Psychological significance of adolescent pregnancy in five municipalities of Guanajuato, Mexico

Abstract

Teen pregnancy has been understood like a negative life event that yearly affects to almost one quarter million youngsters between 12 and 17 years old in México, impacting theirs health, scholar life and family function. The aim of this research was to obtain through semantic networks the psychological meaning about fatherhood and motherhood roles from parents of youngsters between 12 and 17 years and girls and boys of this age range. 894 persons from the municipalities of San Luis de la Paz, Manuel Doblado, Abasolo, León and Guanajuato in the state of Guanajuato, Mexico participate in the research. Results shows the existence of a wide psychological meaning shared to the concept of fatherhood and motherhood, this meaning is compose for sixteen words, emphasizing five of them: Responsibility, Good, Love and Work. Regarding the stimulus associated to teen pregnancy, we found a small network of meanings shared by the participants, compound by five words: Responsibility, Irresponsibility, Bad, Work and Ugly.