ABSTRACT
About 1 million teenagers in the United States—approximately 10 percent of all 15to 19-year-old women become pregnant. The Kids Having Kids research was undertaken in the context of literature describing trends in adolescent childbearing and factors that lead to or exacerbate these trends and their consequences. Among all unwed teen parents, only about 30 percent of single teen parents live with adult relatives, and less than one-third receive any financial support, including informal support, from the nonresident fathers of their children. The high poverty rates are accompanied by numerous other life-complicating factors, some caused by the poverty and some contributing to its perpetuation. Teenage parents are disproportionately concentrated in poor, often racially segregated communities characterized by inferior housing, high crime, poor schools, and limited health services. The Kids Having Kids study consists of a background study of trends in teenage and adolescent childbearing and seven coordinated studies, each focusing on a particular dimension of adolescent childbearing.
