Teenagers, pregnancy, and childbearing in a risk society - How do high-risk teens differ from their age peers?

This article attempts to make a connection between two heretofore analytica lly distinct discourses on risk. On one hand, it refers to ways in which so cial work professionals and the like use the term to identify certain categ ories of teens as high, moderate, or low risk. On the other hand, it refers to the way theorists such as Anthony Giddens and Ulrich Beek described the advent of the risk society as a manifestation of a novel stage in the deve lopment of modernity. Theoretical issues are raised in reference to the fin dings derived from a study on teenage sexuality and pregnancy conducted in a Midwestern metropolitan statistical area of approximately 300,000, paying particular attention to a comparative assessment of the following two grou ps of interviewees: teen mothers and adolescent women using the services of a family planning clinic.