Janan Johnson, AmyBostwick, Eryn2018-12-142018-12-142018-12https://hdl.handle.net/11244/316768Grounded in Communicated Narrative Sensemaking, this dissertation examines the influence stigma and storytelling have on those born to adolescent parents. Analyses based on a survey completed by 141 individuals found those born to adolescent parents were more likely to report that their parents were stigmatized because of their status as an adolescent parent than they were to report that they themselves were stigmatized. Additionally, the more one’s parents worried about being stigmatized, the more one was likely to worry about one’s parents’ stigma transferring to them, and to worry about being stigmatized oneself. Furthermore, those who perceived that their parents were stigmatized due to their status as an adolescent parent had lower self-esteem than those who did not perceive that their parents were stigmatized. Those whose parents were stigmatized were also more likely to have families that utilized narrating as a boundary management technique. Lastly, an analysis of interview data from 8 individuals who completed the survey found those born to adolescent parents who saw their parents struggle went through a process termed agency-driven attribution shift, which refers to a transformative process whereby individuals are able to rid themselves of guilt and burden they placed on themselves as children for their parents’ struggles and take agency over their birth story.family communicationstorytellingstigmadiscourse-dependent families