Show simple item record

dc.contributor.authorAparicio, Elizabeth
dc.date.accessioned2014-05-28T19:06:34Z
dc.date.available2014-05-28T19:06:34Z
dc.date.issued2014
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/10713/4089
dc.descriptionUniversity of Maryland, Baltimore. Social Work. Ph.D. 2014en_US
dc.description.abstractTeen pregnancy in foster care is an issue receiving increasing attention due to high pregnancy rates. Previous literature on both teen motherhood and foster youth is focused on negative outcomes, risk factors, and pathology. Despite this emphasis, a small, but growing body of literature on the experience of motherhood of teen mothers in foster care reflects a perspective that is not simply negative - a lived reality that is characterized by both risk and opportunity. The purpose of the current qualitative study was to explore the meaning and experience of motherhood for teen mothers in foster care. The study involved three in-depth interviews with 6 young women who had become mothers while in care. It employed interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA; Smith, Flowers, & Larkin, 2009) to elicit, analyze, and re-present a rich account of this experience. Findings suggest the lived experience of motherhood for these young women is an intricate reality that brings past, present, and hoped-for future experiences into seamless unison in the midst of the intensely meaningful experience of becoming a mother. Participants discussed their interpretation of motherhood as offering a sense of hope for new beginnings and doing things differently than what had happened in their own families, yet simultaneously as a time of feeling plagued by the lingering effects of darkness and despair in their childhood and adolescence due to factors such as substance abuse, abuse and neglect, poverty, and the breakdown of family ties. The findings suggest that teen mothers in foster care experience becoming mothers as offering opportunities to change their identities from that of "foster child" to "mother", gain motivation and purpose, receive unconditional love, and work through their views on their own parents in the context of a new role. Implications include the need for comprehensive sexual health, substance abuse, and behavioral health services at all levels for child welfare-involved families and youth that include a significant focus on trauma, grief, loss, and attachment issues; better parenting support for teen mothers in foster care; and meaningful discussions about the unintended effects of child welfare intervention on communities related to teen pregnancy and motherhood.en_US
dc.language.isoen_USen_US
dc.rights.urihttps://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
dc.subjectattachmenten_US
dc.subjectchild maltreatmenten_US
dc.subjectfoster careen_US
dc.subjectinterpretative phenomenological analysisen_US
dc.subjectteen motherhooden_US
dc.subject.lcshFoster childrenen_US
dc.subject.lcshQualitative researchen_US
dc.subject.lcshTeenage mothersen_US
dc.subject.lcshChild abuseen_US
dc.titleExploring How Teen Mothers in Foster Care Experience Motherhood: An Interpretative Phenomenological Analysisen_US
dc.typedissertationen_US
dc.contributor.advisorPecukonis, Edward Vincent
dc.identifier.ispublishedNoen_US
dc.description.urinameFull Texten_US
refterms.dateFOA2019-02-20T17:50:01Z


Files in this item

Thumbnail
Name:
Aparicio_umaryland_0373D_10507.pdf
Size:
769.7Kb
Format:
PDF

This item appears in the following Collection(s)

Show simple item record

https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
Except where otherwise noted, this item's license is described as https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/