Transcript School Dropout among Teen Mothers and Fathers

Colorado Teen Parents Talk about the
Resources They Have, Want, and Need
Stefanie Mollborn, Ph.D.
Janet Jacobs, Ph.D.
Devon Thacker, M.A.
Department of Sociology
Institute of Behavioral Science
University of Colorado at Boulder
Acknowledgements
Collaborators:
Leith Lombas and Nicole Moore
 Funding:
CU-Boulder Innovative Grant Program
 Thanks to our research sites and
participants

Colorado Teen Parent Study
Areas of Inquiry:
 Experiences with being a teen parent
 Differences in these experiences by gender
 People’s reactions to the pregnancy and the
consequences of these reactions
 Relationships with partners and family
 Resources available to teen parents and who
helps them
 Implications of these resources for teen moms
and dads and their children
Colorado Teen Parent Study
Data & Methods:
 76 semi-structured in-depth interviews
 Participants were dads and moms who had their first child
by age 20
Two Denver research sites
a school for pregnant and parenting girls, dads program
a medical clinic for young parents and their children
Interviews included opportunities for teens to bring up
ideas of their own
Participants' Gender
Female
Male
Participants' Racial/Ethnic Group
Latinos/a
Native American
African American
Multiple Categories
White
Middle Eastern
Participants' Relationship Status
Married/Engaged
Cohabiting
In a Relationship
Dating
Single
We think the experience of teenage
parenthood is changing in important
and problematic ways.
What researchers know from the past
Disadvantaged teens are much more
likely to become teen parents
 Most teen parents and their families
remain disadvantaged after the birth
 On average, the experience of early
childbearing only slightly worsens parents’
and children’s situations

What researchers know from the past
Disadvantaged teens are much more
likely to become teen parents
 Most teen parents and their families
remain disadvantaged after the birth
 On average, the experience of early
childbearing only slightly worsens parents’
and children’s situations

Trends
Resource implications
Govt support (-)
Need family’s help (+)
Nonmarital
teen births (+)
Key family members
available (-)
Families’
resources
(-)
Norms of family
support (same)
Norms against teen
childbearing (+)
Family resources
available (-)
Family’s willingness
to provide resources (-)
Short term Long term
Unmet
basic
needs
Worse
outcomes
Government support programs
Type
How Often Received
Helpfulness
TANF
Rarely
None
Housing
Widely sought/Rarely
received
Low
Food Stamps
Sometimes
Difficult process
WIC
Often
Some
Medicaid
Often
High
Married Hispanic mother of two:

“And housing. It’s really hard. To get housing,
you have to be homeless. It’s like, they want
you to live on the street or in your car. … You
see all these moms here. Some live with people
that they don’t even want to be with, and they
come here and ask them for housing, and they
ask, ‘Are you homeless?’ ‘No, I’m living with
these people but I want to get out of there.’
‘Well, you have to be homeless, or go to a
shelter for a month and then we’ll help you.’ You
know what I mean?
Trends
Resource implications
Govt support (-)
Need family’s help (+)
Nonmarital
teen births (+)
Key family members
available (-)
Families’
resources
(-)
Norms of family
support (same)
Norms against teen
childbearing (+)
Family resources
available (-)
Family’s willingness
to provide resources (-)
Short term Long term
Unmet
basic
needs
Worse
outcomes
Fathers’ roles
Many live with, financially support, and
help care for their children
 Many
others only provide sporadic
support
 Another substantial group received no
support from the child’s father
 Almost always, the ultimate responsibility
for the child falls on the mother

Examples
“My baby’s dad, if she needs diapers,
clothes, anything that she needs, I just tell
him and he’ll go buy it for her.” [17-yearold Hispanic mother of one]
 “If he has anything to help with, he will,
he’s very good about that. But when he
doesn’t, he can’t. There’s nothing he can
do.” [19-year-old mother]

Trends
Resource implications
Govt support (-)
Need family’s help (+)
Nonmarital
teen births (+)
Key family members
available (-)
Families’
resources
(-)
Norms of family
support (same)
Norms against teen
childbearing (+)
Family resources
available (-)
Family’s willingness
to provide resources (-)
Short term Long term
Unmet
basic
needs
Worse
outcomes
Families have less to give
Increasing income inequalities in U.S.
society
 Entry of more women into the work force
 Rising costs: child care, health care
 The brunt of economic crisis is being
borne by workers with less education

Example: “Adriana”




17-year-old Hispanic mother who lives with “a lot of
people”: 2-year-old daughter, several siblings/halfsiblings, her father, stepmother, and grandmother
Her father and grandmother provide housing and
pay the bills
Adriana does not have spending money because
“as long as I don’t need something really bad, I
don’t want to ask for it.”
Adriana worries about taxing her family’s resources
too much. Referring to her daughter’s laundry, she
said, “Her clothes are small. It doesn’t take up that
much soap.”
Trends
Resource implications
Govt support (-)
Need family’s help (+)
Nonmarital
teen births (+)
Key family members
available (-)
Families’
resources
(-)
Norms of family
support (same)
Norms against teen
childbearing (+)
Family resources
available (-)
Family’s willingness
to provide resources (-)
Short term Long term
Unmet
basic
needs
Worse
outcomes
Social norms and their consequences
Norms encouraging family support of
teens in general
 Norms discouraging teen childbearing
 Teen mothers are usually tolerated, but
definitely not socially rewarded for having
a child
 Teens who violate pregnancy norms face
mental health consequences, social
isolation

