Date of Award
Fall 1981
Document Type
Dissertation - Restricted
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Department
Education
First Advisor
Ivanoff, John
Second Advisor
Taft, Thomas B.
Third Advisor
Topetzes, Nick J.
Abstract
It is held by many researchers in the field of health, education and psychology that adolescent pregnancy is a growing phenomena. Although the birth rate for women under age twenty has generally fallen in the past two decades, following the same pattern (albeit more slowly) observed for older women, the total number of children born to teenagers has declined only slightly. As a result, births to women under age twenty now comprise a higher proportion of total births than in the past, increasing from fourteen percent in 1960 to seventeen percent in 1977 (David and Balwin, 1979, p.869);. Arehart-Treichel (1978) state that four out of ten American-teens are now engaging in premarital sex as cited by the National Center for Health Statistics. One reason for this change is the much larger proportion of adolescents of childbearing age, a legacy of the baby boom after World War II. David and Baldwin (1979) indicate that two factors continue to make adolescent childbearing of special concern today - the age of the mother and her marital status...