Yet, despite their efforts, Whitfield County reported the highest rates of teen pregnancies in Georgia. Dr. Thompson and her colleague, Associate Professor Kathy Miner, set about trying to determine whether there were barriers to using the Teen Center or any local incentives for pregnancy. In four focus groups, a survey of adolescents who used the center, and ten in-depth interviews with new teen mothers, they began compiling the data that would lead to the answer. They just love you for no reason. When asked about problems associated with motherhood, the young women expressed worries about the loss of their teen years, finances, and their babies.
Money is a problem.
According to Dr. Thompson, the feelings discussed by these young mothers are not those stressed in adolescent counseling. Maybe they should be. From the interviews, Dr. Thompson and Dr. Miner gleaned other factors that contributed to the high rate of adolescent pregnancy in Whitfield County. For one thing, two of the women were already pregnant when they moved to Dalton. Although the carpet mills do not hire high school students, many of the adolescents' partners are high school graduates.