Longitudinal studies of effects of divorce on children in Great Britain and the United States.

National, longitudinal surveys from Great Britain and the United States were used to investigate the effects of divorce on children. In both studies, a subsample of children who were in two-parent families during the initial interview (at age 7 in the British data and at ages 7 to 11 in the U.S. data) were followed through the next interview (at age 11 and ages 11 to 16, respectively). At both time points in the British data, parents and teachers independently rated the children's behavior problems, and the children were given reading and mathematics achievement tests. At both time points in the U.S. data, parents rated the children's behavior problems. Children whose parents divorced or separated between the two time points were compared to children whose families remained intact. For boys, the apparent effect of separation or divorce on behavior problems and achievement at the later time point was sharply reduced by considering behavior problems, achievement levels, and family difficulties that were present at the earlier time point, before any of the families had broken up. For girls, the reduction in the apparent effect of divorce occurred to a lesser but still noticeable extent once preexisting conditions were considered.

Adolescent sexual behavior.

What is known about adolescent sexual behavior is reviewed. First, the onset of sexual behavior in the teenage years is considered as a function of cohort, gender, and ethnic differences. Omissions in the research on sexual behavior other than intercourse are highlighted. Possible biological, social, and social cognitive processes underlying teenage sexual behavior are then considered. Next, demographic trends in the use of contraceptives and antecedents of regular birth control use are reviewed. Finally, some of the successful program initiatives directed toward altering sexual and contraceptive practices are discussed, keeping in mind the importance and relative lack of well-designed and carefully evaluated programs.

Teenaged pregnancy and childbearing.

This article reviews recent evidence on the changing patterns of childbearing among adolescents and the impact of premature parenthood on the life course of young mothers and their children. Although adolescent mothers experience conspicuous disadvantages in educational attainment and economic well-being, over time the differences between early and later childbearing appear to diminish somewhat, at least for Blacks. The children of teenage mothers, however, are distinctly worse off throughout childhood than the offspring of older child-bearers. The reasons for this disparity are explored. The concluding section discusses a range of preventive and ameliorative strategies for reducing the cost of early child-bearing. The evidence supports the need for more integration among services and the importance of increasing the availability of services to those in need.

Television viewing and early initiation of sexual intercourse: is there a link?

Using data from the National Survey of Children, this paper examines the hypothesis that the amount of time children spend viewing television and the extent to which the content viewed is sexual in nature is related to the initiation of sexual activity. Several theories that would lead to this hypothesis are reviewed. The data do not provide any strong or consistent evidence for such links. However, some aspects of the context in which television is viewed are related to sexual activity. The authors suggest ways in which the design and measures could be strengthened to provide a more rigorous test of the hypothesis.

Race differences in teenage sexuality, pregnancy, and adolescent childbearing.

This article has examined the origin and consequences of racial differences in teen sexuality, pregnancy, and childbearing. Black/white differences in rates of early and out-of-wedlock childbearing have been declining in the past several decades though the incidence of nonmartial fertility among younger teens is still about five times as high for blacks as for whites. Early sexual behavior, irregular use of contraception, and a much lower probability of marrying prior to having a birth all contribute to the racial differential. Evidence suggests that both normative and socioeconomic differences may account for these demographic patterns. Black teens show markedly higher tolerance for childbearing before marriage. They also express much greater reservations about the viability of marriage, especially at an early age, than do whites. These views may affect their willingness to risk early pregnancy and initiate intercourse at an early age. Several types of interventions that might reduce black/white differences in teen childbearing were reviewed. The most promising of these involved simultaneously strengthening the community sanctions that discourage early parenthood while expanding social opportunities. Presently, poor, especially poor minority youth, may feel that they have little to lose by entering parenthood prematurely. Unless we are able to persuade these youth that they have a larger stake in the future, we are unlikely to see a dramatic decline in the incidence of early childbearing among blacks. This does not necessarily mean that racial differences are destined to persist. Increasingly, white youth are subject to many of the same conditions that have produced high rates of early and out-of-wedlock childbearing among blacks. Thus, racial differences may decline not because the situation of blacks is improving but because white youth are less willing to defer sexual activity or less able to marry when pregnancy occurs. This may at least change the perception of early childbearing as a "black" problem. Whatever else it is, teenage childbearing represents the inability of our society to manage the transition to adulthood effectively. This ineptitude appears to be, to a growing extent, colorblind.

