Adolescent Pregnancy in Sociopolitical Context

Review of book: "Dubious conceptions: The politics of teenage pregnancy," by Kristin Luker (see record 1996-98817-000). In sum, according to the reviewer, Dubious Conceptions is a challenge to society to reframe its thinking about the causal dynamics of the adolescent pregnancy phenomenon and about its strategies for invoking effective prevention programs. Luker exposes society's weaknesses in coming to grips with issues of poverty, welfare reform, race relations, and the concomitant hopelessness, discouragement, and lack of viable positive alternatives for the future that so many teenagers today must face on a daily basis. For 20 years, society has failed in its collective effort to reduce the number and rate of teen pregnancies in the United States, epidemic or not, and this book is a major wake-up call in its diagnosis of the reasons for our failure. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)