Representations and meanings of pregnancy in adolescents from 15 to 19 years old in Puerto Cortés

Abstract

The topic of pregnancy and motherhood in adolescence has been analyzed through a variety of methodologies and theoretical approaches that statistically demonstrate the increasing incidence of early motherhood and the complexity of its understanding in diverse socioeconomic and cultural contexts. Faced with this reality, there is more recent research in LAC, which addresses early motherhood from a transdisciplinary proposal, to approach in greater depth the understanding of the phenomenon. It starts from a subjective view that allows exploring the meaning of pregnancy and motherhood through discourse, whereby the protagonists construct knowledge through their own perceptions. In this sense, from the indicators of pregnancy in adolescents in Honduras, it is pertinent to carry out a qualitative research with a more holistic and eclectic view, in which the general objective is "to explore the main representations and meanings perceived by pregnant adolescents and mothers in Puerto Cortes, through the epistemological paradigm of social constructionism and the theoretical support of the Phenomenological Sociology of A. Schütz and the Social Representations of S. Moscovici, to address pregnancy in adolescents in a more comprehensive way. For this purpose, fourteen pregnant teenage women and mothers were interviewed in depth, which provided results that are linked to subcategories of representations such as postponement of studies, school dropout, gender identity: mother-woman-home, new social status, expected maternity, factual project, loss of freedom and
future educational aspirations.