Application : Teen Pregnancy Mills>>Sociology>>Ryan>>SOC112

Assigned Reading

K Luker, "The Problem and its Human Face" (1-14) and "Constructing an Epidemic" (81-108)
         in Dubious Conceptions (42 pp)

Introduction

First things first.  Let's get an overview of the book and its author.

Here's the blurb text from her previous (and probably better known) book:
In this important study of the abortion controversy in the United States, Kristin Luker examines the issues, people, and beliefs on both sides of the abortion conflict. She draws data from twenty years of public documents and newspaper accounts, as well as over two hundred interviews with both pro-life and pro-choice activists. She argues that moral positions on abortion are intimately tied to views on sexual behavior, the care of children, family life, technology, and the importance of the individual. [http://www.ucpress.edu/books/pages/1832.html]
and here's some of the advertising copy on this one
Dubious Conceptions introduces us to the young women who are the object of so much opprobrium. In these pages we hear teenage mothers from across the country talk about their lives, their trials, and their attempts to find meaning in motherhood. The book also gives a human face to those who criticize them, and shows us why public anger has settled on one of society's most vulnerable groups. Sensitive to the fears and confusion that fuel this anger, and to the troubled future that teenage mothers and their children face, Luker makes very clear what we as a nation risk by not recognizing teenage pregnancy for what it is: a symptom, not a cause, of poverty. [http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog/LUKDUB.html]
The author, Kristin Luker is a Professor of Sociology and Law at Berkeley.  Her webpage notes that she is currently at work on her fourth book, tentatively entitled Bodies and Politics, which is about sex education controversies in the United States and so you might begin to get a sense of the kind of work she does: looking at the social/political organization of both sides of cultural divide issues in the US.

And here is the table of contents.  What can we tell about the book just by looking at this?

  1. The Problem and Its Human Face
  2. Bastardy, Fitness, and the Invention of Adolescence
  3. Poverty, Fertility, and the State
  4. Constructing an Epidemic
  5. Choice and Consequence
  6. Why Do They Do It?
  7. Teenage Parents and the Future
But before we plunge into the book, let's remind ourselves of a few items we bring to the discussion in our sociological tool kits:

Chapter 1 : "The Problem and Its Human Face"

Introduces lots of issues and problems book will look at through case of Michelle and her son David.  He is in daycare, she is in algebra class across the street.
Too young to get married.  But not to have or raise kid.  A good bit of support for being a mother in friends and family.  Baby's father works at McDonalds and does not earn enough or have health insurance so marriage not a viable option.

Father involvement much more common that stereotypes suggest but activists and research still focus on teenage mothers not teenage parents.  Book says more about women but mostly because there is more information available.

Lots of intertwined questions besides sex, age, and marriage:
poverty
dependency (e.g., on the state)
economic survival in global economy
family values
relationship of individual and community
competing claims of rights and responsibilities
is this child already condemned by actions not his own?
what are the implications of this for larger society?  ITS obligations?  ITS rights?

How to read what's going on?

Liberal Approach
"babies having babies" : mom too young to appreciate consequences, child harmed by ignorance.  Denies her full personhood too, exempting her from moral accountability.  Becomes targets of those who would make decisions for her.  History is mixed bag of people "doing things for others" for "their own good."  We routinely have confused "unwillingness to make the right choice with an incapacity to do so" (4.5).
Conservative Approach
Mother is calculating rational actor.  She knows costs, behavior of system, etc. and chooses course of action that gets her what she wants.  Too many incentives out there make this course of action easy and even advantageous.  This at least grants her status of actual decision maker (agency)

BUT is this "rational individual" really in this picture?  Economics' "rational actor" is very much a male individual : concepts of work and family have gender built in

Looking more closely it would seem that part of the problem is that the teenager IS NOT a rational actor.  In fact, our ideals of motherhood are quite the opposite of rational and selfish.

We look at them as young women and want them to be selfless and sacrificing.  But as poor women we want them to be selfish and forward looking.

Prediction (Murray) : race declines in significance but behavior increases.  Two nations : married and wealthy, unmarried and poor.

Public Worry and Conventional Wisdom

SO, for better or worse, teen pregnancy is an "issue of public worry" and as with so many such issues, lots of conventional wisdom is wrong.

Research Questions: So, if conventional wisdom wrong, what do we know and how did we come to think about teen pregnancy as a social problem?

Most public discussion revolves around normative questions: what should we do?  what should they do?

Realist persepctive : more sex, more contraception; less pregancy but more often having baby; fewer adoptions; fewer marriages to "make it legal" (10.6).  Teenagers do not listen to all the shoulds and should nots.

Liberals : give them more information.  Conservatives : get tough, crack down.

Why do teenagers get pregnant?  They "just don't believe what adults tell them...." ... because "conventional wisdom does not accord with the world they see around them" (11.5).

"To many people, pregnancy among teenagers become the concrete symbol of many of those unsettling changes [e.g., gender roles and economy] and a focus for anxiety over other events occurring in a larger arena" (11.7).

