The social construction of teenage pregnancy: a problem in the ideologies of childhood and reproduction

Abstract

Abstract There is a commonsense assumption that‘teenage pregnancy’constitutes some sort of a social problem. A neglected aspect of this social construction is explored. It is suggested that ideologies of reproduction go only so far in convincingly accounting for ambiguities contained in social constructions of teenage pregnancy and that appreciation of contemporary ideologies of childhood is also needed. Expressions of teenage pregnancy as a problem may then be understood as a matter of social pollution, located at the intersection of ideologies of reproduction on one hand and ideologies of childhood on the other.