Book Reviews 91
students, practitionexs or scholars in social work. Available in paperback, it should be reasonably
affordable. The printing is perfect and the references immense.
Reviewed by Tapiwanashe Vengai, Glen Forest Training Centre, Harare.
Adolescent Mothers in Later Life, Frank F Furstenberge Jr., J Brooks- Gunn, and S Philip Morgan,
Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1987 (xiv +204pp, US$29,95 hbk).
Adolescent Mothers in Later Life is a longitudinal follow up study of the original Baltimore research
described in Unplanned Parenthood - the Social Consequences of Teenage Childbearing (1976, and
referred to in this publication). The original research studied between 300 - 400 mostly unmarried
teenagers, over a 5 year period, who had sought prenatal services in the mid 60's, most of whom were
black low income females in their mid teens. The groups' experiences were then compared, in areas
such as education, occupation, income, fextility, and marital decisions, with their classmates who had
delayed child bearing.
The follow up, carried out in 1983-84, looked at the life courses of over 300 families ovex three
generations, and intended to produce results useful for policy makexs and practitionexs concerned with
the issue of teenage motherhood and its role in the maintenance of an underclass in society. The study
also explores the intexconnection between a mother's life decisions and her children's 'life course
trajectories' .
While in many countries today there is increasing concexn ovex the issue of single mothexs and
school girl pregnancies, the authors point out that teenage child bearing was never uncommon in the US,
although only in the mid-twentieth century did a substantial percentage marry and have children. The
prevalence of early parenthood in 1950's, for example, was far more common than today, with nearly
half of all women marrying in their teens and aquartex having a first child before 20. Howevex, by 1970
adolescent pregnancy hadsuddenly emexged as a 'social problem' and increasingly gained wide public
concem into the 80's.
The authors see this shift in public attitudes as largely a longstanding demographic change, with
adult fextility taking a dramatic plunge (as a result of contraception, easiex legislation on abortion, etc)
not seen in teenage lIegnancy. In addition, with the ascendancy of the marriage age in the 60' s, thexe
was a grow~g number of teeIiage births to unmarried women. The shift from early to late marriage
pattexns is partly explained by changing economic opportunities, the doubling of unemployment
between the '60s and '70s, and the viability of early marriage. Highex education also began to be seen
as the vital ticket to the labour market.
Black families in particular expexienced the most dramatic change, with marriage among teenage
blacks virtually disawearing over the last two decades. Howevex, rathex than being viewed as a black
trend, this is now seen as a pace settex for the larger population with the major difference between early
child bearing in the past and present, teenage fextility, now occurring outside marriage. With early
marriage in any case failing to survive, children of teenage motbexs also have a far highex IIObability
of living in single parent families.
The original Baltimore study highlighted the struggle of early parenting both for the mothers and
children involved, with the majority of participants seemingly destined to live a life of social and
economic disadvantage. This book, however, tries hard (perhaps too hard) to disprove the stereotype of
the inevitable povexty cycle, and reliance on welfare, of teenage mother. There is, howevex, little
evidence of the "remarkable and surprising results" of the study in respect oflongstanding adaptation
to early parenthood, heralded in the inside book cover. Rather, while the stereotype may be exaggented.
the evidence found it not wholly wrong. While still well below their counterparts, many were bettex off
92 Book Reviews
today in most respects, apart from any substantial change in marital status, than they were a decade ago.
In a similar area, longitudinal studies by David (1986) in a follow up report of the history of children
born to women twice denied abortion in Czechoslovakia, and other longitudinal studies done in Sweden
and Finland, clearly show the widening differences between these and other children. Here unsupported
women faced enormous financial hardship and complex social and emotional problems, with resultant
effects on the children concerned. David's research subsequently led to changes in Czechoslovakia
policy towards first term abortions. While this book's concern is only that of the adolescent mother in
later life, both the importance of the prevention of unwanted pregnancy and the advantage of well
planned pregnancy and birth are apparent, but are barely addressed at all in this book.
While the majority of teenage mothers do not make out nearly as well as they probably would have
if parenting had been postponed, some do break out of the poverty cycle. The book correctly points out
the importance of determining what conditions, in the long term, constrain or promote successful
adaptation. The study showed that some teen mothers were able to stage a recovery in adulthood - ie
return to school after dropping out, find work after welfare dependency, curtail fertility after one or two
more births, with the life events at the time of adolescence not the only ones to affect later adjustment.
While some may have been 'late bloomers', the most dramatic routes identified in this process were
marriage and voluntary sterilisation.
However, from a policy perspective, opportunities for recovery in adulthood are seen as barely
having been tapped, with those services offered to disadvantaged mothers already making some
profound differences. Ameliorative programmes focusing on education, child care, job training and job
opportunities, both for the disadvantaged females and males (to increase the chances of stable marriage),
are seen as an important part of a much needed developmental approach. The author notes (plS3):
"The maintenance and augmentation of programmes of adult education, job training and family
planning services may be highly cost effective approaches of dealing with half of our sample who
become chronic or near chronic welfare dependents".
Where mothers can begin to overcome the disadvantages of early parenting, the study also showed
that die increasing economic independence of the mother will also have a positive effect on children of
teenage mothers, regardless of their early welfare status and negative childhood experiences. Change
occurs across the life span and results show it is never too late for effective intervention. The authors
argue for greater involvement at federal and local level, and the development of a national policy towards
teen pregnancy rather than the current piecemeal and often contradictory strategies.
With regard to our own situation, the book has relevance in its exploration of teenage pregnancy,
not as a new phenomenon but rather in relation to its changing social context and the way it is publicly
viewed. However the concern over school girl pregnancies and 'baby dumping* in the current
Zimbabwean context, means that identification of different areas for effective intervention are crucial.
Here too mis book is helpful, with its emphasis on policy formulation in the area of successful adaptation
and recovery in the mothers' later teenage and adult years. Policy makers here would also do well to
reconsider the consequences of immediate school expulsion for pregnant school girls, and often the
responsible school boy as well. The recognition of the possibilities for change at different stages of life,
rather than a predetermined inevitability, is also useful.
Reviewed by Norma Hall, Harare, Zimbabwe.