Adapting to poverty and dealing with gender

A comparative perspective on teenage pregnancy in the Peruvian Amazon

Bibliographic Data

ID15099000
AuthorsIrene Del Mastro N (0000-0002-4681-7310, University of California System, corresponding author)
Year2023
Volume25
Issue1
Pages33-47
Publication date2023-01-02
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueCulture Health & Sexuality (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1369-1058 • E-ISSN: 1464-5351
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/13691058.2021.2018499
PMID34951335
OpenAlexW4200416791
LanguageEN
Citations received3
References cited19

Teenage pregnancy rates in the Peruvian Amazon are double the national average and among the highest in Latin America. Peruvian women living in rural, underserved and Amazon areas are more likely to become teenage mothers but the factors contributing to this socio-demographic trend are unclear. Thirty-one interviews and ethnographic observations of teenage and adult mothers living in the Peruvian Amazon were conducted to examine how social class and gender impacted their motherhood experiences. Despite preconceptions concerning the undesirability of teenage pregnancy, results show that teenage and adult mothers have similar experiences of motherhood. Both groups of women lack career and educational opportunities and are therefore economically dependent on men. This, combined with the cultural valorisation of motherhood, pushes them toward pregnancy and motherhood. In other words, pregnancy is a response to a lack of career and educational opportunities and not vice versa. The one difference found between teenage and adult mothers is that the former have less agency over reproductive decision making. In conclusion, motherhood among teenage and adult mothers in the Peruvian Amazon is an adaptive mechanism that gives women protection and fulfilment but is also the result of gender and class constraints that limit their life choices

Agency (philosophy · Amazon rainforest · Developmental psychology · Economic growth · Ethnography · Latin Americans · Political science · Population · Poverty · Pregnancy · Social science · Sociology · Teenage pregnancy · Adolescent Sexual and Reproductive Health · Demography · Gender Studies · Poverty, Education, and Child Welfare · Psychology · Sex work and related issues

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