"It's not something you expect a 15-year-old to be sad about": Sources of Uncertainty and Strategies of Uncertainty Management among Adolescent Women Who Have Experienced Miscarriage. Issue 14 (6th December 2019)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Darnell, Whittney H.; Buckley, Alison N.; Scott, Allison M.
• Is Part Of: Health communication. Volume 34:Issue 14(2019)
• Page Start: 1795
• Page End: 1805
• Publication Date: 2019-12-06
• Subjects: Communication in medicine -- Periodicals; Health in mass media -- Periodicals; 362.1014
• DOI: 10.1080/10410236.2018.1536947
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1041-0236

Abstract

ABSTRACT: Approximately 10%–25% of adolescent pregnancies end in miscarriage, yet we know little about the experience of miscarriage among women in this age group. To better understand the medical and psychosocial challenges faced by adolescent women who experience a miscarriage, we conducted interviews with 31 college-aged women who had experienced a miscarriage between the ages of 15 and 19. We analyzed interview transcripts using qualitative descriptive analysis and found that adolescent women experience various medical (e.g., insufficient medical knowledge, unknown etiology), personal (e.g., competing identities, lack of autonomy in decision-making), and relational (e.g., emotional invalidation, relational insecurity) sources of uncertainty in miscarriage in ways that are unique to the population of adolescent women. Women in our sample appraised their uncertainty positively and negatively (sometimes simultaneously) and reported using a variety of management strategies to facilitate their desired level of uncertainty, including information seeking, avoidance, health behavior change, and reframing the miscarriage.