unscheduled parenthood: transition to ‘parent’ for the teenager

JOCRNAL OF SOCIAL ISSUES

Unscheduled Parenthood: Transition to ‘Parent’ for the Teenager

Candyce S. Russell

Kansas State University

T h e unscheduled transition into parenthood for the teenager is discussed from three perspectives: 1) the transition to first-time parenthood, 2) accelerated role transitions, and 3) the crisis of adding new family members. T h e literatures of these three areas a re reviewed with special attention to variables that may be associated with progress toward personal and family goals. T h e teenager’s family of origin may both contribute to and benefit from an adaptive response to the crisis of unscheduled teenage parenthood.

Unscheduled teenage parenthood can be analyzed from at least three perspectives already developed in the family sociology literature: (1) as a special case of the “transition to parenthood” (e.g., Hobbs, 1965; 1968; Hobbs & Cole, 1976; Hobbs & Wimbish, 1977; LeMasters, 1957; Rossi, 1968; Russell, 1974); (2) as an example of accelerated role transition (e.g., Elder, 1976; Fursten- berg, 1976b & 1976c; Neugarten, 1968); and (3) as a crisis of family accession (e.g., Angell, 1936; Hill, 1949; McCubbin, Dahl & Hunter, 1976). For many teenage parents the transition also represents a “discontinuity” in the sequence of the traditional family life cycle in that the parental career is initiated very early in the individual life cycle and may not overlap with the marital career (Feldman & Feldman, 1975).

T h e first perspective has been pursued by researchers who are interested in regular and predictable changes through the family life cycle. From this point of view, the “transition into parenthood” is expected to be influenced by the accomplishment

T h e author wishes to thank Raymond R. Atilano and Hamilton I . McCubbin for their comments on an earlier draft of this paper.

Correspondence regarding this article may be addressed to Candyce S. Russell, Department of Family and Child Developmrnt, Kansas State University, Manhattan, KS 66506.

45

46 CANDYCE S. RUSSELL

of developmental tasks associated with early marriage (Duvall, 1957) and will, in turn, influence the accomplishment of subsequent family developmental tasks. Because this literature evolved with a bias toward the “normal family cycle” (which assumes marriage before parenthood), it is not totally consistent with the experience of many teenage parents and must be supplemented with research from other perspectives as well.

One of these additional perspectives comes from general sociology, that of ‘(accelerated role transitions.” This perspective shares with the family development conceptual framework an interest in changes over time, especially those surrounding the “giving up” and “taking on” of new roles. However it differs from the family development approach in that there is no assumption of “invariant sequences.” Thus, research from this perspective is not limited to married parents.

The third literature to be considered, that of family accession, addresses the reorganization necessitated by the entry of a new member into the family system, and highlights this “stressor event” as an opportunity for the family to reorganize at a higher level. Though not yet systematically investigated, this perspective leads us to wonder what factors might be associated with a teenager’s family of origin using her unscheduled parenthood experience as an opportunity for growth, especially family growth.

T h e subjective ease with which parenthood is first undertaken (as reported by new parents themselves) is associated with planned pregnancies, post-marital conception, high levels of marital satisfaction, and higher levels of family income (Hobbs, 1965; Russell, 1974). Among teenage parents the probability is that the pregnancy was premarital and unplanned, and that if a marriage subsequently takes place, the marriage will suffer heavy financial strains (Furs- tenberg, 1976a). All of this is predictive of a “crisis” response to parenthood. However there is also the possibility that the (‘crisis’’ will provide an opportunity for further personal growth and a higher level of organization in one or more of the family systems involved in the teenage parenthood experience. Furstenberg (1 976 b, 1976c) points out that while his teenage mothers, on the whole, had a more difficult time achieving their life expectations than their classmates (especially the classmates who managed to avoid premarital pregnancy), the responses to teenage parenthood were indeed varied. More importantly, a sizeable group was able to cope successfully with the problems brought on by early parenthood. For some, successful coping appeared to be related to a committed relationship with the child’s father before conception

TRANSITION TO ‘PARENT’ FOR T H E TEENAGER 47

and rapid subsequent marriage to that man. For others, successful coping was related to avoiding marriage indefinitely and pursuing further education. The extent to which the response of the teenage parent’s family of origin contributed to the new parent’s coping was not assessed, nor was the impact of the adolescent’s unscheduled transition into parenthood on his or her family of origin. This paper will highlight these two issues and hypotheses for future research about them.

