Stereotypes Of Teenage Mothers

different than what society’s conventional thoughts were about teenage childbearing women. Furstenberg discovered that,
The vast majority of women had incomes above the poverty line and fewer than a fifth were still on public assistance. More than three out of four had entered the labor force and were regularly employed. Although just a fourth had reached middle class, half of all the women in the study held jobs with benefits and had some cash reserves in the bank or credit cards that could be drawn upon in times of need. In short, most were hardly living up to the public stereotype of teenage mothers. (Furstenberg, 2003)
Everything Furstenberg was learning during this follow up was contradicting what society thought about teenage mothers.
Perhaps society was wrong in their conclusions of teenage mothers and their success following childbirth.
Furstenberg further looked into the education status of teen mothers.
He stated that, “A high percentage had returned to high school and graduated or received a GED; one fifth had even taken some college courses over the past decade.” (Furstenberg, 2003) In a different study completed by Jason M. Fletcher and Barbara L. Wolfe, they found that, “Of the women in our sample (who have all experienced a teen pregnancy), 68 percent receive a high school diploma and 13 percent receive a GED.” (Fletcher and Wolfe, 2009) These statistics were looking to be quite promising. However, another study which followed teenage mothers and their education achievements showed a different side of the story when the teen mothers were compared to their non-teenage mother peers. An article written by David L. Levine and Gary Painter found that, “Teen out-of-wedlock mothers had a dropout rate of 44%, 5 times the rate of other young women (9%). Among high school graduates, the young mothers’ rate of entering college by age 20 was less than half that of their peers (3% versus 76%). (Levine & Painter, 2003) When compared to their peers who did not become teenage parents, the teenage mothers faired far worse than their peers, a disappointing
result.
Furthermore, what once was considered to be “the brood sow myth”, meaning young women with a large family on welfare, was not ringing to be true.
Furstenberg found in his Baltimore study that a majority of the woman did not end up having a large family at all. Furstenberg reveals that, “Just one fifth had three or more children; all others had only one or two.” (Furstenberg 2003) This follow up of the Baltimore study was proving to be producing results that were quite contrary to what society typically believed about teenage mothers in a variety of areas.
However, although the study was proving to be evolutional in a variety of areas, the area of marriage was still somewhat turbulent. Furstenberg found that very few of the teenage mothers were able to succeed in the area of marriage. Furstenberg found that, “Only a quarter of the women who had married the father of their first child were still married to him. Although nearly three quarters of the women had eventually wed, only slightly more than a third were currently married. Successful marriages were few and far between.” (Furstenberg,
2003)
In addition to studying the lives of the teenage mothers, research has also been conducted surrounding the health and success of children that are born to teenage mothers. It was noted in an article from 2014 titled National and State Patterns of Teen Births in the United States that, “Babies born to teen mothers are at a higher risk of low birthweight and preterm delivery, which are precursors of infant morbidity and infant mortality. Finally, the vast majority of births to teen mothers (89% in 2013) are to unmarried teens, reinforcing the more limited resources and supports available for the teen mothers and their infants.” (Ventura et al., 2014) These higher rates of low birth weights, preterm delivery and infant morbidity and mortality could be due, in large part, to teenage mothers having poor health while pregnant. For example, it has been suggested that smoking during pregnancy is associated with having an increased risk of having a baby born with a low birth weight. In 2012, it was found that the rate of smoking during pregnancy to teen mothers was 11%, compared to 8.5% of mothers who were aged 20 or older. (Ventura et al., 2014) Aside from the health of the children born to teen mothers, when the children born to teenage mothers were looked at in Furstenberg’s study he found that most of the children seemed to be on track to living a successful and appropriate life. More specifically, the children seemed to be on track to achieving an education, as well as avoiding teenage childbirth themselves. (Furstenberg, 2003) The study continued to follow up with the teenage mothers and their children in the mid 1990’s, as the mothers began to experience midlife and the children began their late 20’s. For