Research Catalog

Title

Reconceiving Black adolescent childbearing / Elizabeth Merrick.

Author

Merrick, Elizabeth

Publication

Boulder, CO : Westview Press, 2001.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Holdings

Details

Description

vii, 100 p.; 23 cm.

Summary

"Images of pregnant black teenagers and single black mothers are plentiful in the media and popular culture. These representations have fueled debates on the need for welfare reform and have focused public attention on adolescent pregnancy among black Americans. In Reconceiving Black Adolescent Childbearing, Elizabeth Merrick presents a new understanding of childbearing and adolescent development among lower income black American teenage girls. The author focuses primarily on the individual stories and themes of the six participants in the study. The first section provides the context and the second section provides the major thematic findings. The final sections focus on agency and identity in this population. The findings that emerge from Merrick's study yield a provocative view that stands in marked contrast to assessments of pregnant black adolescents as being deviant or greedy for welfare." "There is a need for developmental models that start from, or at least incorporate, non-majority experiences. In particular, ethnographic accounts can provide key insights into different developmental pathways. Out of such accounts, new paradigms may also emerge to guide developmental research. Reconceiving Black Adolescent Childbearing fills this void."--Jacket.

Subject

• Single Parent > psychology
• Black or African American > psychology
• Adolescent
• Pregnancy in Adolescence > ethnology
• Teenage pregnancy > United States
• African American youth
• Teenage mothers > United States
• African American girls
• United States

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references (p. 89-95) and index.

Processing Action (note)

• committed to retain

Contents

Desire and Denial: Their Pregnancies -- Abandonment and Difference: Their Mothers' Influence -- Balancing Hope and Pragmatism: Relationships with the Babies' Fathers -- Confronting Difference: Their Experiences of "Race" -- Seeming Contradictions: The Complex Themes -- Implications for an Alternative Developmental Model.

ISBN

0813368162 (pbk.)

LCCN

^^^00048469^

OCLC

• 45086837
• SCSB-11136933

Owning Institutions

Harvard Library