Redefining Fatherhood in Families with White Adolescent Mothers

Abstract

This study relates the experiences of a group of white adolescent mothers with some of the men who have been important to them and to their children. It examines the range and types of participation in family life of different groups of men and describes the mothers feelings about these contributions. Because there is no model pattern of family formation for young white mothers the study presents a range of possible relationships in order to demonstrate the variety of configurations of support that an adolescent mother may encounter. Respondents for this study were 30 primiparous Caucasian women who gave birth before their 20th birthdays and whose children were between the ages of 12 and 27 months at the time of the interview. As the rate of birth of white adolescents has declined the cultural norms that guided the young parents responses to childbearing have altered. The custom for pregnant adolescents to marry is changing. A young mother may live with her parents stepparents siblings boyfriend husband friend various combinations of the above or alone. These combinations provide a wide variety of possible males who could serve as fathers to the child. Among the children in this study all had lived in a household with a male aged 17 or older for at least 2 months at some point during their lives. Not all candidates for fatherhood live in the household. Many mothers had boyfriends each of whom was a potential new legal father to the child. One must also consider absent fathers whether they be exhusbands or biological fathers who never lived with the mother at all. 4 major groups of fathers are discussed: current husbands former boyfriends or exhusbands who are the childrens biological fathers current boyfriends (not the biological fathers) and the babies maternal grandfathers or stepgrandfathers. It becomes clear that the experiences of most children of young mothers are not with 1 father figure but with many. 19 of the children in this study had undergone a change in household-based fathers between the time of birth and the time of the interview and 6 more children could be expected to experience a change within the next 2 years. If changes in nonhousehold fathers are included the numbers are much greater. Defining fatherhood for children of white adolescent mothers is the key question needing exploration.