The Transi t ion to First T i m e Parenthood In many cultures, becoming a parent is synonomous with

becoming an adult (e.g., Veevers, 1973). While Western-American culture does not mark this transition into adulthood as formally as some other cultures, i t is clear from the data collected in the Value of Children (VOC) project that, even in the United States, having children is associated with becoming a responsible, mature and “needed” adult, especially among those with a high school education or less (Fawcett, 1578; Hoffman, 1578). T h e transition into parenthood by the teenager must be understood within its broader cultural context. Adolescent parents are indeed a special group of parents and one of special concern to society for reasons to be discussed later. However adolescents also participate in a larger cultural context that values parenthood not only for its intrinsic rewards (those evolving from the care and nurture of children), but also for its symbolic rewards, most notably the attainment of an adult social status. T h e pioneering work of Fawcett (1973) and the Hoffmans (Hoffman & Hoffman, 1973) on the values and costs of children is clearly relevant here. Furthermore, Steinhoff (1978) makes the point that many of the premaritally pregnant women in her sample (interviewed at the time of delivery) who chose to carry the pregnancy to full term perceived parenthood not as a limitation of opportunities but as a source of direction in their lives.

T h e sociological literature on first-time parenthood in general has progressed from a focus upon stresses and strains (e.g., the “parenthood as crisis” literature beginning with LeMasters, 1957) to a more balanced assessment of the reorganization and changes accompanying the transition (e.g., Jacoby, 1969). If the period is still conceptualized as a “crisis” period, i t is at least seen as a “normal crisis” (Rapoport & Rapoport, 1564) and as one well supplied with rewards as well as problems (Russell, 1974). If we are to understand the transition to parenthood among any group,


we must acknowledge the gratification as well as the problems associated with the experience.

LeMasters (1957) pioneered the line of research on transition into parenthood using a non-probability sample of 46 urban middle class college-educated couples who had become parents for the first time during the preceeding four years. Using an unstructured interview method, the interviewer and the couple arrived at a jointly agreed-upon “crisis score.” Using this procedure, LeMasters found that 83% of his couples experienced extensive or severe problems, suggesting that for the middle class urban couple adding a child to their dyadic system constituted a crisis event. He found that crisis occurred whether the child was planned or not and whether the marriage was “good” or not. T h e parents were not overly neurotic or psychotic, yet they seemed to have romanticized ideas about babies and parenthood. Finally, LeMasters reported that in each of eight cases where the wife had professional training and had work experience, she suffered extensive or severe crisis.

Subsequent studies, using more representative samples, have reported substantially less crisis (Dyer, 1963; Hobbs, 1965, 1968; Hobbs & Cole, 1976; Hobbs & Wimbish, 1977; Russell, 1974). Yet there are indications that the more recent studies mask some of the difficulties expressed by new parents. While cohort changes do not appear to have contributed to subsequent reports of lower “crisis responses” to first time parenthood, response bias, selective responding, and age of the child at the time of responding may have influenced the lower scores in the later studies. Hobbs and Cole (1976) essentially replicated the Hobbs (1965) study of a decade earlier using the same instrument and the same sampling procedure in the same urban area. While there was little agreement with the results of the earlier study on the specific variables related to severity of crisis, the percent reporting extensive or severe crisis was very similar (0% vs. 2.3%). However, in Russell’s (1974) follow-up of nonrespondents it was clear that those who conceived premaritally were less likely to return the questionnaire. And since premarital conception is related to high “crisis” scores, it is likely that the Hobbs (1968), Russell (1974), Hobbs and Cole (1976) and Hobbs and Wimbish (1977) studies somewhat under- state the degree of “crisis” experienced by first-time parents in general. Finally, i t is possible that parents of young babies (say under a year or two) are experiencing a “honeymoon” that makes it unlikely that they will admit to negative reactions to parenthood. Feldman (1971), among others, has suggested that with a 4 or 5 year perspective, parents are more likely to honestly “own up”


to some of the problems associated with becoming a parent for the first time.

