Today, among adolescents, childbearing may precede rather than follow marriage. Evidence suggests that adolescent childbearers now rely heavily on their families to provide needed support. Among a sample of 320 adolescent, mostly black mothers from low-income families, most spent a majority of their early years of parenthood in an extended family…

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.…

The vocational interest patterns of young unwed mothers were investigated by comparing the scores of a sample of unwed mothers with percentile averages from a national norm group. The interest differences of mothers who gave up their babies and mothers who kept their babies were also examined. Subjects were 53 young unwed mothers enrolled in a…

A school board's dismissal of a teacher who was an unwed mother resulted in the jury granting a large award. The judge grounded the legal justification for the jury's decision in the teacher's constitutionally protected decision to bear a child, irrespective of marriage. Criticizes court's constitutional intrepretation. (MLF)

Critics who advocate encouraging pregnant teenagers to marry are mistaken. Teen marriages are distinctly less stable than marriages that occur after age twenty. Later marriers are less likely to be on welfare and are likely to have more education and fewer children. A hasty marriage makes a bad situation worse. (BJV)

This article describes a procedure for group discussion between parents and adolescents on matters of human sexuality. (DB)

Using data from the 1990 Friends and Family Survey, examined the childbearing experiences of cohabiting women after their entry into a cohabitational relationship. Found that the hazard rate of a cohabiting woman bearing a child within the union is associated with her age, educational status, nativity, and other factors. (RJM)

Reviews research on the changing patterns of childbearing among adolescents and the impact of premature parenthood on the life course of young mothers and their children. The evidence supports the need for more integration among services and the importance of increasing the availability of services to those in need. (Author/BJV)

Analysis of four national cross-sectional fertility surveys, 1955-84, documents the decreasing likelihood that single women pregnant with their first child will marry to legitimate the birth. Among recent cohorts, decision to marry was influenced by woman's expectations about the timing of marriage and parenthood, living arrangements, academic…

Examines the developmental, familial, and peer deterrents that form barriers to adoption placement, based on interviews with 17 teen mothers in a residential facility. Analyzes responses based on an Eriksonian developmental model, and notes the role of family "cutoffs" and "re-admissions" and peer pressure as deterrents to…

Interviewed adolescent mothers at prepartum or early postpartum and 1 year later regarding maternal and romantic relationships, depression, and negative life events. Responses indicated that over time male partner support became more important than maternal support. (LBT)

This paper uses data from 2 randomized evaluations of welfare-to-work programs--the Minnesota Family Investment Program and the National Evaluation of Welfare-to-Work Strategies--to estimate the effect of employment on domestic abuse among low-income single mothers. Unique to our analysis is the application of a 2-stage least squares method, in…

In the United States about one million teenagers become pregnant each year and, of these, almost one-half will give birth and become mothers. Maternal factors that have been linked with better overall outcomes for adolescent mothers include social and family support, completion of high school, and limiting subsequent childbearing during…

This paper examines the needs of adolescent mothers and their infants and describes innovative programs designed to meet those needs. It discusses characteristics of adolescent mothers, including their educational level, their obstetric performance, their parenting practices, and the socioeconomic consequences of early parenthood. The paper then…

This newsletter issue provides an evaluation of child support systems and services of the 87 counties in Minnesota. No county in the state collects enough to support children, child support is often late or not paid in full, children whose parents never married are especially dependent on the child support systems, and child support services vary…