Most studies of young unmarried parents have focused on the characteristics of young mothers, the childbearing decisions by young unmarried women, and the consequences of early motherhood.¹ Relatively little has been done on young fathers. In the absence of solid information vivid images have emerged portraying the typical unwed father as a high school dropout, unemployed or working in the underground economy, having a number of children with several partners, and bearing little or no responsibility for the outcomes.²

Is this picture accurate? Do young unwed fathers differ significantly from their contemporaries in terms of family background, education, employment, criminal...

The fathers of the children of unwed teenage mothers are rightly the source of serious public concern. Their children, the mothers of their children, and society at large all have a stake in these young males’ development of stable careers and responsible behavior. Although young fathers have recently begun to attract the attention of policymakers and social service providers, little systematic knowledge has been gathered about their participation or nonparticipation in providing financial support or care for their children. Unlike young unwed mothers, who are more easily studied because they often must turn to social programs and public support, young...

Sexual relations and out-of-wedlock pregnancy among poor black inner-city adolescents is a major social problem, yet we know little and understand less about these phenomena. To be sure, many studies deal in whole or in part with the subject, and they offer valuable insights into the dynamic of sexual interaction between youths in the ghetto and other socioeconomically circumscribed settings (Rainwater 1960; Rainwater 1966, 172–216; Rainwater 1969, 129–140; Rainwater 1970; Liebow 1967; Hannerz 1969; Furstenberg 1976; Hammond and Ladner 1969, 41–51; Green 1941, 343–348; Arensberg 1937; Whyte 1943, 24–31; Williams and Kornblum 1985; Schultz 1969;...

Even though there is little supportive evidence, teenage males in the United States are typically stereotyped as being sexually very active and irresponsible. Terms such as “sexual adventurer” or “roving inseminator” have been used to describe a prototypical young male who pursues sexual conquests to demonstrate his virility and prowess (Sorensen 1973; Wattenberg 1990).¹ Although some young men undoubtedly fit this mold, a critical question is, How widespread is this behavior? This chapter looks at what is actually known about the sexual behavior of young men in the United States. Presenting information from a nationally representative survey of males ages...

After a long period of scholarly neglect, social scientists are finally beginning to pay attention to the influence of fathers on children. This new tide of interest in the role of fathers has been so strong that the standard cliché that fathers have been slighted in studies of family behavior hardly applies any longer. Recent research on teenage parenthood represents a particularly good example of the growing interest in the extent and consequences of male involvement.

Years ago Clark Vincent (1961), in a classic study of unmarried mothers, took note of the social invisibility of unmarried fathers. Vincent traced the...

While much data on child bearing trends and the characteristics of young unwed mothers exists, very little is known about young unwed fathers (Smollar and Ooms 1987). In the decades since 1960, out-of-wedlock births have increased dramatically. According to the U.S. Bureau of the Census,¹ illegitimate births in 1960 were just 5.3 percent of all births. By 1987 the proportion had risen to 24.5 percent of the 3.8 million reported live births—nearly every fourth child was being born to unmarried parents. About one-third of these 933,000 babies had teenage mothers. And since the average male sexual partner is at...

The common stereotype of the young unwed father envisions him as a somewhat shiftless, sexually irresponsible, uncaring individual with little concern for the difficulties he has created for the lives of those around him. Like all stereotypes, however, this is misleading. It is misleading not only because it is empirically false in vast numbers of cases, but also because it distorts the moral terms in which society as a community addresses the problems that accompany young unwed parenthood.

The moral distortion arises from the exclusive focus on the young unwed father’s responsibilities. If we view a person as recklessly causing...

One million teen pregnancies a year. Sixty-four percent of teen births are out-of-wedlock births. Two million teenage parents. Special school programs for parenting teens. What are the images that these phrases bring to mind? Is there a single male face—a concerned young father—among them? If not, then teenage pregnancy and parenting still remains a woman’s problem.

During the 1970s and 1980s government agencies at all levels spent hundreds of millions of dollars providing services to pregnant and parenting teenage mothers. Millions of research dollars have been spent on trying to understand how to prevent pregnancies and deliver pregnancy...

For more than a decade, legislation¹ and lega² decisions have asserted a public ethos: the legal rights of children must be protected regardless of the marital status of their parents. Despite this assertion the number of nonmarital children legally linked to their fathers is still inadequate, frustrating equal protection efforts to safeguard the interests of these children.

Why have conclusive paternity actions, the key to child support and other benefits, remained at a number inadequate to serve the interests of a growing generation of out-of-wedlock children? A search for answers to this perplexing question takes on a sense of urgency...

As recent studies have discovered rather high rates of young unwed fatherhood, researchers have begun to question the role of these fathers in their children’s lives and the conditions that hinder versus promote father involvement. One of several critical components of fathering is the provision of financial support, or the young man’s ability to perform the breadwinner role. The extent to which young unwed fathers fulfill this obligation is, by almost any available measure, far below any adequate standard.

The poor levels of economic support occur for several complex and interrelated reasons. First, these men may have few resources to...

Defaults on child support obligations exceed $4 billion annually (Horowitz 1985). Lack of child support by noncustodial fathers clearly contributes to the fact that nearly half of the children living in households headed by women are poor (Corbett 1986). Given that most teenage fathers are full-time students, unemployed, and come from low-income families, it is not surprising that their child support compliance is worse than average and that most of their child support is unpaid (Rivera-Casale, Kerman, and Manela 1984).

The poor support compliance of teenage fathers is not a trivial matter, given that between two and ten percent of...

Most teenage pregnancies are not a result of a casual sexual encounter but of a relationship between a man and young woman of at least a few months’ duration. It is important therefore to ask to what extent do health care professionals, social workers, and others reach out to include the baby’s father when they provide services to unwed pregnant teens and teen mothers? How is he involved, if at all, in decisions about the pregnancy and the care of his child? What are service providers’ views of the role and responsibilities of young fathers when they are not married...

Unwed fathers are the least significant figures in the modem abortion drama: they are treated as second-class citizens by lawmakers and judges who respect only spouses, and they are scorned by a public that prefers conception be confined to married couples. On the rare occasion when they seek an injunction to delay a contested abortion, their position may be caricatured by the media. SinceRoe v. Wade,410 U.S. 113 (1973), andDoe v. Bolton,410 U. S. 179 (1973), the man as an unwed or even a married, coinitiator of an unwelcomed pregnancy, has been relegated to the sidelines,...

This chapter will discuss the Teen Father Collaboration, a two-year national research and demonstration project and the largest study on programs for adolescent fathers to date.¹ Aspects of this collaboration have previously appeared in several publications (Klinman et al. 1985; Sander 1986; Sander and Rosen 1987).

Although research on teenage fathers appeared as early as 1967 (Pannor and Evans), over the last two decades relatively few studies on adolescent fathers have taken place compared to those on teenage mothers. Nevertheless, research on young fathers has pointed up the importance of serving these young men not only to enhance their own...

Fatherhood brings new financial responsibilities. Given the added cost of supporting a child, parents must increase their earnings or reduce their own material living standards. In principle both married and unwed fathers feel the heightened financial pressure. Married fathers living with their children see their families’ rising expenses on a daily basis. Unwed fathers living apart from their children become liable for providing child support payments, while continuing to pay for their own households.

Yet the case of unwed fathers is complicated. Although some experience the same urgency as married fathers, others feel little or no financial obligations toward their...