Agency or constraint: A study of values, role expectations and the maternal identity of African-American adolescent mothers

This qualitative study examines the formation of maternal identity by African American adolescent mothers receiving services in an intervention program for pregnant and parenting adolescents. In recent studies of African American adolescent mothers, researchers have attempted to use their subjective insights regarding the experience of motherhood to question and deconstruct "common sense" explanations for adolescent pregnancy and childbearing. However, relatively few studies have examined the impact of normative values and role expectations regarding motherhood on maternal identities. Moreover, virtually none have examined the institutional context in which the formation of maternal identity occurs. The central questions guiding this research study are thus: (1) How are values and role expectations regarding motherhood communicated to African American mothers in intervention programs for pregnant or parenting adolescents? (2) How are the normative values and role expectations conveyed to young mothers similar to or different from those within African American culture? and (3) What impact does the process of negotiating with these values and role expectations regarding motherhood have on the formation of maternal identity by African American adolescent mothers?; The theoretical framework of this study reflects an Afrocentric womanist critique. I draw on Afrocentric scholarship and research on African American identity formation as well as relevant feminist, classical and contemporary social psychological discourse. The study is also informed by perspectives from the sociology of knowledge and cultural sociology.; The methodology for this study includes participant observation in an intervention program for African American adolescent mothers and data from the in-depth interviews of fifteen program participants.; I use the case of African American adolescent mothers in this study to frame important questions about the complex interactive dynamics of identity formation and social organization. I consider how and to what extent individuals in institutional settings exercise personal agency to shape their lives and these institutions. The findings of this study challenge prevailing discourses on the construction of adolescent motherhood, more clearly delineate the dynamics of and challenges to African American identity formation, and may improve intervention programs directed at African American adolescent mothers.