A Crisis in the Family’? Pregnant teenagers and their parents in England, 1979-2010.
While changing government policies and attitudes from the 1970s led to greater social acceptability for lone mothers, pregnant teenagers only came under greater scrutiny in late twentieth and twenty first century England. Their relationship with their parents, as well as the extent of parental accountability for teenage pregnancy, was a regular feature in public discourse and policy. This paper compares representations of pregnant teenagers and their families in the media, with sources of personal testimony to place teenagers’ thoughts and feelings about their pregnancies at the centre of the analysis. It explores how the parentteenager relationship and support network shaped their pregnancy experience, uncovering how those parent and child identities were renegotiated to meet the extraordinary circumstances. By challenging contemporary narratives of intergenerational strife and wayward behaviour, the paper generates new perspectives on themes of class, gender and the life course in the history of late twentieth and early twenty-first century England.
Zara Christmas is a DPhil candidate in Modern British History at the University of Oxford. Her research explores the history of teenage pregnancy in late twentieth and early twenty-first century England. Her thesis focuses on the experience of pregnant teenagers and how this was impacted by their relationships and society’s attitudes.
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This page was last updated on 14 March 2025
