Fifty Caucasian, never-married single mothers aged 18-30, who had opted to keep their babies, were studied longitudinally from the last trimester of pregnancy through the first three years of their children's lives in order to learn the extent to which they had reinterpreted traditional roles and responsibilities and had restructured their lives. Their values, attitudes, aspirations for their children, child rearing practices, family organization and activities were documented through naturalistic home observations, detailed interviews and questionnaires, and self reports of daily routines. The development of their children was assessed periodically through structured and semi-structured tests so that aspects of cognitive physical, and socio-emotional growth could be monitored. A picture of three different types of single mothers (nest builders, post hoc adapters and unwed mother) each with fairly distinct attitudes, expectations and experiences, emerged from the data. After a description of the single mother's backgrounds, their roles as parents, their values, attitudes and parenting behaviors are discussed. Policy planning implications of the findings for service delivery are indicated. (Author/RH)