Adolescent Fathers in the United States: Their Initial Living Arrangements, Marital Experience and Educational Outcomes.

Summary

Data from a nationally representative longitudinal survey show that seven percent of young males aged 20-27 in 1984 had fathered a child while they were teenagers, more than three-quarters of them nonmaritally. One-third of those who were responsible for a nonmarital conception married within 12 months of conception, and half of all of the young men lived with their child shortly after the child's birth. Overall, young black men were more likely to have been responsible for a nonmarital first birth than were males of other racial backgrounds, and only 15 percent of black-teenagers lived with their first child, compared with 48 percent of Hispanics, 58 percent of disadvantaged whites and 77 percent of non-disadvantaged whites. Multivariate analyses indicated that only black or Hispanic youths and those who fathered a child at age 16 or younger were significantly less likely to have lived with their first child; those who were raised Catholic were more likely to have done so. Further analyses revealed that livi ng in a rural area, being relatively older at the child's birth, having been raised Catholic and having lived with both parents at age 14 were associated with an above average probability that white teenage fathers would live with their child, at least initially. However, none of the variables in the model were significant for blacks.

Teenage fathers, regardless of their marital status at conception or age at first birth, were much more likely to have been high school dropouts than were other male teenagers. Those with a maritally conceived child had a particularly high drop-out rate--almost 62 percent. Among teenage fathers responsible for a nonmaritally conceived first birth that occurred before they received their diploma or GED certificate or they left school for the last time, those living with their partner shortly after the child's birth were less likely to have completed high school by 1984 than were those not living with their-child. However, a multivariate analysis revealed that a teenage father's living with his child shortly afterbirth was not significantly related to his completion of high school, while being black was positively associated. The racial difference may mean that norms or social and familial supports are more influential for young black males in minimizing the possible deleterious effects of teenage fatherhood on schooling, while so few black males lived with their child that any assessment of this question is extremely difficult. Finally, among a subsample of young males who were 14 or 15 years of age at the time of the 1979 survey and had not yet fathered a child, those who were eventually responsible for a nonmaritally conceived first birth had not completed a lower mean grade level in 1979 than had those who did not become fathers. On the other hand, those who became teenage fathers had anticipated completing significantly fewer years of schooling, and were found to have done so by the 1984 survey.

Introduction

Concern over adolescent pregnancy and childbearing has generated a great deal of research over the past decade, (1) much of it concentrated on how adolescent pregnancy and parenthood affect young women and, to a lesser extent, their children. Because of the difficulty of sampling teenage fathers, most of the scant research that has focused on teenage fatherhood has generally been exploratory in nature and based on small, nonrepresentative samples. (2) Consequently, we do not have a clear description of the young men who are responsible for nonmaritally or maritally conceived first births, and we know virtually nothing about their decision to live with their child initially or their patterns of high school completion.

It is generally assumed that the consequences of teenage fertility are more direct and pronounced for young women than they are for young men. (3) Particularly since child-support obligations for young fathers are seldom enforced, the consequences of teenage fatherhood often are contingent upon the young man's willingness or opportunity to assume a degree of responsibility in raising his child. (4) In contemporary American society, particularly among whites, the young man's assumption of paternal responsibility generally entails making a commitment to the mother, either by marrying her or by living with her.

Young males who have fathered a child or who expect to do so must contemplate decisions concerning marriage and living arrangements that may have a wide range of consequences for father, mother and child alike. (3) Although these decisions are often quite complicated and may involve parties other than the young man and his partner (e.g., his or the young mother's parents), this article emphasizes the male's perspective. Researchers have seldom examined the young man's role in the decision-making process or how young men are affected by their assumption of the social role of father.