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Thesis (M.S.)--Boston University / PLEASE NOTE: Boston University Libraries did not receive an Authorization To Manage form for this thesis or dissertation. It is therefore not openly accessible, though it may be available by request. If you are the author or principal advisor of this work and would like to request open access for it, please contact us at open-help@bu.edu. Thank you. / 2031-01-01

Thesis (M.S.)--Boston University / PLEASE NOTE: Boston University Libraries did not receive an Authorization To Manage form for this thesis or dissertation. It is therefore not openly accessible, though it may be available by request. If you are the author or principal advisor of this work and would like to request open access for it, please contact us at open-help@bu.edu. Thank you. / 2031-01-01

Thesis (M.S.)--Boston University

Thesis (M.S.)--Boston University

Thesis (M.S.)--Boston University

Thesis (M.S.)--Boston University

Thesis (M.S.)--Boston University

Thesis (Ph. D.)--State University of New York at Binghamton, English, General Literature, and Rhetoric Department, 2006. / Includes bibliographical references.

Much of the research on women who become mothers during their teenage years has focused on risks and negative outcomes. Many of these risks are directly linked to the limited education of women who become pregnant before finishing high school. Research indicates that many young pregnant and parenting women drop out of high school and live in poverty.., Some women, however, who become mothers during their high school years do go on to complete high school as well as post-secondary education, which significantly reduces the risks associated with poverty. In this study, I have revealed the experiences of one woman who became a mother before she had completed high school. After experiencing many of the risks associated with adolescence, as well as lone-parenting, she went on to pursue a university degree. Her story lends insight into the issues, challenges, and resiliency factors she faced along her journey. Hers is a story not only of personal change and development but also of issues reaching beyond her life into the social arena. Using Immersion/Chrystallization of the interview and fieldnotes collected for this study, I have presented this positive research as an evocative story. To represent this story, I used elements of both autoethnography and fiction. Themes and significant events within the participant's life were represented in the form of fictional accounts., which I connected and interpreted through my own experience, providing the autoethnographic component of this research. The ultimate purpose of this research is the evocative story that I have presented. This is a story that will lead the reader to understand the complexity of the life of a lone-mother, to know the story of her life and to enter into her feelings, to find her inner story. It is a story that not only tells of personal experiences but also confronts the patriarchal structures of society that enmesh lone-mothers and challenges many of the myths or grand narratives that define the lives of teenage mothers.