Nastoletnie macierzyństwo ‒ zagrożenie wykluczeniem społecznym czy szansa na integrację społeczną? Kontrowersje teoretyczne i podejścia praktyczne
TEENAGE PARENTHOOD: A ROUTE TO SOCIAL EXCLUSION OR AN OPPORTUNITY FOR SOCIAL INTEGRATION? THEORETICAL CONTROVERSIES AND PRACTICAL APPROACHES

Summary/Abstract: Taking into account the numbers and the share of teenage births, teenage motherhood is today a marginal problem in developed countries, Poland among them, as it concerns relatively small groups of members of modern societies. Academic interest in teenage parenthood is motivated by the fact that teenage births are not equally distributed among populations. Teenage motherhood is most of all experienced by women from marginalized environments and communities. Therefore, studies among women who became mothers early provide knowledge on processes of social exclusion, poverty, social inequalities, social welfare systems and social policy initiatives as well as actions taken by women themselves in order to strengthen their social integration. The aim of the article is to describe ambiguous relations between early motherhood and social exclusion and social integration in reference to the British and American literature on the subject. Results of research projects on teenage parenthood carried in the United Kingdom and the United States, where teenage motherhood is relatively frequent, present risks as well as opportunities related to early parenting. In the article, two approaches in social research on teenage parenthood will be presented: one perceiving early motherhood as a social problem, social threat and a factor strengthening the process of intergenerational inheritance of poverty and social exclusion the other – critically responding to the negative connotations of teenage motherhood. Theoretical implications for the concepts of social exclusion and social integration as well as social policy recommendations drawn from studies on teenage motherhood will be revealed.

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