Beck, Cheryl

One out of every ten women aged 15-19 in the United States becomes pregnant each year, yet few studies have been conducted to determine what is important to the teenage mother. The purpose of this study is to develop a structural description of the lived experience of being a teenage mother. Six teenage mothers who attended a teen parent program in a local high school were interviewed. Using Giorgi's method of interpretation for phenomenological studies, a general description of the lived experience of being a teenage mother was developed. Actual quotations from the interviews are utilized to illustrate the themes which emerged and possible resolutions and implications for further nursing research discussed.

The phenomenon central to this study is "struggling in changing priorities," a universal lived experience of health. Parse's (1981, 1991) theory of human becoming was the lens through which all aspects of this study were seen. The participants were four young adults infected with the AIDS virus. Parse's research methodology consisting of the processes of participant selection, dialogical engagement, extraction-synthesis, and heuristic interpretation was used to uncover the structure of the lived experience. Struggling in changing priorities is inspiring new awareness while camouflaging the perilous evokes solace amid harmonizing opposing rhythms. When taken to a higher level of abstraction and linked with the major concepts of Parse's theory, the theoretical definition of struggling in changing priorities is imaging the revealing-concealing of transforming.