Adolescent Pregnancy in France
(2014) International Handbook of Adolescent Pregnancy — ISBN: [9781489980250 / 9781489980267], p. 293-313, published
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- Abstract
- In France, there is widespread agreement that adolescence is not a good time to become a parent, a state the French believe is reserved for adults (i.e., individuals who have acquired their residential, economic, and emotional independence from their family). Motherhood at a young age is thus seen as a hindrance to the personal development of adolescent girls. While teen pregnancy was first considered to be a “medical risk” in the 1970s–1980s, adolescent pregnancy today is considered “a psycho-social risk.” Yet, the demographic indicators show a marked decrease in pregnancies since the 1970s among French adolescents. Births to adolescents 18 years of age and younger decreased by 60 % between 1980 and 1997, and represented about 0.6 % of all live births in 1997 compared with 1.3 % in 1980. In 2011, the births to adolescents 18 years of age or younger accounted for only 0.3 % of total live births in France. The prevalence of pregnancies among adolescent girls is in the order of 30 per 1,000, holding steady since the mid-1990s. The sudden drop in the fertility rate of young people since the 1970s in France seems to be explained by a combination of several factors: the democratization of higher education and the presence of women in the workforce. Employment provides young women the opportunity to acquire a new social status. France is evolving through a phase of high social mobility, a phase that started with the “May 1968” formation of the Mouvement de libération des femmes (Women’s Liberation Movement, or MLF). The approval of laws legalizing contraception and abortion was victory of this movement, which enabled women to plan their maternity and families.
- Affiliations
Inserm Santé sexuelle et reproductive
Citations
Le Guen, M., & Bajos, N. (2014). Adolescent Pregnancy in France. In Cherry, Andrew L. ; Dillon, Mary E. (eds.) (ed.), International Handbook of Adolescent Pregnancy (p. p. 293-313). https://hdl.handle.net/2078.5/232534