When will teenage childbearing become a problem? The implications of western experience for developing countries.

This article reflects on the process that leads to perceptions of teenage childbearing as a social problem and examines whether that process will occur in developing countries as it has in the United States. In postindustrial Western economies, family and adult control over young peoples' sexual behavior has loosened, while marriage rates have declined. In the United States, nonmarital births to adolescents, particularly among poor minorities who have few opportunities and reasons to delay childbearing, have become a cause for public concern. However, the economic, educational, and nuptial changes that have occurred in other postindustrial countries have not necessarily led to fertility problems among teenagers, because of a greater willingness to acknowledge their sexual activity and to provide the resources to prevent their childbearing. Although developing nations may undergo changes that result in more schooling and greater autonomy for adolescents, whether nonmarital births will come to constitute a problem will depend on many different factors; the United States provides an example of the conditions they may wish to avoid.

History and current status of divorce in the United States.

This article explores the remarkable shift in marriage and divorce practices that has occurred in the last third of this century in the United States. Initially, information is presented on trends in divorce and remarriage; commonalities and differences between family patterns in the United States and in other industrialized nations are discussed. The author then identifies some of the factors that have transformed marriage practices in the United States and describes how changes in these practices have altered the family experiences of children. Finally, the author suggests trends in family patterns that might occur in the near future and discusses various policy initiatives and how they may influence the future of the family.

The social consequences of teenage parenthood.

The adolescent mothers consistently experienced great difficulty in realizing their life plans, when compared with their classmates who did not become pregnant premaritally in their early teens. Marital instability, school disruption, economic problems, and difficulty in family size regulation and child-rearing were some of the complications brought on by their premature, unscheduled childbearing.

PIP: The findings of a 6-year Baltimore study of 400 adolescent mothers are discussed. Interviews were conducted between 1966-1968 with 404 pregnant adolescents under age 18 who registered at the prenatal clinic of Baltimore's Sinai Hospital and with 350 mothers of the teenagers. 3 subsequent interviews were conducted: 1 year after the child was born, in 1970, and in 1972. 301 classmates of the adolescent mohers were interviewed in 1970, and again in 1972 as a control group. All of the young mothers had started having sexual intercourse by early or midteens; there was a lack of advance commitment to becoming pregnant. Most of the adolescents had some limited knowledge of birth control, but they were most aware of those forms of birth control to which they had least access. 37% of the sample had some experience with condoms. If the mother had counseled her daughter to use a specific method, the girl was more likely to have had some contraceptive experience. 3% of the sample were married at time of conception, but nearly 20% were wed by 1st visit to clinic. If the father held a full-time job marriage was more likely to occur during the prenatal period. A year after the birth of the 1st child 80% hoped to wait 3 years before becoming pregnant again, but only 1/2 realized this goal. Those who returned to school were less likely to experience a 2nd pregnancy in the 12-month period after the birth. 88% of the young mothers practiced contraception during the year after the 1st child was born, but by the 5-year follow-up only 1/5 had used contraception during the entire study. The common reason for terminating use was problems that arose with the method of contraception chosen. Sex education, family planning programs, and abortion counseling and services can be effective preventive measures.

Coming of age in the era of AIDS: puberty, sexuality, and contraception.

The existing discrepancies between adolescent and societal constructions of teenage sexuality in America are further exacerbated by AIDS. Male and female teenagers receive different and often conflicting messages about sexuality from diverse sources; their parents' lack of frankness about sexual intercourse contrasts sharply with the media's emphasis on sex and with highly rationalistic discussions about sexuality in schools, complicating adolescents' decisions about entering and continuing sexual relationships. Survey research indicates that not all teenagers engaging in sexual intercourse reduce risks of HIV infection as much as they might. While AIDS has prompted many teenagers to change their sexual behavior, serious questions remain about adolescents' conceptions of the dangers of unprotected sex.