Early pregnancy has been a concern for a long time.  Why/when /how did teenagers become the focus? (11.9)
Issues on the table
Long term affects on mother and baby life chances.  All indicators negative but is this due to "untimely parenthood"?  Lots of disadvantage precedes it.
Social changes in role of women in society since 50s.
Need to look at motivations for ALL unwed mothers.

Social Constructionist Perspective

Even if "facts" are wrong, it is still a problem because it is a public worry.  But to say that problem is not what we think it is is not to say that there is no problem at all.
Can the concern/worry be mobilized to good affect by trying to show what is really going on?  Programs tend to fail because of a fundamental misunderstanding of the problem.  Can even be harmful.  As in the domestic assault and drunk driving articles, we really do care about getting this right.


Bastardy, Fitness, and the Invention of Adolescence

In chapter 2 Luker looks at the history of styles of thought that have been applied to the question of early pregnancy throughout American history. 

Constructing an Epidemic

Social ills of the 80s
crackbabies
driveby shootings
failing schools
teen pregnancy
In fact, there was a decline from 1950s.  But this was partly due to rise in age of first pregnancy.
Roe v. Wade.  Changed dynamic.  Statistic was now "pregnancies" not "births" so as to count abortions.  So, one story was that this change meant big "jump"

Why was pregnancy rather than abortion the problem?

But if abortion is problem why teens when they are only 1/3 of total?  Yes, overrepresented, but...
Plenty of older women having "illegitimate"
Older white women replacing African Americans and teens as largest groups of unwed mothers.

  1. Contraception decoupled sex and pregnancy
  2. Abortion decoupled pregnancy and birth
  3. Divorce, etc. decoupled "children" and family.

How/why did teenage mother, black teenage mother come to personify the trends?  (83.8) "Why did American's narrow their vision to such an extent?"
A Story that Firs the Data
#1 Teens sex goes up but they are not careful, don't think about consequences, have babies without support of partner.  Unless access to contraception and abortion, trend continues.  Doomed to life of poverty.  Cycle repeats.
Associated evils : dropping out, less education, poorer
And, for country as a whole, this drags down a generation, makes us less competitive, etc.
Omitted Facts in the story
big increase in older unmarried mothers
black white illegitimacy rates were converging
But, story "explained" spreading social malaise.  Blame the teenagers.
youth always challenging status quo values
can say they do it unwittingly
this means that the "oppositional culture" they represent is probably irrational
victims, assign cause to them but don't blame them
NOTE how this effectively blunts "coming out all over" options

deceptive air of universality
and it allows middle class adults to play the role of assimilative reformer
In assimilative reform, the orientation is toward the welfare of the norm violator based on his conversion to conformity.
Changes in the 1970s
decline of stigma of unmarried couples having sex, unmarried women being pregnant
in short, "everybody" was doing it but we blamed the teens
Focussing on teens had two big payoffs:
could talk about poor women and African Americans without talking about class and race
Like a moral panic but the phenomenon was real -- that is there really were changing conditions in the world.
poverty
persistent racial inequality
illegitimacy
freer sexual mores
new family structures
sexuality
connections between sex, marriage, childbearing, family, and global economy
"Teen Pregnancy" puts a human face on these things

The Sexual Revolution

1950s "premarital sex" as "engagement sex" (60s it was half, 80s it was under a quarter)
1969 rapid change -- from 70% disapproval of premarital sex to 50% a few years later
Problem : how to draw the line (if not marriage, then how to get age in?) (88)
age : minors not allowed to have contraception
age : age of consent laws
"bright line" problem : once court cases win teens right to contraception and sex, how do you keep 12 year olds out of the picture?
From 19th century concerns about emotional and social capacities of teens.  "Infatuation" "puppy love" "silly school girl crush"
Current #s (89)
10th grade 25% 50%
12th grade 60% 75%
age 20       75%  85%
Change too : not "engagement sex" anymore
Real change is the marriage is shifting upward.  24 women, 26 for men.
Age first menstruation goes down -- thus much longer periods of exposure to can sex without marriage.  Difference for blacks 12 years for women, 19 for men between maturity and average age at first marriage.
Not possible to say abstain for 10-20 years but not clear where to draw line.
1971 6/10 sexualy active teens one partner
1979 5/10
1990 70% more than one partner, 20% more than 6
But most engage in serial monogamy
Other factors
more kids living at home longer
delayed careers
going to college
women having careers
Double bind : serious relationships and procreation inappropriate, casual sex immoral
Bottom line: our changing rules and sense that kids ARE kids means that our rules and thinkings are hodgepodge of cultural stuff

The Reproductive Revolution


The Economic Transformation of American Life



Yes, outcomes worse for teen mothers but most of the effect was there before.
Not teen parents => poor, but poor => teen parents




 White
 Black
Teen mother







85
 15


Notes

Bibliography


Other Resources