FAMILY-LIFE AND TEENAGE PREGNANCY IN THE INNER-CITY - EXPERIENCES OF AFRICAN-AMERICAN YOUTH

This paper analyzes in-depth interviews to compare the relative plausibility of family processes versus schooling opportunities as factors associated with sex and motherhood in poor communities. The data are from life history interviews with 80 African-American women aged 15-20, conducted between 1987-90. Perceptions of family life were coded into three dimensions of emotional relationships, presence of rules in the home, and extent of stressful events. Early schooling descriptions were coded in two dimensions of personal experiences of and familial encouragement of the student role. The impact of family life and early schooling for both age of first sex and school-age motherhood is examined. The young women who delayed onset of sexual activity, and who stayed in school even as a teen mother, had more positive perceptions of being students and of receiving family encouragement and supervision. Policies and programs that target early home-school linkages, increase familial social supports, and improve access to reproductive health care would, according to these young women, reduce teen pregnancy in the inner-city.