Adolescent Pregnancy Legislation: The Application of an Analytical Framework

• NCJ Number: 117304
• Journal: Family Relations Volume: 36 Issue: 1 Dated: (January 1987) Pages: 15-21
• Author(s): P A Monroe
• Date Published: 1987
• Length: 7 pages
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Legislation/Policy Analysis
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America
• Note: An earlier version of this paper was presented at the National Council on Family Relations Annual Meeting, Dallas, 1985.

Annotation

Statutory analysis of adolescent pregnancy legislation was used to present a framework for analysing the development of the statute and to give an example of how the framework developed by Sabatier and Mazmanian might be utilized.

Abstract

Government documents were reviewed to chart the chronology of the legislation from 1978 to 1984. A summary including dates, key political actions and events or facts was written from the chronology and review notes. The legislation was then divided into three interrelated categories for the purpose of statutory analysis according to the Sabatier and Mazmanian framework. The first category addressed the difficulty of dealing with the problem of adolescent pregnancy. The second examined the clarity with which the implementation process was spelled out in the statute. The final category reviewed external factors that might affect the achievement of the legislative goal of reducing teen pregnancy. The analysis demonstrated that the frame work presented in the study could be applied to any social policy to enhance greater understanding of that policy. The study also demonstrated how secondary foci, such as early adolescent sexual involvement and abortion rates among adolescents, evolved into major components of the agency's activities. A major limitation of statutory analysis was that it illuminated the reality of the agency and program activity as structured by the statute. Appendix and 39 references. (Author abstract modified)