The findings relative to variables associated with ease of transition appear to be somewhat unreliable in that few have been replicated by separate studies. Nevertheless, the most frequently identified variables (having been found to be significantly related to ease of transition in at least three separate investigations) are the state of the marriage (marital adjustment or satisfaction), plannedpregnancy, and want ing more children. Interestingly enough, the variables studied have discriminated high from low “crisis” fathers more often than they have discriminated high from low “crisis” mothers. Two factors may be operating here. First, we tend to socialize males for parenthood less thoroughly than we do females. Therefore there is likely to be greater variance in response by males to questions tapping identification with the parental role, desire for more children, and preparation for parenthood. T h e narrow range of response on the part of females would make it unlikely to find statistically significant associations between those variables and any others. Second, in the past males have been socialized to be especially sensitive to features of the provider role. Thus males might answer more sensitively to items related to education, prestige, and reliance on outside help.

T h e value of children in general has been studied in depth in a large cross-national study directed by James Fawcett and Lois Hoffman. Drawing heavily upon the earlier work of Hoffman and Hoffman (1973), Fawcett (1978) identified five positive values of children to their parents. These include: 1) emotional benefits (happiness, love, companionship, fun and relief from boredom or loneliness); 2) economic benefits a n d security (including help in care of siblings, old age security); 3) sel fenrichment and development (becoming more responsible and mature, being veiwed as an adult, feelings of competence and of being needed); 4) identzfication with children (pleasure from watching children grow, pride in their accomplishments, reflections of self in children); and 5) f a r n i b cohesiveness a n d continuity (continuity of family name and tradition, children as a bond between spouses). T h e first category, “emotional benefits” were among the most important reasons for wanting children in all countries studied, especially among the well educated and among urban respondents. Though not specifically stated by Fawcett (1978), reports of other investigators would suggest that category three (self-enrichment and development) would be especially important for teenage parents (e.g., Hoffman, 1978). Parenthood may be seen as a final marker of adult status and


responsibility, especially for a teenager who is between childhood and adulthood.

I have found only one study that has systematically investigated variables related to levels of gratification perceived by first-time parents during their f irst year in that role (the so-called transition period); and even those data are severely limited for our purposes since no illegitimate births were included in the sample (Russell, 1974). Of particular interest is the finding that education is negatively related to perceived gratification for both men and women, as is occupational prestige for men. It is possible that with more education people discover alternative routes to self-ful- fillment. Their “comparison level for alternatives” (Thibaut & Kelley, 1967) rises, which may make the rewards of parenthood seem less by comparison. While not directly tested on Russell’s Minneapolis sample, it is possible that teenage parents (because they often have a high school education or less and occupy jobs of relatively low prestige) are especially sensitive to the rewards of first time parenthood.

T h e data also suggest that the woman’s age and the timing of the birth within her marital career may be related to her perceived level of gratification in the parental role. Though this sample does not include illegitimate births, an analysis of first-order partial tables revealed an interaction effect between length of marriage and the woman’s age as related to “gratification” scores. “Gratification” scores were derived from a 12-item self report instrument developed by Russell (1974) on the basis of concepts in existing literature and interviews with parents of youngchildren. Women under 23 reported more gratification the longer they had been married whereas women 23 or older reported less gratification the longer they had been married. It may be that younger women need time to adjust to marriage and to “mature” as persons before coming to a full appreciation of parenthood, whereas the older women in this sample (possibly for reasons of stamina or patience) enjoy their infants more if they do not postpone parenthood too long after marriage. It is also possible that the older marrieds delayed having children because of ambivalent feelings about parenthood, and as such were more alert than their less ambivalent counterparts to some of the alternative gratifications they may be foregoing (e.g., careers, travel, expensive hobbies).

