A PREGNANT adolescent who decides not to have an abortion is faced with a difficult decision—to parent her child or relinquish it for adoption. Of the more than one million teenage girls who become pregnant each year, close to 50 percent give birth, and about 7 per cent decide to place the child for adop tion.1 The negative social, economic, and psychological outcomes confronted by adolescents who choose to parent are well-known; however, there is little infor mation regarding the experiences of adolescent mothers who decide to relin quish their children.2 As a result, preg nancy counselors, policymakers, and adolescents have little or no basis on which to evaluate the likely conse quences of relinquishment versus paren ting. In this study, the educational, demo graphic, economic, and psychological outcomes of the decision to parent or relinquish among adolescent mothers are compared. Researchers have assumed that because mothers who relinquish their children are unaffected by the same financial, emotional, and child-rearing demands associated with being an ado lescent parent, they avoid many of the long-term consequences of adolescent fertility. However, it is unreasonable to assume that the relinquishment process does not affect their subsequent behavior. Previous literature has sug gested several longand short-term con sequences from the decision to relin quish. The experience of the birth and the relinquishment process is followed by a period of grief that some researchers have suggested may affect behavior re garding education, marriage, fertility, and economics, as well as psychological well-being. Conversely, some pregnan cy counselors believe that a decision to relinquish a child may have numerous positive psychological effects, including a lasting ' 'maturing' ' effect and positive impacts on aspiration, achievement, and feelings of self-worth. Steven D. McLaughlin Susan E. Pearce Diane L. Manninen Linda D. Winges