Describes a patient with a history of infertility who, after becoming pregnant following a sexual assault, used chorionic villus sampling and DNA studies for paternity identification. Discusses risks and potential problems that accompany prenatal paternity testing. Ethical, moral, emotional, and religious factors should be considered in the…

Discusses professional biases, personal values, and family issues, using parents' effects on children and adolescent pregnancy as examples. Presents evidence about biological bases of intelligence, sexual behavior/orientation, personality, and psychopathology. Encourages family professionals to broaden environmental interpretations and to…

Findings from pregnant adolescents, nonpregnant adolescents, pregnant adults, adolescent mothers, and adult mothers found that pregnant adolescents were less socially competent and less proficient in problem solving than nonpregnant peers, that they exhibited more behavioral problems than pregnant adults, and that adolescent mothers displayed more…

Examined perceived relationships between pregnant and nonpregnant teenage girls and their mothers (n=52 mother-daughter dyads). Nonpregnant daughters and their mothers felt significantly more intimacy toward each other than did pregnant daughters and their mothers. Correlations of mother and daughter scores revealed that intimacy scores of mothers…

Students at a Baltimore, Maryland, middle school have been bombarded with lessons in self-esteem, career planning, and perils of early pregnancy. Directed equally at girls and boys, the Campaign for Our Children program is part of city's effort to curb its galloping teenage pregnancy. Through Governor's Council on Adolescent Pregnancy, campaign…

Survey of 58 physicians revealed that they did not routinely ask their pregnant patients about alcohol consumption for several reasons: physician bias resulting from own abuse, lack of training, poor awareness of problem and effects, denial that Fetal Alcohol Syndrome occurs in private practice, time limitations, disinterest, fear of offending…

Discusses how human services agencies can use strategies and information technologies similar to those used in political campaigns to identify needs and attitudes for social services campaigns. Marketing for social services programs is described, and the use of computers for a political campaign and for a teenage pregnancy program is compared.…

Examines behaviors related to AIDS protection and contraception among African-American, Hispanic, and White women through a national alcohol survey in 1991 and 1992. Results indicate that a significant proportion of women and their partners in each ethnic group did not use any form of protection during their recent sexual encounter. (Author/MKA)

Explores the course of treatment, risk factors, and drug-related issues among ethnically diverse pregnant women (N=192) who were actively using drugs at admission to a residential treatment program. Findings reveal that the course of treatment is more difficult for comorbid clients who perceived more treatment barriers than noncomorbid clients.…

Attempts to broaden the analytic categories for understanding early-adolescent pregnancy, suggesting an antidote to the methodological individualism that emphasizes individual and family characteristics by using broader contextual factors. Seemingly imprudent behaviors can be rendered interpretably rational when placed in social context. Without…

Used Theory of Reasoned Action to investigate the cognitive structure underlying substance use through interviews with mothers 17 years old or younger during pregnancy. Found that substance use was lowest during pregnancy, increased sharply at 6 months postpartum, and remained level at 12 months. Changes in intentions, attitudes, perceived social…

Experience treating women with hyperemesis gravidarum (HG) from varied sociocultural backgrounds in a large inner-city general hospital is related to a literature review. Subgroups were identified according to personality pathology, psychiatric symptoms, and psychosocial stress factors. Accurate assessment, needs of individuals, treatment…

Examines prospectively the characteristics contributing to adolescent pregnancy in a pregnant and comparison group of adolescents. Adolescent pregnancy in Blacks was predicted by approval of delaying a family and pursuing a career, aspirations of working, and lower educational expectations. Higher educational wishes, lower educational…

Objective: To examine the association between sexual activity among urban adolescent girls and four global measures of psychosocial adaptation (academic motivation, school achievement, depressive symptoms, and expectations about the future). Method: Data derived from the Social and Health Assessment, a self-report survey administered in 1998 to…

Developments in assisted reproductive technologies have made it possible for couples to select the sex of a child prenatally. This article used the NASW Code of Ethics and information from the Ethics Committee of the American Society of Reproductive Medicine to consider ethical dilemmas related to social justice (for example, reinforcement of…