ABSTRACT
School-age parenthood is considered a high-risk factor for the development of the teenager’s offspring as well as for her own socioeconomic condition. The effects of teenager parenthood may vary, however, as a function of cultural variation in child-rearing attitudes, variable family support systems, and whether or not the teenage mother is the primary caregiver of the child. Most of the research on the effects of school-age parenthood has compared infants and children who were born to teenage mothers versus adult mothers of the same ethnic group and socioeconomic status. This literature generally suggests a number of developmental problems for the offspring of school-age mothers and some undesirable socioeconomic consequences for the mothers themselves. Child-rearing attitudes and practices are notably different between Hispanic and black mothers and between different Hispanic mothers such as Puerto Ricans and Cubans. The relative effects of being reared by a school-age mother versus being cared for by someone else are unknown.