Example from Adriana

“It’s like if I was living there and I was just
by myself. I’m still under 18, so they still
have to support me. It’s [having her
daughter in the house is] just a little extra
plus.”
Married Hispanic mom of 2 at age 15
(Who isn’t helping that you thought would be
helping?)
 “His mom. And a lot of it with her, her drinking of
course, and I know that if she wouldn’t drink as
much, that she would help out. … She never
really bought my daughter anything. The most
reason that I was so upset with her was
because for my daughter’s first Christmas, she
did not buy her anything, and she bought her
other grandkids stuff. That really upset me. After
that, that’s when I moved out. … I’m like, “This
is your son’s daughter.” … [I]f we need help, I
know that we can’t call her.”
Trends
Resource implications
Govt support (-)
Need family’s help (+)
Nonmarital
teen births (+)
Key family members
available (-)
Families’
resources
(-)
Norms of family
support (same)
Norms against teen
childbearing (+)
Family resources
available (-)
Family’s willingness
to provide resources (-)
Short term Long term
Unmet
basic
needs
Worse
outcomes
Basic needs are going unmet
Especially:
 Money
 Child care
 Independent housing
 Transportation
Example from Adriana
“I can’t get TANF, I can’t get housing, I can’t get
any kind of help because I’m not 18. That’s one
of the biggest obstacles ever, ‘cause if I could
live closer to the school in some of the housing
places, it would be way easier to get to school.
If I come to school on the bus, ‘cause I don’t
have a car right now, I have to catch four buses
to get to school.”
(So you’re on the bus almost two hours?)
…continued
“Yeah. My daughter’s been at her grandma’s house
this whole week because I don’t have a car so that I
can take her to day care. And her day care is not
here, so I have to take her somewhere else and
then come here, so I would have to be at the bus
stop at, like, 5 in the morning. So she just stayed at
her grandma’s this week until I get a vehicle so that
I can take her to day care and then come to school.
But either way, I know I’m not gonna stop coming to
school, even if it means for her to stay away from
me for a little while, so that I can finish.”
The motivation to succeed is almost
always there, but supports are often
not in place to make success feasible.
Trends
Resource implications
Govt support (-)
Need family’s help (+)
Nonmarital
teen births (+)
Key family members
available (-)
Families’
resources
(-)
Norms of family
support (same)
Norms against teen
childbearing (+)
Family resources
available (-)
Family’s willingness
to provide resources (-)
Short term Long term
Unmet
basic
needs
Worse
outcomes
What lies ahead for our teen parents?
May not be able to eventually catch up to
their peers who had children later or not
at all
 Catching up gets harder to do the more
they fall behind, so early intervention is
good
 “Magic moment” for intervention and
support after the birth of the child

For our participants, the experience of
teenage parenthood is changing in
important and problematic ways.
So what can we do?
Teen parents’ suggestions
Responses to question about how they
would help teen parents and their kids if
they were in charge
 Another question asked what would help
them and their children the most

What they recommend

Schools for parenting teens are a big help
Welcoming peer environment
 Staff understand students’ life situations
 Onsite child care, other resources


Clinics for parenting teens help, too
Welcoming environment from staff
 Accessibility and cost are key factors

What they recommend
Education
 Job assistance
 Support/counseling
 Transportation
 Child care
 Housing assistance

Hispanic father of two

“I imagine that it would start by helping us
to understand the early experiences of
being a parent; how we will feel, what
problems we will have, what is normal,
and tell us how to be prepared for all of it.
And then help us economically with
money, diapers, all of that. I mean, you
have to by the crib, car seat, stroller, and
with the first it’s really hard.”
Multiracial 19-year-old mother of two

“I would have to say, the main thing would be a
support group to let young mothers know that
they’re not bein’ judged because they’re young,
because I know a lot of young girls feel like, ‘If I
try to get help, someone’s gonna judge me and
say I don’t know how to take care of a kid
because I’m so young.’ Just to let young mothers
know that there’s somebody there and they
understand where they’re coming from, to help
them get through their pregnancy, especially
young mothers who are doin’ it by theirself and
know that it’s OK, you can make it still without the
dad there.”
Simplify the process of getting help

“Like, if everything was in one place, like, it
would be much easier for them, ‘cause they
wouldn’t have to worry about getting to all these
different places. I mean, even if they would ride
the bus, it’d be too complicated. It takes, like, an
hour for every bus to get there, you have to wait
there, drive over there, come back, all that stuff.
So if everything would be in one place, that
would be much easier.” [19-year-old Latina
mother of one]
Incentives for fathers to stay

“I would try to make it to where the dads would
want to be more involved. A lot of moms do
stuff, and I know, like, how they’re into, ‘If you
come do this, we’ll help you.’ Kind of make it
incentives, but at the same time work towards
somethin’ the dad will want. Just ‘cause the
moms are like, ‘Oh, yeah, I want help, I want to
do this.’ But the dad’s like, ‘You do it and I’ll sign
the paper. You go and I’ll drop you off and come
back and pick you up,’ type thing. For them to
be
more
involved,
for
everybody.”
[22-year-old African American mother of one]
Helping moms and dads parent together

“I have never found a program that would help me
and [child’s father], help us parent together. Every
program I’ve seen always wants to split us up,
always wants him gone, and I don’t think that’s
right. And also, like, I don’t think the dads have
enough support. Everybody has gotten so set on
single moms not being able to take care of their
kids that they don’t look at families not being able to
take care of their kids, moms and dads, single
dads, anything like that. … They just look at the
moms and want to take care of the moms. I looked
so hard for a program like I’m in that would take me
and [child’s father], and there’s none.” [17-year-old
multiracial mother of two]
How do you think we can better support
parenting teens and their children?
Financial support
Child care
Housing
Transportation
Mental and physical health needs
Meeting other needs
Supporting educational and
career success
Other thoughts?