Unscheduled Teenage Parenthood: Accelerated Role Transition Elder and Rockwell (1976) point out that the impact of an

event on an individual’s (or a family’s) life course varies according

T R A N S I T I O N TO ‘PARENT’ FOR THE TEENAGER 51

to its synchronization with other life events and career lines. According to this perspective, stress is associated with any pattern that is at variance with the socially expected norm. T h e amount of stress varies with the social importance of the roles involved and the degree to which the transition is “off-time.” Since the role of “parent” is fundamental to every society, one would expect an unusually early transition to “parent” to be rather stressful. Teenage parents initiate sexual and parental careers early-sometimes before and sometimes altogether without the marital career. In addition, they frequently assume the parental career and simultaneously enter a career in the paid labor force before completing their educational career. This means they either forego further education or attempt a “triple-track” pattern of undertak- ing education, work, and parenthood simultaneously. Marriage may be yet another career line to add in rapid succession.

Implicit in the “developmental task” notion is the idea that later tasks are accomplished with greater ease following the successful accomplishment of earlier developmental tasks. The teenage parent is simultaneously faced with several individual (Havighurst, 1952) and family (Duvall, 1957) developmental tasks. She or he is faced with the issues of identity formation and the struggle to establish intimacy with an age-mate, at the same time that issues of generativity (Erikson, 1950) are ushered in by the unscheduled event of parenthood. Surely the struggle with each developmental task is made both richer and more difficult by the pressure of the others. While Erikson (1950) suggests that none of these issues is neatly and forever resolved for any of us, the ebb and flow is altered for the teenage parent. For him or her, the tides rise simultaneously rather than each patiently waiting its turn. Early parenthood is off schedule in terms of personal development, family development, completion of school, and economic self-support. For instance, Hogan (1978) reports that marital disruption rates are higher among men who experience a deviant ordering of life events than is true for other men. T h e problems of getting “back on course” can be managed through a variety of coping schemes that make use of both personal and family resources, including rearrangement of schedules, educational aspirations and avoidance of further ill-timed pregnancies.

Early motherhood as a form of accelerated role transition has been associated with a high incidence of marital disruption, poverty, and low educational achievement (e.g., Bacon, 1974; Baldwin, 1976; Furstenberg, 1976a, 1976b, 1976c; Tressell, 1976). T h e younger the mother, the higher the incidence of each of


these outcomes (Bacon, 1974). T h e work of Furstenberg (1976b, 1976c) has been especially helpful in identifying the life course effects of unscheduled teenage parenthood. T h e six year span of his “Baltimore Study” allowed him to compare a group of 331 adolescent mothers with 221 of their classmates. T h e adolescent mothers were more likely than their classmates to marry by age 18, and twice as likely to have that marriage break up within the first three and a half years. T h e husbands of the adolescent mothers were also more likely to have less than a high school education and to hold an unskilled job. Furstenberg’s data suggest that disruption of the courtship process and economic strains best explain the higher rates of marital disruption among the sample of teenage parents. Yet most remained legally married even after several years of separation, and few had current plans to marry again. T h e adolescent mothers also had difficulty controlling later fertility. One year after delivery over 80% wanted to wait at least three years before becoming pregnant again, yet fewer than half of them accomplished that goal. By the end of the six-year study, two-thirds of the adolescent mothers had had at least two pregnancies and nearly one-third had had three or more. Yet only one-fourth of the classmates had had more than one pregnancy. Returning to school was related to lower levels of continued fertility among the adolescent mothers. Five years after delivery, the sample of adolescent mothers was almost evenly split between those who had dropped out and those who had completed high school. After five years the comparison group of classmates had achieved almost exactly the level of education that the young mothers had expected to achieve by that time. The average teenage mother had completed approximately two years less schooling than her classmates by the five year follow-up. In general, the results established a relationship between early parenthood and disruption of schooling, economic problems, marital instability, and difficulty in regulation of family size.

Though early and unscheduled parenthood denies the young parent the training, material resources, and social support that she or he might have had if the transition to parenthood had been delayed, some are able to repair the disorder created by an ill-timed pregnancy. Furstenburg (1976b, 1976c) identified two coping strategies of adolescent mothers. One involved quickly marrying the father of the child with whom there had been a long-standing and exclusive relationship. When these marriages were successful, the life situation of the adolescent mothers closely resembled that of the classmates used for comparison. T h e second

T R A N S I T I O N TO ‘PARENT’ FOR T H E TEENAGER 53

strategy involved postponing marriage indefinitely and returning to school. When these women avoided further pregnancies and were able to find child care arrangements, the adolescent mothers were often able to achieve economic independence. Others, who remained poorly educated, unskilled, and responsible for several small children, became resigned to the limitations created by an ill-timed pregnancy.

