Resilience, Violence, and Early Pregnancy

Giving birth at a young age and being a victim of intimate partnerviolence are adversities that affect the life course of women. However, some youngmothers overcome these adversities and cope well, showing a dynamic resilience pathway.In this qualitative exploratory study, we examined a purposive sample of 10 resilientmothers who gave birth as adolescents in a situation of intimate partner violence. Theirstories were gathered from individual in-depth interviews and on-site participatoryobservations. Data were collected and analyzed simultaneously, according to groundedtheory. Inspired by Masten and Monn’s integrated framework of resilience, the resiliencepathway of the participating mothers began with the occurrence of the adversitiesaddressed in this study, namely, early pregnancy combined with intimate partnerviolence. To overcome these adversities, the participants deployed several protectiveprocesses: (a) establishing their maternal identity and the creation of a bond with thechild as a turning point, (b) taking an active stance to respond to victimization, and(c) acting proactively and adjusting to motherhood. Promotive processes, positiveadaptation indicators, and risks to positive adaptation complete the proposed resiliencepathway. The results lead to the conclusion that increased recognition of the challengesthat these young mothers face and greater emphasis on the importance of their socialsurroundings to support these protective processes would support them in theirtransition to motherhood and promote their well-being and that of theirchildren