HW 41 - Independent Research

What factors influence people's choice to have, and keep a baby?

1: Linnie, Laura. "How to Make the Decision to Have Children Read more: How to Make the Decision to Have Children | eHow.com http://www.ehow.com/how_5198975_make-decision-children.html#ixzz1IUCulmWI." EHow 2011: 1-3. Web. 3 Apr 2011.

This article is about the 5 steps the author believes that women should make before they decide to have a child. It goes from spending time with children of various ages to talking to people who decided to have children, and to people who decided they did not want to have children. It is more then just talking to other people to make your decision, it is about being able to be immersed in the world of parenthood so you can have a first hand experience of whether or not you will be able to join that world.

2: Bovo, MJ. "Are You Ready?." Welcome to A World For Women, About Women, By a Woman . MJ Bovo, 1995. Web. 3 Apr 2011. .

This article, like the previous one, provides a list that explains the pros and cons of being pregnant. It provides a list of what to do and what not to do when you are pregnant and through this list of helpful information, women can make the decision on whether or not they want to have a child.

3: Clark, Shelia. "Parents, Peers, and Pressures: Identifying the Influences on Responsible Sexual Decision-Making." National Association of Social Workers 2.2 (2001): 1-7. Web. 3 Apr 2011. .

This article is about the importance of knowledge of responsible sexual decision making. It outlines the roles of parents and peers in educating each other about the importance of safe sex to avoid unwanted pregnancies. This connects to my essential question because an unwanted pregnancy is still a pregnancy and peers and parents are responsible for informing the pregnant person of what the next steps could be and based on that they will make the decision on whether or not to keep the child. I need to know why they decided to keep it or not, and i can find that out from that their peers and parents tell them

4: Chandler, Susan. "Economy influences the decision to have babies." Pantagraph.com 04 Jan 2009: 1-3. Web. 3 Apr 2011. .

This article addresses the economical influence on prospective parents. It shows how people need to address more then just their own personal opinions on children. It demonstrates how a turbulent economic time does in fact have an effect on parents and their decisions on whether or not they are going to procreate.

5: Brym, Robert, and John Lie. "Sociology: your compass for a new world." Google Books. Cengage Learning, 2006. Web. 3 Apr 2011. .

This book addresses the sociological aspect of the proocess of getting pregnant. It addresses why women decide to have one child, or 2, or even 5. This book is helpful to my paper because it addresses the reasoning women have behind the number of children they have, and it has the statistics to prove it.

6: Miller, James. "On the decision to have children."Solitaryroad.com 1.1 (1986): 1-2. Web. 3 Apr 2011. .

Now this article is old, and short, and doesn't really say anything of that much importance. But i put it up because it is from 1986 and i thought it would be interesting to have information from a different time to compare to the current ideas that people have on the decision making process for pregnancy.

I plan on using all of this information to put together a paper that addresses how not only adults, but teens address the process to have a baby, and if they became pregnant by accident, i would like to examine the mental process they took to either keep the baby or abort it. I feel that by being able to lay down the frame work for what people think in the pregnancy process, then i can better understand what about the process is weird, and how although we may see it as normal, do the steps we take really reflect that view.