Adolescent Parenthoods and Culture in Latin America

This project investigates adolescent sexual and reproductive health (ASRH) and young parenthood in Mexico, Cuba and Colombia through three intersecting questions: (i) how does cultural production reflect and regulate understandings of ASRH and young parenthood? (ii) how do cultural representations work with or against ASRH policy and initiatives by governments and NGOs? (iii) how do such interventions correspond to the needs and lived realities of adolescents, especially young parents? Each line of enquiry will expand our understanding of teenage parenthood and improve the impact of future interventions.

Adolescent pregnancy is increasing in many Latin American countries, with significant negative social, economic and health-related consequences. Young mothers have often been the victims of sexual violence, and are also vulnerable to forms of obstetric violence. Teenage parenthood obstructs access to education, hinders social mobility and entrenches poverty, making teen parents and their babies more vulnerable to disease and death. Such outcomes are worse still in contexts marked by gendered violence, marginalisation and precarity. Despite broader advances in maternal health, in Mexico, Cuba and Colombia, adolescent pregnancy remains stubbornly high, especially within the local settings (Morelos and Granma) that this project foregrounds.

Statistical data dominates existing research in this area, obscuring a much needed understanding of the social and cultural factors that influence sexual behaviour, fertility choices (including early marriage), and access to ASRH services including abortion. During adolescence, as social norms become ingrained, culture takes on greater personal relevance. Many studies see education as key to preventing unwanted pregnancies. However, each of the three contexts are paradoxically characterised by atypically high investments in ASRH resources and education. Research has not satisfactorily explained why both unplanned and planned adolescent pregnancies continue to rise in the region.

This project engages a novel approach in investigating the limited success of existing policy and interventions. It focuses on the intersection of cultural production, policy, and lived experiences. First, the PI will examine the powerful but under-researched role that cultural production plays in reflecting and shaping ASRH, by analysing representations of adolescent sexuality, sexual violence, pregnancy and parenthood in contemporary digital and popular culture (television, film, vlogging, social media), and by interviewing cultural producers. Second, through a systematic review of current ASRH policy and initiatives in the three contexts, the PI will consider how these cultural representations reinforce or disrupt state and NGO interventions. Third, the project will analyse disjunctures between policy approaches to ASRH and their lived realities in local settings, through two creative workshops for young parents co-hosted by local organisations in Morelos (Mexico) and Granma (Cuba), which will engage cultural expression as a participatory method for both research and impact.

In order to foster an interdisciplinary, comparative and collaborative approach to these questions, the project will also bring the three contexts in dialogue through the development of an international research network. The network will directly engage local and national policymakers, regional development actors, NGOs, arts organisations, and media outlets. The project seeks to expand knowledge in terms of how ASRH is shaped by culture, and also positively influence future ASRH policy and initiatives, enhance public awareness of ASRH issues, and have a social impact on young people and their communities. Findings will be shared via conference presentations, a website, a podcast episode, a briefing document, a methodological toolkit, blog posts, and academic publications.