Reproduction: the Canadian family in transition

Three trends suggest that the reproductive function of the Canadian family is in transition. First, fertility has fallen and remained below the replacement level. Secondly, an increasing proportion of women are spending a larger part of their lives without having any children. Finally, an increasing proportion of women are having children without getting married.

Circular on early marriage, March 1988

This Circular calls on government at all levels in Hunan, China, to summon the departments concerned thoroughly to investigate the problem of early child-bearing so that they can do a good job in managing the problems of unregistered cohabiting and of unmarried mothers. The Circular recommends that: "It is necessary to criticize and educate, and even punish by discipline, those parents who connive with their sons and daughters in practicing unregistered cohabiting." It also states the following: "It is necessary to keep a strict check on registry personnel who do not carry out their duties properly. Those who violate laws and discipline, engage in malpractices for selfish ends, and practice bribery and corruption, resulting in early marriage and child-bearing, must be dealt with strictly. Legal sanctions must be enforced against those who break the law."

Adolescent pregnancy: the perspective of the sisterhood of black single mothers

The Sisterhood of Black Single Mothers Inc. (The Sisterhood) is an organization which exemplifies the considerable potential of community members united for a common good. The Sisterhood began eleven years ago under the leadership of Ms. Daphne Busby. The objective of the Sisterhood is "salvation of a generation subject to insensitivity and misunderstanding--through helping families, especially those headed by women and adolescent women--to establish a new and positive mind set." The Sisterhood regards individuals and social phenomenon as parts of a complex and dynamic whole and uses a positive approach to assessment of situations. Therefore, adolescents who come to the Sisterhood already parents, as well as those who may become parents in their formative years, are provided programming appropriate to their overall needs. They are given opportunities for help in such areas as: securing medical care, public assistance, counseling, housing and financial assistance. Outreach to other significant persons in the life of these adolescents includes intervention with the service providers with whom they come in contact (doctors, teachers, social workers etc.). In addition to addressing the practical needs of adolescents who come to the Sisterhood, positive examples of healthy ways of relating to others and presentation of a system of values consonant with self and family development are provided. Examples are: the Youth Awareness Project (YAP) which deals with concerns of young people as a specific group. The program's focus is bringing young people together who are growing in positive ways and encouraging continuation of that growth.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Adolescent pregnancy: networking and the interdisciplinary approach

The networking approach to providing needed services to pregnant and parenting teenagers has numerous merits. An historical overview of the formation of the Brooklyn Teen Pregnancy Network highlights service agency need for information and resource sharing, and improved client referral systems as key factors in the genesis of the Network. The borough-wide approach and its spread as an agency model throughout New York City's other boroughs and several other northeastern cities is also attributed to its positive client impact, including: improved family communication and cooperation; early prenatal care with its concomitant improved pregnancy outcomes; financial support for teens; continued teen education; and parenting skills development. Resource information is provided regarding networks operating in the Greater New York metropolitan area. A planned Eastern Regional network initiative is under development.

Project Redirection: evaluation of a comprehensive program for disadvantaged teenage mothers

An evaluation of Project Redirection, a two-year demonstration program designed to help pregnant teenagers and teenage mothers, shows that teenagers from a comparison group, who were not enrolled in the demonstration program, were significantly more likely than project participants to experience a repeat pregnancy after one year, but that after two years the difference was small and nonsignificant. Likewise, at 12 months into the program, the project participants proved more likely to be using contraceptives, but by 24 months the comparison group had caught up. After one year of participation, the project teenagers were more likely than the others either to be in school or to have graduated (56 and 49 percent, respectively). However, this differential also disappeared by 24 months. Nonetheless, even at that point, project teenagers who had dropped out prior to joining the program and those who had had a repeat pregnancy were more likely to be in school or to have completed school than were similar comparison teens. Project teenagers also were somewhat more likely to have held a job during the two-year period than were teenagers not enrolled in the program. All in all, the evaluation demonstrated that teenagers who participated in the project and remained in it for more than a year had consistently better outcomes in education, employment and repeat pregnancy than any other group had. Comparison teenagers who had never participated in any special program for pregnant teenagers, on the other hand, demonstrated consistently poorer outcomes than any other group.