Teenage Parenthood as a Crisis o f Family Accession Teenagers are a very special group of parents. They are

more likely than their older counterparts to be unmarried at conception and at birth, to have an unplanned pregnancy, and to be confronted with the complex decision of whether to carry the pregnancy to term, to allow the pregnancy to precipitate a marriage, to give the child up for adoption, or to assunie the role of single parent. T h e transition into parenthood for teenagers may fi t the “family crisis” conceptual model better than most other groups of first time parents. Unplanned pregnancy and conception before marriage are two of the most consistently reported correlates of perceived crisis during the transition to first-time parenthood. Furthermore, Hoffman (1978) suggests that even planned births at 16 or 1 7 may have some of the same consequences as unplanned teenage births because the parents have not had a “free” period following school that might open up new options and alter attitudes and values that could have profound effects upon life expectations and goals.

More difficult to identify and systematically study are the relationship patterns and interpersonal dynamics that may function as resources for the family that is adjusting to an unscheduled teenage transition into parenthood. We have often been guilty of studying the teenage mother in isolation (her level of education, her income, her personal locus of control, etc.), giving only minimal attention to the role she plays as a child and sibling in her family of origin and as a partner in initimate heterosexual relationships. The same can be said for the teenage father in relation to his social and kinship networks. Only recently has careful attention been given to the continuing relationship of the teenage parent to his or her child (e.g., Furstenberg, 1976b, 1976c; Russ-Eft, Sprenger & Beever, 1979). I know of no empirical data to date that relates style of family interaction (e.g., power structure, communication patterns, etc.) to the outcome of unscheduled teenage parenthood, either as measured subjectively by the new parents and grandparents or as measured more objectively by


the later economic or educational achievement of the teenage parent. Lack of such studies has had the consequence of obscuring from our view some potential impediments, as well as some potential aids, to dealing successfully with unscheduled teenage parenthood. Such an interactional perspective might be especially helpful to the social worker or family specialist working directly with individual families who are trying to cope with such a crisis of accession.

Unscheduled Parenthood as an Opportunity f o r Growth T h e literature reviewed in previous sections of this paper

lies primarily within sociology, which studies the family as a unit of the larger society (e.g., structural functionalism) or as a “unity of interacting personalities” (e.g., symbolic interaction) often going through predictable changes in a “family career” (e.g., a family development approach). There is also a body of literature, developed primarily by family therapists around the theme of comparing clinic with non-clinic families, frequently through direct observation of family interaction. T h e initial goal of that viewpoint was to understand how families who seek treatment might be more expertly helped. More recently there has been a growing interest in understanding the interaction of “optimally functioning” families-families which cope well with both situational and developmental stress. In the final section of this paper, insights from this more clinical family perspective will be used to speculate on how the crisis of accession brought on by the unscheduled transition of a teenager into parenthood might be used to strengthen the coping skills of those families of origin.

This discussion will be organized around the Circumplex Model of Family Systems as presented by Olson, and colleagues (Olson, Russell & Sprenkle, 1980; Olson, Sprenkle & Russell, 1979; Russell, 1979; Sprenkle & Olson, 1978). T h e model was developed by clustering the variables that repeatedly surface in the family process literature, and organizing them along two primary dimensions: family cohesion and family adaptability. T h e intersection of these two axes creates a circumplex of four main regions. Each of these regions is further divided into a moderate, extreme, and mixed zone to take degrees of difference into account. Figure 1 shows 16 family types.

