Decision making for pregnant adolescents: applying reasoned action theory to research and treatment.

ABSTRACT

PIP Unmarried adolescent mothers face greater risk of less schooling, more emotional problems, higher poverty, and less income than those who relinquish their infants for adoption. Currently, around 5% of unmarried mothers give up their children for adoption (52,000 children annually, of which 24,500 are infants). Reasoned-action theory according to Ajzen and Fishbein (1980) was utilized in order to examine the potent family and personal variables that underlie this decision. In addition, a literature review of research studies applying reasoned-action theory to pregnant teenagers is provided, along with suggestions for clinical application of the theory. Family support has been found an important variable in the teenagers' decision. Family members may encourage or discourage the teenagers to keep the baby. Families may come closer together to cope with an unplanned pregnancy; however, some families experience deterioration of adaptability over time. The theory focuses 1) on the relationship of the individual and the decision or behavioral intention (BI), and 2) on immediate sociopsychological determinants of a BI. In some instances behavior (B) and BI are unrelated. The theory characterizes BIs in terms of the subjective probability concerning behavioral performance. The person's intention to perform a behavior is the result of a choice between behavioral alternatives 1) adoption, 2) keeping the child as single mother, 3) keeping the child and raising it with the father in a formal relationship, 4) keeping the child and raising it with the help of parents. According to the Fishbein and Ajzen model, differences between minority and White relinquishment rates occur because these groups 1) differ in their beliefs and attitudes toward behavioral alternatives, 2) differ in normative beliefs, and/or 3) differ in relative weights they accord to attitudes versus cultural norms. This model with many variables is useful in measuring behavior, choice, and BI; attitudes and subjective norms; normative beliefs; and beliefs about consequences in clinical application by practitioners and agencies.^ieng