A process model which included the influences of social origin, encouragement, and the formation of adolescent period attitudes as antecedents of early marital and fertility behavior was constructed and evaluated using three-wave panel data obtained from 176 nonmetropolitan females from selected Alabama, Georgia, Texas, and South Carolina high schools. Developed to integrate demographic and status attainment perspectives, the model depicted a network of relationships in which the exogenous factor, social origins, influenced young adult timing of marriage and fertility through a complex of intervening variables. The model was evaluated within a path analytic framework. Respondents were initially contacted in their high school sophomore year (1966-67) when family background and significant other encouragement data were obtained. Recontacted as seniors in 1968, respondents were questioned regarding status aspirations. In 1972, approximately four years after graduation, respondents were contacted for a third time and levels of attainment and procreation were recorded. The model "explained" 28% of the variation in early fertility indicating the importance of marital-timing, adolescent marital plans, and educational desires as important antecedents of early fertility. Fertility desires during adolescence were not found to be related to either time of marriage or actual early fertility. (Author/NQ)