Object Ties and Interaction of the Infant and Adolescent Mother

Childbearing Among Unwed African American Adolescents: A Critique of Theories

“…In her classic treatise, The Unwed Mother, Young set the course for female culpability and psychological dysfunction. Thereafter, emotional disorders resonated in investigations of adolescent pregnancy According to this model, the pregnant female adolescent sexually acts out, is in developmental crisis, experiences identity foreclosure, lacks separation-individuation, feels inadequate, is impulsive, or has a poor self-concept (Barglow, 1967;Barth, Schinke, & Maxwell, 1983;Elkes & Crocitto 1987;Fineman & Smith, 1984;Fisher, 1984; Group for the Advancement of Psychiatry 1986; Hart & Hilton, 1988;LaBarre, 1972;Shaffer & Pine, 1972;Zongker, 1977). More recent claims have been that the intergenerational transmission of emotional disorders, such as depression, is a contributing antecedent factor in African American adolescent childbearing families (S. M.…”