Dynamics of social networks following adolescent pregnancy

Abstract

Adolescents who experience a pregnancy often face educational and economical difficulties later in life. One factor that has been found to improve outcomes for pregnant teens is access to social supports. Inopportunely, teen pregnancy presents social obstacles, and cross-sectional analysis has found pregnant teens have fewer friendships than their non-pregnant counterparts. However, longitudinal work has yet to explore network change after a pregnancy. This study uses multiple network modeling techniques to follow the social networks of a group of girls who become pregnant between waves of the Add Health survey. Pregnant teens were found to maintain fewer friendships between time points than peers. Whole school network maps suggest that in some schools teens move to more peripheral network positions following pregnancy. These preliminary findings suggest that the relationship between social network change and pregnancy may vary depending on school environment; future work is needed to better understand how school contexts may change the social outcomes of pregnant girls.