An exploration of female adolescent experiences of abortion and miscarriage from an adult retrospective bio-psycho-social perspective

Abstract

The current research presents an exploratory bioecological understanding of female experiences of miscarriage or abortion during secondary school-ages. A systematic review revealed that the topic area is empirically sparse, predominantly derived from the nursing discipline, and US-centric. A sequential explanatory design was conducted with continual convergence across two individual but connected studies. With a focus on qualitative methodology, the studies comprised: (a) phase one: design, implementation, and analysis of The Adult Attitude to Adolescent Perinatal Death Questionnaire (AAA) (n = 23); and (b) phase two: adult retrospective in-depth semi-structured interviews with women who had experienced an adolescent perinatal death whilst attending secondary school (n = 6). This innovative, transnational research found that, for society, there is a greater need for awareness of female victim blaming, an awareness of the continued imposition of patriarchal norms on developing females, and a need for awareness of continuing female adolescent pregnancy stigmatisation. For educators, there is a need for awareness of female adolescent pregnancy marginalisation, a need to provide education and support to adolescent girls who may become pregnant, and/or experience a perinatal death, and an urgency for appropriate, needs-based, person-centred relationship and sex education. This study also found that, for parents, there is a need for awareness of Adverse Childhood Experiences, an argument for trauma-informed parenting, and a need for greater involvement in sex education. For professionals supporting, and individuals experiencing, an adolescent miscarriage or abortion, there is a need for awareness of the impact of the death to an individual, an advisory to allow females to choose whether they identify as a ?bereaved mother? or not following these events, and there is a need for awareness of the impact of stigma, slut shaming, and bullying during secondary school on identity creation, and reconstruction, across the life course. Recommendations for educators are provided from participant narratives and proposals for future research are also discussed.