Thomas L. Whitman - Interwoven lives: adolescent mothers and their children

Cover

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Nancy L. Galambos/Nancy A. Busch-Rossnagel, Editors

Cot Adolescent Storm and Stress: An Evaluation of the Mead-Freeman Controversy

Cohen/Cohen Life Values and Adolescent Mental Health

Seiffge-Krenke Stress, Coping, and Relationships in Adolescence

East/Felice Adolescent Pregnancy and Parenting: Findings From a Racially Diverse Sample

Bachman/Wadsworth/O'Malley/Johnston/Schulenberg Smoking, Drinking, and Drug Use in Young Adulthood: The Impacts of New Freedoms and New Responsibilities

Alsaker/Flammer The Adolescent Experience: European and American Adolescents in the 1990s

Leadbeater/Way Growing Up Fast: Transitions to Early Adulthood of Inner-City Adolescent Mothers

Call/Mortimer Arenas of Comfort in Adolescence: A Study of Adjustment in Comfort

Whitman/Borkowski/Keogh/Weed Interwoven Lives: Adolescent Mothers and Their Children

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Interwoven Lives:
Adolescent Mothers
and Their Children

Thomas L. Whitman
John G. Borkowski
Deborah A. Keogh
University of Notre Dame

Keri Weed
University of South CarolinaAiken

Foreword by Sharon Landesman Ramey

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Copyright 2001 by Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form, by photostat, microfilm, retrieval system, or any other means, without prior written permission of the publisher.

Lawrence Erlbaurn Associates, Inc., Publishers 10 Industrial Avenue Mahwah, NJ 07430

Cover design by Kathryn Houghtaling Lacey

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Interwoven Lives: adolescent mothers and their children / Thomas L. Whitman [et al.]; foreword by Sharon Landesman Ramey.
p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0805831274 (cloth: alk. paper) ISBN 0805831282 (pbk. : alk. paper)
1. Teenage mothers United States Longitudinal studies.
2. Children of teenage mothers United States Longitudinal studies. I. Whitman, Thomas L.

HQ759.4+

306.874'3 dc21 00050286

Books published by Lawrence Erlbaum Associates are printed on acid-free paper, and their bindings are chosen for strength and durability.

Printed in the United States of America

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For Kathy, Martha, Sam, and Mike

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Sharon Landesman Ramey
Civitan Center
University of Alabama at Birmingham

Interwoven Livsses is a remarkable contribution. It represents the finest type of social science inquiry: thoughtful, thorough, sensitive, and analytic. The inquiry was guided by a well reasoned conceptual framework of what parenting is all about, and especially how starting the parenting journey very youngwhen a mother is a teenager herselfcan alter the mother's life course and that of her child. The data gathered include standardized assessments of child and adult development, as well as newly developed or modified tools to tap into dimensions of key theoretical importance: knowledge of child development, parenting philosophy and style, and a parenting attitude questionnaire. Additionally, the authors share an in-depth understanding of the complexity and diversity in the lives of these young mothers and their children, building on the firsthand knowledge the competent research staff acquired about the participants in the Notre Dame Parenting Project.

The findings presented in this book serve as a strong antidote to any simplistic portrayal of the lives of teen mothers and the outcomes for their children. Without doubt, the majority of these young familiesmany perhaps too young to be familieshave deeply troubled and disrupted lives, with woefully inadequate resources to help them counter the intergenerational effects of marginal educational, economic, social, and community resources. Yet impressively, nearly one in five adolescent mothers succeeds in meeting the needs of her young child, continues to pursue her own educational and career development, and is able to establish constructive social relationships to assist her in fulfilling her accelerated role as a parent. Based on the evidence presented here, these mothers who defy the odds offer great hope and valuable insights as to what accounts for their strength, their resilience, and their optimism.