Teenagers, Pregnancy, and Childbearing in a Risk Society

Abstract

This article attempts to make a connection between two heretofore analytically distinct discourses on risk. On one hand, it refers to ways in which social work professionals and the like use the term to identify certain categories of teens as high, moderate, or low risk. On the other hand, it refers to the way theorists such as Anthony Giddens and Ulrich Beck described the advent of the risk society as a manifestation of a novel stage in the development of modernity. Theoretical issues are raised in reference to the findings derived from a study on teenage sexuality and pregnancy conducted in a Midwestern metropolitan statistical area of approximately 300,000, paying particular attention to a comparative assessment of the following two groups of interviewees: teen mothers and adolescent women using the services of a family planning clinic.