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Adolescent perspectives on prenatal education : A qualitative study

University of British Columbia

The rate of adolescent pregnancy is on the rise in British Columbia. As health care professionals encounter adolescents in a variety of settings, they are increasingly likely to be providing prenatal care and education for the adolescent population. Research studies have documented numerous physical and psychological risks with early childbearing. In addition, research findings support that a woman's ability to adapt to pregnancy depends on the individual's beliefs past life experiences and ways of perceiving the pregnancy experience. However, Kleinman's conceptual framework of explanatory models (1978) advocates that the beliefs, expectations and desires of the adolescent client during the prenatal period may be quite different from those perceived by health providers. Because the knowledge of adolescent pregnancy almost exclusively reflects the perspectives of the health care provider, this study attempts to identify and explore the adolescents' perspective about pregnancy and prenatal education from teens themselves. With the assistance of the Vancouver Health Department and Maywood Pregnancy Outreach Program, nineteen, pregnant and single teenagers were recruited to attend one of three focus group discussions. The adolescents chose to describe their emotional response to pregnancy, previous experiences with prenatal education and their vision for adolescent prenatal education. Direction for data examination was taken from Giorgi's (1975) and Knafl and Webster's (1988) guidelines for data management and analysis. Data analysis revealed pregnant adolescents experience a transition of emotional responses throughout pregnancy including: denial, shock and disbelief, ignorance, hopelessness, abandonment and isolation, dependency, powerlessness and anticipation and pride. In addition, adolescents perceive societal attitudes towards pregnant teens as "negative", "judgemental" and "all-knowing". Study participants described and defined their own learning needs for prenatal education. Adolescent learning needs addressed structure, content and teaching strategy for prenatal programs. The explanatory model operating in the adolescents' mind about prenatal education differed from that of health professionals in terms of: the definition of who provides education and care, preparation and readiness for pregnancy and parenthood, program format and duration and choice and delivery methods of prenatal care and education. The findings from this study have implications for all health disciplines regarding practice issues and direction for future research.

Thesis/Dissertation

application/pdf

2009-01-14

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http://hdl.handle.net/2429/3636

Nursing

University of British Columbia

UBCV

DSpace