In Italy 90% of teen pregnancies occur in young women who are daughters of teenage mothers (Istat, 2012). Supposing a transgenerational transmission (Abraham&Torok, 1987) these data could be read as the perpetuation from mother to daughter of unprocessed aspects that go along with the feminine separation-individuation process that happens in the name of the 'same' (Nunziante-Cesàro, 2014). Teenage pregnancies may represent the attempt to act the desire of a child 'repairer' or to hit the sexual body (Pines, 1988; Ammaniti et al., 1997). In a wider research field that investigates motherhood at risk (Margherita, Gargiulo, Martino, 2014; 2015; Troisi, Gargiulo, Tessitore, 2015), the study explores the relation between the representation of teenagers' pregnant experiences and the maternal ones. 15 women that have had a teenage pregnancy, daughters of teenage mothers were interviewed. A semi-structured interview, based on the Teen Mother Interview (Bohr, 2005), was built to investigate the reconstruction of the pregnancy experience and the relation with mothers. We have submitted the interviews corpus to a content analysis. From the analysis, in the area of the pregnancy experience, the categories of meaning that emerge are: the asymptomatic body, the concreteness of the birth and the interrupted adolescence. The pregnancy discovery comes late and its description is flattened on the birth, on the background of an adolescence lived between regret and denial. In the area of the relation with their mother, the categories: ‘same mistake’, ‘now we are two adult women’ and the overlapping roles, recall a repetition directed to the conquest of an adult identity, as the maternal one, in which roles recognition is hard. The emerging difficulties in mentalizing the body's restructurings and the acquisition of an adult identity, searched through imitative thrusts, on the background of confused roles, support the necessity of preventive interventions (Riva Crugnola, 2014).
Sixteen and pregnant as my mom: Transgenerational aspects of teenage pregnancy
Tessitore F;
2015-01-01
Abstract
In Italy 90% of teen pregnancies occur in young women who are daughters of teenage mothers (Istat, 2012). Supposing a transgenerational transmission (Abraham&Torok, 1987) these data could be read as the perpetuation from mother to daughter of unprocessed aspects that go along with the feminine separation-individuation process that happens in the name of the 'same' (Nunziante-Cesàro, 2014). Teenage pregnancies may represent the attempt to act the desire of a child 'repairer' or to hit the sexual body (Pines, 1988; Ammaniti et al., 1997). In a wider research field that investigates motherhood at risk (Margherita, Gargiulo, Martino, 2014; 2015; Troisi, Gargiulo, Tessitore, 2015), the study explores the relation between the representation of teenagers' pregnant experiences and the maternal ones. 15 women that have had a teenage pregnancy, daughters of teenage mothers were interviewed. A semi-structured interview, based on the Teen Mother Interview (Bohr, 2005), was built to investigate the reconstruction of the pregnancy experience and the relation with mothers. We have submitted the interviews corpus to a content analysis. From the analysis, in the area of the pregnancy experience, the categories of meaning that emerge are: the asymptomatic body, the concreteness of the birth and the interrupted adolescence. The pregnancy discovery comes late and its description is flattened on the birth, on the background of an adolescence lived between regret and denial. In the area of the relation with their mother, the categories: ‘same mistake’, ‘now we are two adult women’ and the overlapping roles, recall a repetition directed to the conquest of an adult identity, as the maternal one, in which roles recognition is hard. The emerging difficulties in mentalizing the body's restructurings and the acquisition of an adult identity, searched through imitative thrusts, on the background of confused roles, support the necessity of preventive interventions (Riva Crugnola, 2014).I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
