Risking the Future Adolescent Sexuality, Pregnancy, and Childbearing, Volume II Working Papers only (1987) / Chapter Skim
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7. Teenage Fatherhood
7. Teenage Fatherhood
Pages 145-173
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From page 145... ...
To achieve this aim, we will examine the male partners of teenage mothers in their role as parents and explore tise determinants of assuming this role, and the consequences for the male, his partner and offspring. Reasons for Our Earlier Neglect of Adolescent Males Many of the reasons for our prior neglect of adolescent fathers have derived from our general lack of concern with the male role in infancy and childhood.
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From page 146... ...
I t is our assumption that the adolescent male in his role as father has an impact on himself, his partner, and his offspring. Moreover, the determinants of sexual activity and contraceptive use which were reviewed in the other chaps ters may provide little insight into another phase of the problem, namely, adolescent fatherhood.
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From page 147... ...
Since research has begun to catch up with the rhetoric, little sups port has been found for a separate, distinctive profile of adolescent fathers. A number of studies have assessed the personality characteristics of adolescent fathers in comparison to non-adolescent fathers.
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From page 148... ...
Williams-McCoy and Tyler (1985) , in ~ recent study of black adolescent males (24 fathers and 27 non-fathers)
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From page 149... ...
Third, a life course perspective is useful since this view alerts us to the compet ing demands and needs of the male dur ing the adolescent per iod. Fourth, it should be emphasized that the determinants of adolescent sexual act ivity and the determinants of adolescent parenting may be independent.
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From page 150... ...
On the other hand, early fatherhood may result in premature emancipation prior to the time when the adolescent male was prepared to sever family ties. Being emotionally dependent on his owe parents, he may be unprepared to accept the responsibilities of fatherhood.
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From page 151... ...
This economic outlook for adolescent males may be a further factor which limits their acceptance of/or involvement in the fatherhood role. St resees of Adolescent Father s As a result of the early onset of fatherhood, the adolescent male may encounter a variety of stressors which may, in turn, alter his ability to cope with the social, emotional, cognitive, and practical aspects of his life.
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From page 152... ...
, in a study of 95 black teenage fathers found that SS percent of the males expressed concerns about interpersonal relationships, which included a wide range of problems (relationships with their family of origin, restriction of freedom, problems with parents of their partner, difficulties of seeing their child)
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From page 153... ...
Tom Nether, the data suggest a common set of stressors across differen~c ethnic g roups of teenage fathers. Although this work must be viewed with caution due to the unkept resentative nature of the samples and the lack of comparison groups of older fathers, the studies do underscore the fact that fatherhood elic its a var iety of stress-produc ing concerns for adolescent males.
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From page 154... ...
Eighty-three percent of non-absent fathers had married before the child' s birth. Second, several stud ies of unmarr fed adolescent fathers show a surprising amount of paternal involvement for extended periods following the birth.
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From page 155... ...
In the case of the nearer married fathers, half had vis ited the ir children on at least one occasion dur ing the past year and about a fourth maintained regular contact with their of fspring, visiting at least once a week. An interesting and consistent pattern in these studies is that a signif leant number of fathers establish a ~stab}e.
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From page 156... ...
also found similar low levels of knowledge of infant development in a group of unmarr fed high school students of the same age and soc ioeconomic status as the teenage parents. However, caution should be taken in interpret t ing th is study In light of the rests icted sample ~ rural work ~ .; class)
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From page 157... ...
, parallel studies of the knowledge of developmental timetables of adolescent fathers are not available. However, in light of the more limited opportunities that males are afforded to learn about child care during their own socialization, it is likely that adolescent males would show even more marked def iciencies.
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From page 158... ...
There has been a surprisingly small amount of attention devoted to the fathering ability of adolescent males. In contrast, there has been a number of studies of adolescent mothers.
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From page 159... ...
A better compar ison g Coup for contrasting teenage fathers is non-teenage ~ i.e., adult) fathers whose female partners are also adult.
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From page 160... ...
There also appear to be positive d irect inf latexes of involvement, by either nonadolescent or adolescent fathers, on the cognitive development of their children as well. In their study of 5- and 6-month-old male infants (Pedersen et al.
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From page 161... ...
Further indirect evidence of the impact of paternal involvement comes from a recent study by Furstenberg and Talvitie (19801. The focus of the study was on the extent to which children share their father s ' name , these investigators found a clear relationship between naming patterns and paternal involvement in families of never married fathers.
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From page 162... ...
Marriage influenced payment patterns, with fathers who were never marr fed being less likely to make child support payments. Over 60 percent of separated or divorced absent fathers reported ulna king child support payments, a" compared to only 32 percent of the never married group.
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From page 163... ...
of 2 72 adolescent mothers and the ir partners, only 33 percent of the women and 44 percent of the men identif fed their partners as one of two sources of emotional s~pport -- in spite of the fact that these couples were married. For adolescent mothers who had not married their male partners by the time of delivery, the rate of identification of ache father as a support f igure was only 25 percent.
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From page 164... ...
Both maternal and paternal grandparents (69 percent and 8S percent respectively) were more pos itive about the pregnancy If the couple was married than if they marr fed between conception and delivery {22 percent and 26 percent
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From page 165... ...
Women who married someone other than the child' s father appeared to encounter more d iff iculty in managing motherhood. In comparison to those who married the father of the child, the adolescent mothers who married other men were less confiden~c in their parenting role, had more behavior problems with their children, and were more critical of their children.
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From page 166... ...
{1985~. To the extent that the adolescent father disassociates himself from the child and/or the mother, he may minimize the negative impact of early paternity on their own sac ial or educational tra Sector ies.
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From page 167... ...
Although there was still a signif leant impact on black males, the effect was less pronounced. Sixty-eight percent of black teenage fathers graduated in compar ison to 76 percent of non-fathers.
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From page 168... ...
Early fathering was related to early entry into the labor force, but was unrelated to any long-term rate of labor force partic ipation. Eleven years after high school, adolescent fathers were o~rerre=resented in the blue collar job categor ies, and underrepresented in the professions, reflecting their divergent educational attainment.
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From page 169... ...
I t is important to recognize that the male partners of adolescent mothers represent not only adolescents but a wide range of older, nonadolescent males as well. With few exceptions (e.g., Nakashim- and Camp, 1984} there is very little known about the similarities and differences between male partners of adolescent mothers who are adolescents themselves or older.
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From page 170... ...
By comparing male and female knowledge, we can evaluate the colon assumption that females are better informed concerning the course of infant development and therefore better prepared to assume a parenting role than males. Adequate observational studies of adolescent fathers and mothers interacting with their infants and children are needed in order to evaluate the actual parenting competence of adolescent males and females.
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From page 171... ...
This approach recognizes that there are signif leant individual differences among adolescent males. The tendency to treat adolescents as a single class has led to a failure to recognize the variations across adolescents (Belsky and Miller, 19857.
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From page 172... ...
First, more research is required concerning the adolescent males' knowledge concerning child development timetables. By compar ing male and female knowledge, we can evaluate the common assumption that females are better informed concerning the course of infant development and therefore better prepared to assume a parenting role than males.
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From page 173... ...
~ t is important to recognize the wide diversity of forms that adolescent father involvement assumes, f rom married and live in arrangements to infrequent visitor andJor f inancial contributor (Sullivan, 19851; in turn, programs need to be sensitively gauged to meet the var iety of def initions that fatherhood assumes among this populat ion. In summary, by inc teas ing our attention to the role of the males in adolescent pregnancy, childbearing, and childrearing, we may not only better understand the issues but be guided to more effective prevention and intervent ion prog rams and pal ic ies.
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