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Teenage Pregnancy Essay

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Due to colonization, First Nation teen pregnancy rates are higher, and has adversely affected them psychologically, socioeconomically as well as conflicting with their cultural beliefs.

As teen motherhood is socially structured. Society has judged teenaged pregnant girls as deviant (nonconforming) and that their lack of adherence to social, religious, and moral values was considered immoral. Teenaged pregnancy evolved as a social problem in North America. 1

Contrary to society’s social structure, consideration of teen pregnancy as immoral and a social issue, First Nation cultural beliefs welcomed children and considered children to be a “gift from the Creator”. Within their social circles, and within their communities, …show more content…

Because of the inability to form

attachments, the child is unable to develop friendships and relationships as easily as a child that know she is loved.4

The emotional instability of First Nation mothers that has been caused by intergenerational traumas was triggered by the loss of culture at the detriment of colonialistic effects.

“Colonialism is cited as a determinant of health for pregnant First Nation women (Moffitt, 2004,
p.323), including the residential school system; the imposition of Western medicine; government legislation; epidemics; and various other processes that undermined Aboriginal cultures and societies.” (National Aboriginal Health Organization, 2004, p. 7-8).5

The state’s legislation to oppress, marginalize, and disempower First Nation people has adversely affected teen mothers and their families by creating a construction of physical, psychological, and financially dependence upon the state.6
Psychologically, a child’s sense of identity begins when a mother is accepting and communicating self-acceptance. An emotionally detached mother criticizes, shuns, or ignores her daughter. She in turn internalizes these interactions as flaws and affects her feelings of self- worth.7 Children deemed unacceptable by their mothers/parents grow up searching for love and acceptance. Teenaged girls that tend to search for love become

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