ABSTRACT
Because the birth rates among most adolescents in the United States, except those under 15, have steadily declined in the past decade, there may be a tendency for policymakers to minimize the extent of teen parenthood as a serious social problem. The trend in birth rates are, however, misleading. Despite a reduction in birth rates since the early 1990s, the number of children born to adolescent mothers remains extremely high, more than 400,000 per year. The birth rates among mothers in the United States also stand in striking contrast to much lower birth rates to adolescents in most other industrialized nations (Coley & Chase-Lansdale, 1998). These demographic data are particularly troubling because U.S. adolescent mothers and their children are at significant risk for developmental problems. In the majority of the adolescent mother-child dyads (82%) in the Notre Dame Parenting Project, one (33%) or both (49%) members showed signs of maladjustment during the early stages of parenthood and/or childhood. Only 18% of the dyads had mothers and children both of whom were functioning reasonably well when the child was five years of age. Based on the overall pattern of developmental data presented in this book, it should be apparent that intervention programs for adolescent parents and their children need to be a high priority for local community, state, and federal policymakers.