Cohesion is defined as the emotional bonding that family members feel toward one another in relation to the degree of individual autonomy they experience. Family cohesion runs from disengagement and very high personal autonomy at one end to


(-0 low - COHESION -high,-) DISENGAGED SEPARATED CONNECTED EMMESHED

FIGURE 1 Sixteen Possible Types of Marital and Family Systems Derived from

(Adapted from Olson, Sprenkle & Russell, Circumplex Model o f Marital and the Circumplex Model

Family Systems, I, Farnzly ProcesJ, 1979, 18(1), 30.)

enmeshment at the other end, where very little individual autonomy is experienced. Family adaptability is defined as the ability to change power structure, role relationships and relationship rules in the face of situational and developmental stress. Extremely high levels of family adaptability result in chaos, whereas very low levels result in rigidity. Each of the two main dimensions is further differentiated into sub-concepts useful in the clinical assessment and treatment of families (see Tables 1 and 2). The model postulates that in the face of a stressor event such as an unscheduled accession, a balance of family cohesion and family adaptability will be associated with optimal functioning. Therefore,


the four central relationship types (flexibly separated, flexibly connected, structurally connected and structurally separated) are expected to be typical of most functional family systems, though such families may move gradually among these four styles, at different points in the family life cycle or in response to situational or developmental stressor events.

For the purposes of illustrating the relevance of the model for the stress brought on by the unscheduled parenthood of a teenager, we will focus on the situation where the teenage parent does not immediately marry but rather remains within her family of origin. T h e unit of analysis, then, is the family system created by the teenager, her parent(s), her sibling(s), her newborn child and any additional household members who function as family members (such as a maternal grandmother or offspring of the teenager’s siblings who regularly reside with the family).

More specifically, certain major hypotheses are suggested by the Circumplex Model:

1. Families with balanced levels of cohesion and adaptability will generally cope with a n event of unscheduled teenage parenthood more adequately than those at any of the extremes on these dimensions. a. Families without serious problems adjusting to unscheduled

teenage parenthood will tend to have more balanced scores on both of these dimensions.

b. Families with serious problems adjusting to unscheduled teenage parenthood will tend to have more extreme scores on one o r both of these dimensions.

c. Families with normative expectations that support behaviors extreme on these dimensions will not develop problems as long as all members accept these expectations.

It is important to note that the “balanced” pattern does not mean, for instance, that extremes of intimacy or separateness are never experienced, but that the system does not continually function at one extreme. In essence, the balanced types have a broader behavioral repertoire than the extreme family types. T h e point of “balance” for families in the “teenage” or “launching” phase of the family life cycle is likely to be toward the separate end of the cohesion continuum compared with families earlier or later in the family life cycle (all other variables held constant). It is also important to recognize that certain cultural sub-groups may be able to operate well outside of the central region of the circumplex model, so long as the supporting group norms are unanimously accepted. For instance, an adolescent mother who accepts the norm of staying in her parental home and relinquishing her child to the care of her older female kin may function well

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in a highly cohesive network that easily envelops her and her child. If, however, she has become socialized to another value system that demands acknowledgement of transition to a more adult status and recognition of increasing separateness and autonomy, we might expect difficulties to develop if her family of origin expects to operate at a highly cohesive level.

T h e model not only predicts, on the basis of prior difficulties in the operation of families, which ones will eventually cope well and cope poorly; but there are also predictions to be made about the sorts of adjustments (or coping mechanisms) that will be attempted in the face of a stress such as unscheduled teenage parenthood:

‘2. Families will alter levels of cohesion and adaptability to deal with the stress of unscheduled teenage parenthood. a . Families without serious problems will shift their cohesion and

adaptability to an adjacent level (type) to deal with the stress of unscheduled teenage parenthood.

b. Families with serious problems will either not change their cohesion and adaptability or will flip to an opposite extreme to deal with the stress of unscheduled teenage parenthood.

In the example cited above, if the new mother and her extended kin were having problems adjusting to the unscheduled transition they might be helped to move from a pattern of “rigid enmeshment” to a more moderate adjacent style of “structured connectedness” (see Figure 1).

T o date, the model has been tested with three separate populations of families in the adolescent stage of the family life cycle (Russell, 1979; Bell, Note 1 ; Portner, Note 2) using delin- quent, counseled, and noncounseled groups; and in one study comparing marriages of persons from clinical and non-clinical populations (Sprenkle & Olson, 1978). However, implications from the model have yet to be tested directly on families experiencing the unscheduled adolescent transition into parenthood.

