Some psychiatric aspects of illegitimate pregnancy in early adolescence.

Abstract

An intensely ambivalent mother-adolescent bond and an absent father are found to be relevant etiological factors in the pregnancy of a group of girls 11 to 16 years old. The emotional life of this ethnically homogenous group, all of them from the “culture of poverty,” is investigated. Such issues as school continuation, marriage, repeated pregnancy, breast-feeding, and the problem of an unfavorable economic environment are evaluated within a therapeutic context.