ADOLESCENT MOTHERS: INTENTION TO CONTINUE IN HIGH SCHOOL (PLANNED BEHAVIOR).
Contributors: University of California, San Francisco.
Published: 1996
Number of pages: 177
Subjects: Health Sciences, Nursing.; Education, Guidance and Counseling.; Sociology, Individual and Family Studies.
Description: The purpose of this study was to identify factors which influenced an adolescent mother's decision to continue in high school after the birth of her child. This research study was composed of two phases. The first phase was the development and pilot testing of a written questionnaire that operationalized the constructs of the Theory of Planned Behavior. This questionnaire was used in the second phase of the study with pregnant adolescents to describe the correlates of the outcome, continuation in school.

In the first phase of the study, a convenience sample of 48 adolescent mothers was interviewed using an open-ended questionnaire to elicit salient beliefs about the positive and negative consequences of going to school. In the second phase of the study, a convenience sample of 53 pregnant adolescents enrolled in seven different teen parent programs participated in the study. This phase was a prospective cohort study. The adolescents were interviewed and answered the questionnaire during their last six weeks of pregnancy and were interviewed again between the sixth and eighth week postpartum. The outcome variable was the percentage of time the adolescent returned to school from the fourth to the sixth week postpartum.

Findings from this study indicated that attitude, perceived control, and social norms predicted the intention to continue in school and intention predicted the behavior, continuation in school. The demographic variables: grade point average, previously dropping out of school, and age/grade lag did not predict dropping out of school. The results of this study provide a preliminary understanding about the factors that influence an adolescent mother's continuation in school and the role advanced practice nurses could assume to encourage adolescent mothers to complete their high school educations.
Notes: Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 57-12, Section: B, page: 7451.

Thesis (PH.D.)--UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SAN FRANCISCO, 1996.

School code: 0034.