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Contents -- About the Author -- Preface -- Chapter 1. The History of Teenage Childbearing as a Social Problem -- Chapter 2. From Teenage Mother to Midlife Matriarch -- Chapter 3. The Next Generation -- Chapter 4. Sexuality and Reproductive Health -- Chapter 5. Supporting Marriage -- Chapter 6. Teenage Childbearing and Welfare Reform -- Chapter 7. Destinies of the Disadvantaged -- References -- Index

"Teen childbearing has risen to frighteningly high levels over the last four decades, jeopardizing the life chances of young parents and their offspring alike, particularly among minority communities. Or at least, that's what politicians on the right and left often tell us, and what the American public largely believes. But sociologist Frank Furstenberg argues that the conventional wisdom distorts reality. In Destinies of the Disadvantaged, Furstenberg traces tile history of public concern over teen pregnancy, exploring why this topic has become so politically powerful, and so misunderstood." "Destinies of the Disadvantaged relates how the issue emerged from obscurity to become one of the most heated social controversies in America. Both slipshod research by social scientists and opportunistic grandstanding by politicians have contributed to public misunderstanding of the issue. Although out-of-wedlock teen pregnancy rose notably between 1960 and 1990-a cause for concern given the burdens of single motherhone at a young age - this trend did not reflect a rise in the rate of overall teen pregnancies. In fact, teen pregnancy actually declined dramatically in the 1960s and 1970s." "Addressing teen pregnancy was originally aliberal cause, led by advocates of family planning services, legalized abortion, and social welfare programs for single mothers, The issue was later adopted by conservatives, who argued that those Iiberal remedies were encouraging teen parenthood. According to Furstenberg, the flexible political usefulness of the issue explains its held on political discourse. The politics of teen parenthood is a fascinating case study in the abuse of social science for political ends. In Destinies of the Disadvantaged, Furstenberg brings that tale to life with the perspective of ahistorian and the insight of an insider, and provides the straight facts needed to craft effective policies to address teen pregnancy."--Jacket

Das Buch eignet sich als Ratgeber für Eltern, die über ihre Scheidung bewusst nachdenken. Denn Scheidung ist ein Prozess, dessen Beginn lange vor der eigentlichen Trennung liegt und der ganz allmählich ins Rollen kommt. In der kritischen Zeit danach verlangen Kinder verstärkt nach emotionaler Unterstützung. Die ersten zwei Jahre nach der Scheidung werden Krisenperiode genannt. Für die Kinder beginnt die Krise mit Schock, Angst und Wut, wenn sie erfahren, dass die Ehe ihre Eltern zerbrochen ist. In dieser kritischen Zeit haben Kinder zwei ganz spezifische Bedürfnisse: Erstens verlangen sie verstärkt nach emotionaler Unterstützung, während sie sich auf die so gänzlich anderen Lebensumstände anzupassen suchen. Zweitens sind sie auf eine einigermaßen verläßliche, tägliche Routine angewiesen.

Changes in family systems that have occurred over the past half century throughout the Western world are now spreading across the globe to nations that are experiencing economic development, technological change, and shifts in cultural beliefs. Traditional family systems are adapting in different ways to a series of conditions that forced shifts in all Western nations. In this article, I examine the causes and consequences of global family change, introducing a recently funded project using the Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) and U.S. Census Bureau data to chart the pace and pattern of changes in marriage and family systems in low‐ and middle‐income nations.

The first section of the article discusses how and why we went from a relatively undifferentiated family system in the middle of the last century to the current system of diverse family forms. Even conceding that the family system was always less simple than it now appears in hindsight, there is little doubt that we began to depart from the dominant model of the nuclear-family household in the late 1960s. I explain how change is a result of adaptation by individuals and family members to changing economic, demographic, technological, and cultural conditions. The breakdown of the gender-based division of labor was the prime mover in my view. Part two of the article thinks about family complexity in the United States as largely a product of growing stratification. I show how family formation processes associated with low human capital produces complexity over time in family systems, a condition that may be amplified by growing levels of inequality. The last part of the article briefly examines complexity in a changing global context. I raise the question of how complexity varies among economically developed nations with different family formation practices and varying levels of inequality.

Frank Furstenberg examines how the newly extended timetable for entering adulthood is affecting, and being affected by, the institution of the Western, particularly the American, family. He reviews a growing body of research on the family life of young adults and their parents and draws out important policy implications of the new schedule for the passage to adulthood. Today, says Furstenberg, home-leaving, marriage, and the onset of childbearing take place much later in the life span than they did during the period after World War II. After the disappearance of America's well-paying unskilled and semi-skilled manufacturing jobs during the 1960s, youth from all economic strata began remaining in school longer and marrying and starting their own families later. Increasing numbers of lower-income women did not marry at all but chose, instead, non-marital parenthood—often turning to their natal families for economic and social support, rather than to their partners. As the period of young adults' dependence on their families grew longer, the financial and emotional burden of parenthood grew heavier. Today, regardless of their income level, U.S. parents provide roughly the same proportion of their earnings to support their young adult children. Unlike many nations in Europe, the United States, with its relatively underdeveloped welfare system, does not invest heavily in education, health care, and job benefits for young adults. It relies, instead, on families' investments in their own adult children. But as the transition to adulthood becomes more protracted, the increasing family burden may prove costly to society as a whole. Young adults themselves may begin to regard childbearing as more onerous and less rewarding. The need to provide greater support for children for longer periods may discourage couples from having additional children or having children at all. Such decisions could lead to lower total fertility, ultimately reduce the workforce, and further aggravate the problem of providing both for increasing numbers of the elderly and for the young. U.S. policy makers must realize the importance of reinforcing the family nest and helping reduce the large and competing demands that are being placed on today's parents.

In this article, the author argues that while Daniel Patrick Moynihan's 1965 analysis of the black family was prescient in many respects, it also largely ignored social class variations among black families. This gave the erroneous impression that the changes occurring in the black family were related to distinctive cultural features rather than the economic position of most blacks. Over time, it has become evident that poor economic circumstances would produce comparable effects on whites just as they did for blacks when Moynihan published his findings. [Reprinted by permission of Sage Publications Inc., copyright The American Academy of Political and Social Science.]