A comparison of never pregnant and pregnant adolescents' perceptions of self-esteem, sense of responsibility, and parental nurturance, control and communication

The purpose of this study was to determine whether never pregnant adolescents differ from pregnant adolescents in their perceptions of parental nurturance, control and communication, and in their own level of self-esteem and acceptance of responsibility; effect of presence of father in the home was also analyzed.; Subjects were sixty volunteers from two inner city high schools and included equal numbers of never pregnant and pregnant adolescents matched on age, race and SES.; Instruments were an adaptation of the Iowa Parental Behavior Inventory, developed in 1979 by Crase, Clark and Pease, used to measure adolescent perceptions of parental nurturance and control, the Barnes-Olson Parental Communication Scale, Adolescent Form (1982), the Rosenberg Self-esteem Scale (1965), the Gordon Personal Profile, responsibility portion (1963), and an interview schedule developed in 1985 by the author that included demographic data and additional questions that related directly to adolescent sexuality and pregnancy. Pregnant adolescents provided retrospective pre-pregnancy as well as post-pregnancy scores for self-esteem.; T-tests were used to compare mean scores of all variables except presence of father in the home. Results revealed that pregnant adolescents' perceptions of mother and father nurturance and communication with mother were significantly higher than those of never pregnant adolescents. Post-pregnancy self-esteem was lower than pre-pregnancy self-esteem, and both were lower than that of never pregnant adolescents. Scores on responsible attitudes toward adolescent pregnancy and sexuality were significantly higher for never pregnant adolescents than for pregnant adolescents.; In forward multiple regression analyses, with pregnancy as the dependent variable, the largest amount of variance was explained by four variables. They were: presence of father in the home, responsible attitudes toward adolescent pregnancy and sexuality, and high self-esteem, all negatively related to pregnancy, and communication with mother, which was positively related to pregnancy.; Conclusions that may be drawn from this study are that father absence, close emotional ties with the single mother, lack of responsible attitudes toward adolescent pregnancy and sexuality, and low self-esteem are predictors of adolescent pregnancy. Self-esteem is lower among adolescents who become pregnant than among never pregnant adolescents. Post-pregnancy self-esteem is lower than pre-pregnancy self-esteem.