PIP: As young people enter their reproductive age, society will invariably try to control their sexual behavior. Contemporary attempts to control sexual behavior have been couched in terms of the negative effects of childbearing on teenagers. It is the contention of the authors that this ignores several very important facts such as: the teenager's own experience, perceptions, and social setting. The authors maintain that very little is known about how teenagers develop their sexuality; how they perceive and deal with the emergence of sexual desire, how they receive and process information about sexuality; how they negotiate sexual relationships; and how sexual development relates to other forms of development such as establishing satisfying relationships with members of the same and opposite sex. Another negative side effect to societal message that is only concerned with the individual costs of pregnancy is the ignorance of sexually transmitted diseases, all the more important with the emergence of the AIDS virus. No studies have been done that consider teenagers perception of AIDS or its effect on their sexual or psychological development. Discussions of all these issues are put forward in this work although the primary focus is on AIDS and its effects of teenage development. The study concludes that knowledge is simply not enough to alter the behavior of teenagers. This is attributed to 3 factors: the construction of teenage sexuality; the decision making and negotiation process involved in entering and continuing a sexual relationship, and the perceived costs of sex with out condoms.

Factors associated with adolescent use of family planning clinics.

Clinic records were reviewed for a sample of 498 adolescent family planning clients to document clinic use patterns. For a subsample of 359 adolescents, relationships are explored between clinic use and contraceptive use, demographic characteristics, social relationships, and contraceptive attitudes. The average adolescent was observed for 15 months and made 3.5 visits to the clinic. Twenty-two per cent of the adolescents never returned after an initial visit. Revisits tended to occur in three-month intervals. In the first six months, the probability of making the first revisit was .70; the probability of a second revisit was .45. Adolescents whose visit patterns deviated from the routine clinic protocols were more likely to be inconsistent contraceptive users. The single significant correlate of regular clinic use was the adolescents' satisfaction with their contraceptive methods. Service providers should ensure that adolescents select a suitable contraceptive method and closely follow adolescents whose clinic use patterns deviate from standard protocols.

Adolescent mothers and their children in later life.

The popular belief that early childbearing almost certainly leads to school dropout, subsequent unwanted births and economic dependence is greatly oversimplified, if not seriously distorted: A longitudinal study of over 300 primarily urban black women who gave birth as adolescents in the middle to late 1960s shows that a substantial majority completed high school, found regular employment and, even if they had at some point been on welfare, eventually managed to escape dependence on public assistance. Relatively few ended up with large families; most had fewer births than they had wanted or expected at the time they first became pregnant. The study also found that the pathways to success were surprisingly diverse. Although young women who gave birth at an early age were disadvantaged when compared with their peers who bore children later, huge variability existed. Teenage childbearing lowered the women's likelihood of economic success and increased their likelihood of having a large family. However, the women who had more economically secure and better-educated parents were more likely to succeed--perhaps as a result of receiving a greater amount of direct aid and having other family resources available. In addition, differences in educational motivation and performance were especially important factors. Young mothers who had been doing well in school and who had had high educational aspirations at the time of their first birth were much more likely than others to be successful later. Additional births at young ages also constrained the mothers' ability to attend school and accrue job experience. Women who had more children in the five years after their first birth did less well in school, had lower aspirations and came from more disadvantaged families than did women who curtailed their fertility. However, even when such factors were controlled for, subsequent fertility lowered the chances of economic success in later life. Changes in the mothers' life courses affected some aspect of their children's behavior at all ages, but there was no simple or recurring pattern of influence. For example, a mother's welfare receipt was associated with behavior problems in her child during the preschool years, but not later on. In contrast, the mother's marital status was not related to behavior problems during the preschool period but was clearly related to such problems during the child's adolescence.

Paternal involvement with adolescents in intact families: the influence of fathers over the life course.

We measure the quality and quantity of fathers' involvement with adolescent children in intact families over time using longitudinal data from The National Survey of Children. We examine differentials in fathers' involvement by children's and family characteristics and model the long-term effects of fathers' involvement on children's outcomes in the transition to adulthood. Fathers are more involved with sons than with daughters and they disengage from adolescents with increasing marital conflict. We find beneficial effects for children of father's involvement in three domains: educational and economic attainment, delinquent behavior, and psychological well-being. The course of affective relations throughout adolescence also has a beneficial effect on delinquent behavior and psychological well-being.

