Aaron is sixteen years old, a junior in high school. Pat is fifteen, a sophomore. Their son, Jared, is nine months old. Pat wants to move into an apartment with Aaron because she is having problems living at home with her family; she doesn’t get along with her mother’s boyfriend. Aaron lives with his family and wants to finish training in carpentry so he can eventually work with his uncle. He says that when Jared can walk, he’ll take him out more often along. Both Aaron and Pat are looking for part time jobs so they can pay the babysitter while they’re in school.
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Images:
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A boy on his bike with the baby.
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A boy and a girl taking baby to clinic.
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A teenage couple with a child looking for jobs and an apartment.
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There are 11 million sexually active teenagers in our country and seven million of them are males. While the paucity of information on teenage male sexuality is astounding, the unwed adolescent father has been even more neglected. Parke has noted our general ignorance of adolescent fathers by referring to them as “shadowy unknown figures.”
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A commonly held misconception is that adolescent fathers have little or no contact with their infants. The available data detailed by Parke et. al. in their review of the literature contradicts two notions connected with this misconception: They found that the majority of births did not occur out of wedlock (54% of conceptions out of wedlock, but only 35% of births out of wedlock) and that unmarried fathers DO maintain contact and relationships with the mother or the child after birth.
More recent statistics (Gutthacher report, 1980) indicate that increasingly fewer premarital conceptions are being legitimized by marriage. By 1978, 46% of teenage conceptions were out of wedlock births.
Adolescent fathers do maintain contact, but cultural support systems do not exist to assist the young man in a healthy adjustment to his role as a young father. Unfortunately, his attempts to function as a father may negatively influence (directly or indirectly) his own development as well as the young mother’s and the child’s. As a teenager, the normal developmental tasks (the need to experiment and risk, to prove himself with peers, the struggle towards autonomy and independence, the exploration of different intimate relationships, the attempts to develop skills and careers options towards attaining financial independence) may seriously conflict with his attempts to be a father.
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Teenage boys who become fathers before they are 18 are two fifths less likely to have graduated from high school than those who waited (Guttmacher report, 1980, p. 30)—just one bit of evidence that adolescent fatherhood frustrates educational opportunity and preparation for a career.
If they do marry, teenage parents are far more likely to separate or divorce than couples who postpone childbearing until their 20’s. This trend is more pronounced among white than among blacks. 44% of women who gave birth at ages 14 to 17 are separated or divorced within fifteen years, three times the proportion among women who did not begin childbearing until age 20 or later. Marriage disruption is two times more likely among those who become parents at ages 18-19 than among those wait until their twenties. (Guttmacher Report, 1980, p. 31).
It may be of interest to students and faculty to know some of the legal concerns of young fathers. Ruth Timothy, R.N., M.S. Coordinator of the Regional Young Parents Program, Hamden, Connecticut, has compiled a report which would be a useful resource. This document,
Welfare and
Legal Issues Regarding Teenagers
,
Pregnancy and Young Parenthood
, answers some questions about proving paternity, financial and legal responsibilities and right, birth certificates, welfare and court processes and proceedings. Much of this information is complicated, but a few facts may answer the questions most frequently asked by students:
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1. Paternity doesn’t give the father rights to “pop in”; he must set up reasonable visitation with the girl. If the girl refuses, he can take her to court to get visitation privileges. Paying support and visitation are not tied together.
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2. If an unwed mother marries, she must get permission of the baby’s father for adoption by her new husband.
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3. The State is seeking reimbursement wherever possible from absent parent or spouse. There is a formula to determine the amount to be paid for support, but the court has the final say. In order to receive assistance from the State, the girl must give the State the following information:
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-Baby’s father’s name, address, where he works, where he “hangs out”
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-Any information to help locate him.
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If the girl is not married to baby’s father, she must help prove he’s the father. There are federal regulations detailing exceptions to this cooperation, ie. in the case of rape, incest, potential harm to mother or child.
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4. Blood test of alleged father, mother and baby 26 different test types can not prove paternity but can rule out paternity.
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5. Signing of birth certificate form doesn’t admit paternity; he must sign paper acknowledging paternity.
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6. Father cannot force girl to name baby after him.
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7. Mother can relinquish child for adoption.
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8. State law says after three years from birth of child or three years from cessation of support, State cannot go after the baby’s father for support.
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9. Welfare is called a reimbursable program. Father is liable forever for total amount paid out for his child if he has acknowledged paternity—but only three years for State to establish he is the father.
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10. Welfare has a right to seek reimbursement. Teenage parent may not be able to pay while young, but will be billed later when he becomes of age.
If a young parent wins the lottery, the State would take back money owed before the parent would get the winnings.
The debt doesn’t go away, even if welfare doesn’t seek reimbursement.
Strategies for the classroom
A three day lesson plan for use with the film,
Teenage Father
, is included in this unit.
Independent student projects related to the issue of teenage fatherhood might include:
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1. Designing and conducting a survey of attitudes about teenage fatherhood from students, parents, teachers, clergy, social workers, psychologists.
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2. Designing a questionnaire and interviewing a number of teenage fathers.
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3. Writing a research paper on contraceptive services and use and teenage boys.
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4. Writing a research paper on the legal rights, responsibilities and realities of teenage fatherhood.
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5. Writing a research paper on decision making and pregnancy the adolescent male’s participation and point of view on adoption, abortion and keeping the baby.
