Teenage Pregnancy: Social Perceptions and Policy Implications

Running head: CW1 ARTICLE REVIEW
CW1 Article Review
Student’s Name
Institutional Affiliation

CW1 ARTICLE REVIEW 1
CW1 Article Review
Teenage pregnancy has attracted significant negative attitude from society,
policymakers, and media at large. As a matter of fact, the United Kingdom government
classified teenage pregnancy as a social risk and threat. The compelling factor for
viewing teenage pregnancy as a social risk has been based on the conflict between
individual values and social values that the society has set with the goal of regulating
moral behavior. It has to be understood that morality, in this context, is anything that
society considers to be acceptable. Anything contrary to societal acceptance is termed
evil and potential risk. Hoggart (2012) explored the social perception on teenage
pregnancy, the social exclusion unit policy (SEU), and how governmental policies push
teenage mothers to regret the decisions made. This paper reviews Hoggart’s article and
compares the argument raised by Hoggart with other studies.
The primary argument raised in Horgatt’s article is the issue of characterizing
teenage pregnancy as a social and health problem to society. According to Hoggart
(2012), the government does is blind to the cause of teenage pregnancy. Policymakers
that categorized teenage pregnancy assumed that teenage pregnancies deny
teenagers access to education that could help transform their lives. Hoggart (2012)
writes that some politicians like David Cameron termed teenage pregnancies as
“children having children.” The policy of addressing behavior change through behavioral
change approaches creates tensions on potential teenage mothers. When government
policies and social values conflict with individual freedom in decision-making, pregnant
teenagers are often under pressure to decide whether to keep the pregnancy or
terminate it. Nevertheless, policymakers that target behavioral changes hardly take into
consideration the origin of teenage pregnancies. External factors such as poverty and
social inequalities contribute to teenage pregnancies, but the UK SEU policy did not
consider such factors when it characterized teenage pregnancy as a social and health
problem with potential risk to the nation’s economy.
In determining the validity of Hoggart’s (2012) argument, it is important to take
into consideration the authors’ research method and how he collected his data. The
researcher used qualitative study by carrying out an interview with teenage mothers.
Thirty-four young mothers from diverse family backgrounds were interviewed. The

CW1 ARTICLE REVIEW 2
inclusion criteria comprised of those who had terminated pregnancies and those that
had decided to keep the pregnancy to maturity. The researchers interviewed the
mothers on their perceptions and views on teenage pregnancies and why they had
made such decisions. Those that had terminated pregnancies did not see any problem
with their decisions and autonomy, similar to those that had decided to keep
pregnancies.
Interview methodology as significant advantages and had a significant impact on
the findings of Hoggart’s study. First, interviews allow the researcher to gauge the
validity of information he is receiving from the participants. Additionally, considering that
the information is obtained firsthand from the participants, the researcher is able to rely
on information as a reliable source and it cannot be compromised. Annwar and
Stanistreet (2014) carried out another study to investigate the views of teenage
mothers who had decided to keep pregnancy to maturity. The study titled “...it has not
ruined my life, it has made my life better...” explains the difference between the society
views teenage pregnancies and how the teenage mothers views it. Teenage mothers
are often comfortable with their decisions, indicating that when the government intrudes
and forces them to make otherwise decisions, it perpetuates abortion.
Interview methods also help the researcher to establish the cause of the
problem. For instance, the goal of the study by Hoggart (2012) was to determine the
social perceptions of teenage mothers on pregnancies. The researchers, however,
found additional information from the study. While the government and other
policymakers had insinuated that teenage pregnancy was a potential risk and was likely
to cause poverty and social inequalities, the teenage mothers cited poverty and social
inequality as compelling reasons that had pushed them to early parenthood. This
difference in perceptions helps the researcher to determine the cause of tension in
values between society and teenage mothers while at the same time critiquing
imposition of policies on teenage mothers.
In spite of the above advantages of the interview methodology, there are some
limitations associated with interviews. One of the limitations is the conflict of interest that
the researcher may have in the study. The interviewer may ask guided questions with
the goal of establishing some determined conclusions. For instance, Hoggart (2012)