T h e instability occasioned by a critical transition often makes a relationship system more open to intervention than at other times (Hill, 1958). It is interesting that teenagers who become pregnant before marriage may be at either extreme of connectedness to their social group. For instance, Presser (1978) found that early parenthood was associated with either very high or very low frequency of dating. Similarly, Groat, Neal and Mathews (1976) found an association between social isolation and the incidence of premarital pregnancy. T h e decision making necessitated by an unscheduled pregnancy may provide the adolescent


with an opportunity to experience a new, more facilitative level of connectedness to significant others, a level that respects her increasingly adult status and responsibilities but one that also recognizes her need for support and for a sense of belonging to a larger network. On a very concrete level, decisions about use of space, time together vs. time alone, individual vs. joint friends, and the like, help to readjust a system’s level of cohesion. Smith (1975) suggests that as the teenage pregnancy progresses and the two mothers talk of their own pregnancies, both mother and daughter speak of their relationship as becoming “more like that between two women than between mother and child.” T h e generational lines are clear in that the prospective grandmother becomes a source of wisdom, but there can also be an increase in closeness generated by the sharing of maternal experiences. Systems which have been marked by excessive rigidity and an excess of rules may be helped to find a way to acknowledge and make use of the adolescent’s input into the decisions made necessary by the unscheduled transition. Likewise, chaotic systems which have suffered from a lack of leadership and unclear rules may be helped to organize a clearer set of expectations about, among other things, who is responsible for what with respect to the new infant and the economic and emotional support of any newly formed family unit.

T h e unanticipated entry of a teenager into parenthood is a stress that many families would prefer not to face. Nevertheless, it is possible for the decision making necessitated by that transition to provide the adolescent and his or her family with an opportunity to find new ways of relating to one another that can leave them better able to cope with future stressor events.

Co,vcr.i:sro~~ We have examined unscheduled teenage parenthood as a

special case of the transition into parenthood, as an example of accelerated role transitions, and as an example of a family crisis that may provide an opportunity for continued growth. It may be helpful at this point to highlight issues that seem in need of further clarification.

1. T h e variables associated with ease of transition into parenthood are not entirely clear. Nearly every variable studied has failed to receive confirmation in at least one study. Further- more, the data generally have not been reported in a way that allows us to understand what proportion of the total variance is being explained by the variables identified. It is appropriate


that we continue to search for variables that could be manipulated in intervention programs. In particular, role theory may point us in fruitful directions, focusing on such concepts as role expectations, role strain, and role overload (e.g., Burr, 1973). Of particular relevance for the teenage transition into parenthood is the identification of who the significant role partners will be-the new grandmother, the child’s father, a sibling of the mother, a man other than the child’s biological father, another young mother in some sort of communal arrangement.

2. Recent longitudinal research (e.g., Furstenberg, 1976b, 1976c) reveals that an ill-timed pregnancy does not relegate all adolescent parents to a life of destitution and disappointment. Some are able to reorganize their lives and make progress toward personal goals. One key predictive variable identified so far is re-entry into the educational career. A second key variable is rapid formalization of a long-standing exclusive relationship with the child’s father. T h e first is a non-family variable, the second a family variable. Families of origin may both contribute to and benefit from an adaptive response to the crisis of moving into urischeduled teenage parenthood. Making use of the crisis as an opportunity for growth may have beneficial effects not only for the new parent as an individual, but also for his or her family of origin and for any newly formed conjugal unit.

Thus, family research and intervention programs should be designed to focus on family level as well as individual variables. The circumplex model of marital and family systems (Olson, et al., 1979) was discussed as a possible framework for conceptualizing relevant family process variables. That model focuses on several subsystem levels. It has received empirical support from at least three studies of family systems in the adolescent stage of the family life cycle, though not specifically with families coping with an event of unscheduled teenage parenthood. Future research should test that model, and some of the hypotheses suggested here, on families undergoing unscheduled transitions into teenage parenthood.

REFERENCE NOTES 1. Bell, R. Adolescent runaways and family-interactzon. Unpublished doctoral

2. Portner, J. Family therapy and parent-adolescent interaction. Unpublished dissertation, University of Minnesota, 1980.

doctoral dissertation, University of Minnesota, 1980.

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unscheduled parenthood: transition to ‘parent’ for the teenager

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