Risking the Future Adolescent Sexuality, Pregnancy, and Childbearing, Volume II: Working Papers and Statistical Appendices (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 the 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... ...
Moreover, the determinants of sexual activity and contraceptive use which were reviewed in the other chapters may provide little insight into another phase of the problem, namely, adolescent fatherhood. Although the research is limited and flawed, it is important to review these issues in order to give better guidance to prevention and intervention policy and programs.
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From page 147... ...
Results for males are inconsistent. In one study of 48 unmarried black adolescent fathers and 50 non-father adolescent controls, the fathers were higher in external control than the control adolescents (Hendricks and Fullilove, 1983~.
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From page 148... ...
Williams-McCoy and Tyler (1985) , in a recent study of black adolescent males (24 fathers and 27 non-fathers)
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From page 149... ...
Moreover, adolescence involves exploration and experimentation with a variety of roles, such as student, peer group member, or athlete which, in turn, may be incompatible with the parental role (Sadler and Catrone, 1983~. Cognitive Development.
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From page 150... ...
Although many researchers have found conflict between mother and adolescent daughter over decisions about child care and childrearing (Sadler and Catrone, 1983) , conflict between adolescent fathers and their parents is likely, especially if the new family lives with the paternal grandparents (Bolton and Belsky, 1986~.
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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. Stresses of Adolescent Fathers 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... ...
Hendricks, Howard, and Caesar (1981) , in a study of 95 black teenage fathers found that 55 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... ...
Together, the data suggest a common set of stressors across different ethnic groups of teenage fathers. Although this work must be viewed with caution due to the unrepresentative nature of the samples and the lack of comparison groups of older fathers, the studies do underscore the fact that fatherhood elicits a variety of stress-producing 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 studies of unmarried adolescent fathers show a surprising amount of paternal involvement for extended periods following the birth.
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From page 155... ...
Sixty-three percent of absent fathers (22-25-year-olds) were sexually active before age 16 in congest to 25 percent of child less men and 32 percent of fathers living with their children.
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From page 156... ...
Furthermore, both mothers and fathers expected toilet training to be accomplished by 24 weeks, and fathers expected obedience training and recognition of wrong-doing to be achieved by 26 and 40 weeks respectively. In combination with the fathers' unrealistic expectations concerning how frequently infants cry, it is not surprising that de Lissovoy noted a frequent occurrence of physical discipline being used by the fathers in that sample.
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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 deficiencies.
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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... ...
fathers whose female partners are also adult. Previous research (Nakashima and Camp, 1984 ~ suggest that older fathers paired with adolescent mothers are more similar to adolescent fathers than to o lder men pa ired with older women.
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From page 160... ...
Just as the quantity and quality of nonadolescent father-infant interaction is related to the social development of infants, there is some preliminary evidence suggesting that the involvement of adolescent fathers with their children facilitates their child's social development in the preschool years (Furstenberg, 1976~. In a follow-up study of adolescent parents, Furstenberg compared the social adjustment of preschool children of adolescent parents who had married and therefore had regular father contact, with children of mothers who remained single.
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From page 161... ...
The focus of the study was on the extent to which children share their fathers' name, these investigators found a clear relationship between naming patterns and paternal involvement in families of never married fathers. When children bore their father's name, they were much more likely to have regular contact with their fathers and to receive economic assistance from them.
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From page 162... ...
Marriage influenced payment patterns, with fathers who were never married being less likely to make child support payments. Over 60 percent of separated or divorced absent fathers reported making child support payments, as compared to only 32 percent of the never married group.
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From page 163... ...
of 272 adolescent mothers and their partners, only 33 percent of the women and 44 percent of the men identified their partners as one of two sources of emotional support -- 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 the father as a support figure was only 25 percent.
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From page 164... ...
A follow-up study of these mothers, the fathers or the males currently involved with the mothers and the health behavioral characteristics of the children at age two was executed. Only 9.5 percent of the adolescent mothers initially assessed as at risk were officially reported to have abused their child by two years of age.
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From page 165... ...
Women who married someone other than the child's father appeared to encounter more difficulty in managing motherhood. In comparison to those who married the father of the child, the adolescent mothers who married other men were less confident 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... ...
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 social or educational trajectories. In view of this distinction, it is necessary to keep separate in our discussion, males who do and do not accept the social and economic responsibilities associated with early fatherhood.
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From page 167... ...
Of 18-20 year-olds with no children in 1979, only 12 percent of the mena who remained childless by 1983 were school drop-outs in contrast to 40 percent of the men who became absent fathers and 23 percent of men who became fathers living with their
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From page 168... ...
However, 11 years after high school when the two groups were 29 years old, there were no differences. Early fathering was related to early entry into the labor force, but was unrelated to any long-term rate of labor force participatione Eleven years after high school, adolescent fathers were overrepresented in the blue collar job categories, and underrepresented in the professions, reflecting their divergent educational attainment.
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From page 169... ...
The determinants of living arrangements and type of contact between adolescent fathers and their partners and children are poorly understood. It 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.
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From page 170... ...
By comparing 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. 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 significant 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, 19851.
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From page 172... ...
Second, 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. Evaluations should include fathers alone with their infants as well as observations in the family context of mother, father, and infant.
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From page 173... ...
It is important to recognize the wide diversity of forms that adolescent father involvement assumes, from married and live-in arrangements to infrequent visitor and/or financial contributor (Sullivan, 1985~; in turn, programs need to be sensitively gauged to meet the variety of definitions that fatherhood assumes among this population. In summary, by increasing 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 intervention programs and policies.
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