The children of teenage mothers: patterns of early childbearing in two generations.

Twenty years after a mostly black group of Baltimore women became adolescent mothers, the majority of their first-born children had not become adolescent parents, a finding that challenges the popular belief that the offspring of teenage mothers are themselves destined to become adolescent parents. Almost all of the offspring had had intercourse by age 19. About half of the young women had experienced a pregnancy before that age, and approximately one-third of the young men reported having impregnated a partner before age 19. The Baltimore youths were just as likely to have had a live birth before age 19 as were the children of teenage mothers in a national sample of urban blacks, and both of these groups were more likely to have done so than were the children of older mothers in the national sample. In the Baltimore sample, maternal welfare experience only increased a daughter's likelihood of early childbearing if welfare was received during her teenage years. Within the Baltimore sample, a direct comparison of the daughters who became adolescent mothers with their own mothers at a comparable age reveals that the daughters have bleaker educational and financial prospects than their mothers had, and are less likely to ever have married. These results suggest that today's teenage parents may be less likely than were previous cohorts of adolescent mothers to overcome the handicaps of early childbearing. This trend could portend the growth of an urban underclass, even though only a minority of the offspring of teenage mothers go on to become adolescent parents.

Sex education and sexual experience among adolescents.

This paper examines the association between sex education and adolescent sexual behavior. Data from the 1981 National Survey of Children show that 15- and 16-year-olds who have been exposed to sex education are less likely to be sexually experienced, and are neither more nor less likely to discuss sex with parents at home. Retrospective or longitudinal data are needed to more directly test the casual link between sex education and experience.

Environmental differences within the family and adjustment differences within pairs of adolescent siblings.

To what extent do siblings in the same family experience different parental treatment, sibling interaction, and peer relationships? Are such within-family experiential differences related to differences in the siblings' emotional adjustment? The present study explored these questions concerning within-family environment using data from 348 families that each included 2 siblings 11-17 years of age. The results indicate that siblings in the same family experience different environments, as reported by parents and to a larger extent by the siblings themselves. The results also demonstrate that within-family environmental differences are related to differences in development between siblings. Both the parent and sibling reports of the environment converge on the finding that the sibling who is more psychologically well adjusted (as reported by parents, siblings, and teachers) also experiences more maternal closeness, more sibling friendliness, more peer friendliness, more say in family decision making, and more parental chore expectations as compared to the other sibling.

Reevaluating the costs of teenage childbearing.

Teenage childbearing in the United States has long been regarded as an important social problem with substantial costs to teen mothers and their children. Recently, however, several researchers have argued that the apparent negative effects of teenage childbearing primarily reflect unmeasured family background rather than the true consequences of a teen birth. To distinguish the effect of teen childbearing from that of family background, we use data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics and compare teen mothers with their sisters. We find that accounting for unobserved family background reduces, but does not eliminate, the estimated consequences of early childbearing. Statistically significant and quantitatively important effects of teen parenthood remain for high school graduation, family size, and economic well-being.

Early warning signs of functional illiteracy: predictors in childhood and adolescence.

Early childhood, middle childhood, and early adolescence determinants of functional literacy in adulthood are investigated, using 20-year longitudinal data from a sample of black children of teenaged mothers from the Baltimore metropolitan area. Document literacy was assessed by a test that consisted of a subset of items of the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) adult literacy test. The Baltimore sample is compared to the NAEP sample. Family environmental factors, early childhood developmental level, and educational career factors were considered as predictors of young adulthood literacy. Preschool cognitive and behavioral functioning is highly predictive of literacy in young adulthood, even when the effects of family environmental characteristics, including living arrangements, the quality of the home environment, maternal education, and income, are controlled. Grade failure in elementary school is also associated with literacy, but this effect disappears when the measure of preschool abilities is controlled. Family environmental factors that are predictive of literacy include maternal education, family size in early childhood, maternal marital status, and income in middle childhood and early adolescence. Policy implications of these findings are discussed.