Analysis of data from the High School and Beyond panel study indicates that the willingness to consider single motherhood can be linked to the following: (1) nonconforming behavior; (2) educational opportunity costs; and (3) for whites and Hispanics, depression. This report examined 13,061 females from the 1980 sophomore cohort who responded to the baseline study in 1980 and to the 1982 follow-up and who were neither married nor were parents at the baseline study. A total of 342 of these women had become single mothers by 1982. The 3,293 women who claimed in 1980 that they might consider having a child out of wedlock are compared with their peers who rejected the idea. Findings include the following: (1) 41 percent of the Blacks, 29 percent of the Hispanics, and 23 percent of the non-Hispanic Whites said they either would or might consider single motherhood; (2) young Black women were more likely to consider single motherhood than were Whites or Hispanics; (3) respondents who ranked high on a scale of problem behavior were more willing to do so; (4) the higher the respondent's educational expectations, the lower their willingness to become a single mother; and (5) those Whites and Hispanics who reported several instances of depression in the last month were more likely to consider single motherhood. Statistical data are included on three tables and four graphs. A brief list of references is also included. (FMW)