Bodies as evidence: Mapping new terrain for teen pregnancy and parenting

ABSTRACT

Predominant approaches to teen pregnancy focus on decreasing numbers of teen mothers, babies born to them, and state dollars spent to support their families. This overshadows the structural violence interwoven into daily existence for these young parents. This paper argues for the increased use of participatory visual methods to compliment traditional research methods in shifting notions of what counts as evidence in response to teen pregnancy and parenting. We present the methods and results from a body mapping workshop as part of ‘Hear Our Stories: Diasporic Youth for Sexual Rights and Justice’, a project that examines structural barriers faced by young parenting Latinas and seeks to develop relevant messaging and programming to support and engage youth. Body mapping, as an engaging, innovative participatory visual methodology, involves young parenting women and other marginalised populations in drawing out a deeper understanding of sexual health inequities. Our findings highlight the ways body mapping elicits bodies as evidence to understand young motherhood and wellbeing.

KEYWORDS:

• Teen pregnancy
• Latina sexual health
• body mapping
• participatory visual methods

Acknowledgments

We are particularly grateful to the young women from The Centre for participating in body mapping and other project-related workshops and activities. We also wish to acknowledge support from our project partner, the Massachusetts Alliance on Teen Pregnancy, and particularly the work of Katherine Bright, who facilitated the body mapping workshops; and acknowledge our wonderful team of research assistants: Chris Barcelos, Iesha Ramos, and Miriam Shafer.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. Pseudonyms are used for all participants.

2. GED stands for the ‘General Educational Development’ test, which was used in the US until the end of 2013 to indicate that a student possessed high-school-level academic skills. The High School Equivalency Exam (HiSET) replaced this exam in 2014.

Additional information

Funding

A research grant from a Ford Foundation initiative ‘Sexuality, Health and Rights Among Youth in the United States: Transforming Public Policy and Public Understanding Through Social Science Research’ supported the project ‘Hear Our Stories: Diasporic Youth for Sexual and Reproductive Health’.