

    (School of Public Health, Indiana University-Bloomington, Bloomington, IN 47405, USA)

  • Catherine Sherwood-Laughlin

    (School of Public Health, Indiana University-Bloomington, Bloomington, IN 47405, USA)

  • Jonathon Beckmeyer

    (College of Applied Human Sciences, West Virginia University, Morgantown, WV 26506, USA)

  • Brandon L. Crawford

    (School of Public Health, Indiana University-Bloomington, Bloomington, IN 47405, USA)

  • Frederica Jackson

    (School of Public Health, Indiana University-Bloomington, Bloomington, IN 47405, USA)

  • Lisa Greathouse

    (Community Health, Indiana University Health, Bloomington, IN 47401, USA)

  • Dechen Sangmo

    (School of Public Health, Indiana University-Bloomington, Bloomington, IN 47405, USA)

  • Michaella Ward

    (School of Public Health, Indiana University-Bloomington, Bloomington, IN 47405, USA)

  • Susan Kavaya

    (School of Public Health, Indiana University-Bloomington, Bloomington, IN 47405, USA)

Abstract

Teenage pregnancy has a history of being a “social problem” in the United States, with there being higher rates in rural communities. Social support, a contributor to improving mental health outcomes, can significantly impact a teenager’s pregnancy and parenting experience. Using House’s (1981) social support framework, this study explores the teenagers’ perceptions of how their rural community reacted and responded to them as pregnant and parenting teenagers. The results were formulated through the thematic analysis of semi-structured interviews (n = 26) with current and former pregnant and/or parenting teenagers. The participants reported experiencing both positive and negative social support. There were more reports of emotional support and instrumental support among the forms of positive support than there were in the other categories. Informational support was lacking. The appraisal support from community members was negative. There is a need for rural communities to develop effective social support strategies to provide positive support for pregnant and parenting teenagers.

Suggested Citation

  • Lauren Baney & Alison Greene & Catherine Sherwood-Laughlin & Jonathon Beckmeyer & Brandon L. Crawford & Frederica Jackson & Lisa Greathouse & Dechen Sangmo & Michaella Ward & Susan Kavaya, 2022. "“It Was Just Really Hard to Be Pregnant in a Smaller Town …”: Pregnant and Parenting Teenagers’ Perspectives of Social Support in Their Rural Communities," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(24), pages 1-13, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:19:y:2022:i:24:p:16906-:d:1005294
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/24/16906/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/24/16906/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:19:y:2022:i:24:p:16906-:d:1005294. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.