A curriculum for adolescent mothers: an evaluation

One hundred and four indigent, pregnant adolescents were selected to evaluate the effect of a prenatal education curriculum presented in a maternity clinic. Adolescent mothers were visited 6 months postpartum to test which short-term, intermediate, and long-term curriculum content items were accurately and effectively retained. Success of the curriculum was evaluated by a trained social worker in the girls' home to ascertain how these content areas were reflected in the adolescent mother's behavior. Short-term matter-child health-care compliance content showed a high degree of success. Intermediate child-rearing content techniques often did not lead to appropriate behavior six months after the baby was born. Long-term educational and vocational performance content did not demonstrate effective long-term retention. Technical aspects of child-rearing, even when deliberately presented by health educators, did not appear to be easily applied in the extended family setting, and long-term goals seemed inconsistent with the adolescent's behavior.

The need for prenatal care in the United States: evidence from the 1980 National Natality Survey

Seventy-eight percent of U.S. mothers begin prenatal care during the first three months of pregnancy; 18 percent wait until the second three months; and five percent wait until the third trimester or receive no care at all. Patterns of prenatal care vary widely among population subgroups: Mothers younger than 18 and unmarried mothers are the least likely to obtain first-trimester care (49 percent and 56 percent, respectively), and the most likely to obtain care only in the third trimester or none at all (about 12 percent of each group). Women aged 18-19, blacks, Hispanics, poor women and women with little education also have disproportionately high levels of very late or no care (7-9 percent). Married, white, nonpoor women, in contrast, obtain the most timely prenatal care: In 1980, only two percent initiated care in the third trimester or received no care. Compared with this subgroup of women, the population as a whole has two times the risk of obtaining inadequate care. Unmarried women run the highest relative risk (five times the risk for married, white, nonpoor women), followed by teenagers, Hispanic women, women with little education, poor women and blacks (who have from three to more than four times the risk of the comparison group).

Non-marital pregnancies in New Zealand since the Second World War

Shortcomings of the illegitimacy ratio as an index of the level of non-marital childbearing in New Zealand are exposed. Trends in the level of bridal pregnancy are analysed in terms of changes in age-specific probabilities of conceiving a child outside marriage, of ‘regularizing’ such a pregnancy before confinement, and of marrying when non-pregnant. Finally, trends in childbearing resulting from non-marital pregnancies are examined using an index which allows all relevant pregnancies to be related to a single population at risk, and which can be partitioned according to the eventual status of confinements as marital or non-marital. A substantial decline in such childbearing during the 1970s is established and attributed mainly to greater use of abortion. Marital births resulting from non-marital conceptions declined especially sharply.

Teenage childbearing and welfare: preventive and ameliorative strategies

The results of seven computer simulations suggest that strategies to prevent teenage childbearing may be more effective in reducing the number of young women who require welfare assistance than are strategies to improve the circumstances of teenagers who have already given birth. The first simulation constitutes a baseline projection, in which current levels and patterns of adolescent childbearing are assumed to continue to 1990. Three "preventive" simulations assume that no births or fewer births occur among teenagers during the projection period; and three "ameliorative" simulations assume that changes occur in the completed family size, marriage rate and educational attainment of teenage childbearers. Compared with the baseline projection, the three preventive strategies are estimated to reduce by 22-48 percent the number of adolescent childbearers who, as 20-24-year-olds in 1990, will be receiving welfare payments; the three ameliorative strategies cause only a 6-12 percent drop. The strategy with the least impact is the education scenario, in which adolescent mothers are assumed to be no more likely to drop out of school than are other comparable teenagers. The primary reason for the surprisingly small effect appears to be the relatively low earnings of women--even when they are high school graduates. All of the experimental scenarios tested, however, bring about at least some reduction in projected government spending for the three major public assistance programs considered (Aid to Families with Dependent Children, Medicaid and Food Stamps).

Attitude to child-bearing by single Nigerian women

The author examines attitudes toward childbearing by unmarried Nigerian women using data from interviews with a sample of 212 male and female residents of Ibadan, Nigeria, chosen in order to examine the views of educated Nigerians. The respondents were, for the most part, Yorubas, married, and aged 20-40. "In general, the respondents supported the suggestion that women who are unmarried should try and have children of their own, but they are opposed to the suggestion that such women should have as many children as possible, either from the same man or from different men of their choice." The author suggests that "one significant implication of the survey is that the general fertility rate (that is the annual number of births per 1,000 women of reproductive age) may be very high in developing areas not only because married women produce children, but also because women of childbearing ages who are single [are] also encouraged to have children of their own."