TEENAGE MOTHERHOOD AND ITS RELATIONSHIP WITH INTERPERSONAL VIOLENCE

The aim of this article is to highlight the links between experience of interpersonal abuse and premature motherhood. Using the term “premature”, I mean the motherhood of teenage girls, as in most cases the fact that a teenager becomes a mother is neither an act of her will, nor does it result from the fact of her being prepared to this role in any way, and, what is more, it is not a fruit of a steady and mature relationship, therefore it is regarded as a developmentally unpunctual event (Brzezinska 2003). It is also clear that these statements apply more to girls aged fourteen or fifteen rather than to eighteen or nineteen years old women (to whom they may not apply at all), who terminate their education and decide to start up a family. However, due to poor availability of empirical studies, where teenage mothers are usually generally treated as a homogenous group, this paper will be devoted to girls and women who are nineteen and younger when they become mothers. Teenage motherhood is certainly not a common phenomenon in Poland, and it is possible that for this reason it infrequently (and only recently) attracts the attention of psychologists or researchers representing other fields of humanities. Whenever it does however, it usually addresses the way a young mother copes with the analyzed situation (in such cases teenage motherhood is considered as a difficult situation, conf. Wieclawska 2005), as well as her psychological functioning during the pregnancy, delivery and puerperium (Bidzan 2007), the socio-pedagogical aspects of early motherhood (conf. Skowronska 2009), and its psychosocial consequences (Kościelska 1998). With respect to the diagnosis of the reasons for the occurrence of this phenomenon in Poland, attention is focused on the issue of insufficient sexual education (undoubtedly demanding many changes in our country1) and early age of first sexual activity, more frequently than to psychological or social factors. This has become an easy target for those who, even in their official statements as politicians2, eagerly condemn girls who become sexually active early in their lives. However, many foreign studies show that one of the important factors increasing the risk of premature pregnancy is the abuse experienced earlier in life by girls and young women. Becoming familiar with the reported results, should sensitize us (especially persons working with juvenile mothers) to the role of interpersonal violence and its consequence in the form of premature motherhood in Poland as well. However, before presenting the results of foreign studies and explaining the nature of the relationships between the discussed phenomena, I will take the liberty of presenting the data concerning the scale of teenage motherhood in Poland.