Pregnant teenagers: an effort for comprehension – a study in Dendê community

Abstract

The frequent increase of teenage pregnancies has troubled sanitary authorities, health professionals, sociologists and everyone who feels responsible for society and its quality of life. Dendê Community, a suburb of Fortaleza, has gotten our attention because of the number of teenage pregnancies. The study we conducted there is related in the following pages. It is a comprehensive study, in terms of Weber’s methodology and “Nietzschean dig”. Trying to reach interdisciplinarity, it intends to be more than a sociological analysis. We have considered, mainly, the meaning of the fact in the mind of the subjects. Small fragments were brought together into a comprehensive narration in which the family, the partners and the pregnant teenagers themselves are part of an intrigue where “presentism”, a certain epicurism, a certain seduction for personal power and a “passage rite” make fragments understandable. Keywords: teenage; pregnancy in the famil; contraceptive, meanings.