The Significance of Fathers for Inner-City African-American Teen Mothers

K E Y WORDS: Adolescent Mothers; Biological Fathers; Family Life. Adolescent birth rates have increased every year since 1987, after remaining rather stable or falling throughout the earlier decades. A recent report cites that there were 62 births to every 1000 women aged 15-19; one-fourth of African-American women had their first birth before they reached age 19 (Child Trends, 1994). High teen birth rates raise concerns about the well-being of adolescent mothers and their children. Children born to single teen mothers, particularly if they reside in inner-city communities, are likely to experience poverty, We thank Julia Henly, Linwood Cousins, and Jen Rubin for assistance with data analysis; Carolyn Young and Oti-Lisa Brown for assistance with literature searches; Arlene Stiffman and Brett Drake for comments on an earlier draft of this manuscript. Generous support for this study was provided by the Ford Foundation, Spencer Foundation, Rockefeller Foundation and the University of Michigan Rackham Graduate School. Dr. Chadiha is Assistant Professor at the George Warren Brown School of Social Work and Dr. Danziger is Associate Professor at the School of Social Work, University of Michigan. Address communications to Dr. Chadiha, Washington University, Campus Box 1196, One Brookings Drive, St. Louis, Missouri 63130-4899. 83 9 1995 Human Sciences Press, Inc. 84 CHILD AND ADOLESCENT SOCIAL WORK JOURNAL receive public aid, and be at risk of poor educational and economic outcomes as they grow up. The daughters of teen mothers are at risk of repeating the pattern of becoming young single mothers before they complete their schoohng (Miller & Moore, 1990; Moore et al. 1993). The barriers to the well-being of inner-city teen mothers and their children stem from a complex and multi-level array of factors. Within the family, the adolescent mother's lack of education, earnings and informal supports contribute to poor child outcomes; community-level deficits include the lack of employment opportunities, poor school quality in neighborhoods, and deteriorated housing conditions (Danziger & Danziger, 1993). Lack of accessible services for primary health care also compromises child development (Klerman, 1991). The literature on father involvement indicates positive paternal effects on children's well-being (Ishii-Kuntz, 1994; King, 1994; Levine, 1993). For example, a child's academic achievement in reading and math along with his or her own perceived scholastic achievement are associated with child support payments from nonresident fathers (King, 1994). Adopting King's view (1994), fathers may be out of the family household but not out of the lives of children, including adolescent mothers. Few studies have examined the perceptions of adolescent mothers about the role of biological fathers in adolescent mothers' family life. Consequently, very little is known about the influence of biological fathers on adolescent mothers' and their children's well-being. In studying adolescent motherhood, researchers have not adequately addressed how single childbearing might be related to a young woman's experiences with her own biological father. However, when family life is viewed through the embedded lens of the adolescent mother herself, a possibly different framework for understanding her behavior in relation to her own parenting may emerge. In this qualitative study, we addressed the following questions. How do inner-city African-American teen women perceive the parenting they receive from their biological fathers? How do they evaluate the role of the biological father in their lives? From their feelings about their biological fathers, what can we extrapolate about the perceived role of men in family formation? We used the accounts of family life in young women's life stories to address these questions and understand how biological fathers were a potential resource to teen mothers and their children. This qualitative article describes the range of father-daughter relationships available to a group of inner-city young women, both teen mothers and a comparison group of teens who have not given birth LETHA A. CHADIHA AND SANDRA K. DANZIGER 85 (non-parent peers). It examines their experience with respect to their parents' marriage, the teens' own residential history, and the degree of father involvement in their childhood and teenage lives. The article describes the range of feelings expressed toward biological fathers in life history accounts of the young women; it illustrates case examples that typify some major themes in young women's reports of family experiences with biological fathers. Building upon these qualitative data, we interpret the thematic findings as suggestive of how men's participation in family formation is more generally perceived. If parenting from fathers is viewed as a resource that has significant value for the young women in this study, service providers may need to adopt more inclusive strategies to bring fathers into the support systems of teen clients. The knowledge gained from studying teen mothers' perceptions of their biological fathers may serve to inform how much programs and policies serving adolescent mothers should advocate for and encourage father involvement. O v e r v i e w of t h e L i t e r a t u r e Almost 30 years ago, Nash (1965) asserted that psychologists ignored the father and denied him a significant position in the family. Twenty years later, Boyd (1985) wrote that until the 1970s researchers had emphasized the maternal role and overlooked the paternal role in family studies. Greif and Bailey (1990) concluded recently in a review of the l i terature that social work researchers have not adequately addressed fathers; they also asserted that fathers have been portrayed in a negative light. Although current studies portray fathers in a more positive way, such studies do not adequately address African-American adolescent mothers' biological fathers (e.g., Bowman, 1993; Pruett, 1993). The primary focus on African-American fathers has been their family provider role (Cazenave, 1979), nurturing role with young children (McAdoo, 1981), socialization of adolescent males (Allen, 1981), and their decision-making role in marriage (McAdoo, 1993). Studies have revealed that adolescent mothers feel closer to their mothers than fathers and view fathers unfavorably (see review, Landy et al., 1983). Research has shown that pregnant and parenting adolescents report a low degree of paternal involvement and support. Pregnant teens in one study reported statistically significantly poorer relationships with their fathers than nonpregnant teens (Landy et al., 1983). According to this study, pregnant teens relative to nonpregnant teens also described their fathers in very negative 86 CHILD AND ADOLESCENT SOCIAL WORK JOURNAL terms and indicated that they hardly knew them. Anglo and Hispanic pregnant adolescents and young mothers in another s tudy viewed their fathers as least supportive among family members, particularly when contrasted with the support received from their mothers (de Anda & Becerra, 1984). The authors of this s tudy concluded that the fathers of these adolescents held a very low profile in the adolescent's family network, exerted little influence, and provided little nurtur ing and support. Paternal involvement is associated with a more timely use of health services by pregnant adolescents in one s tudy (Moss, 1987). Mexican, Mexican-American, and Anglo pregnant adolescents, in contact or living with their fathers, obtained pregnancy tests significantly earlier than those living apart from their fathers. We have found only one study that addressed the perceptions of African-American teen mothers about biological fathers. Williams (1991) reports that a majority of African-American adolescent mothers in a qualitative study experienced father absence beginning in childhood. Most young women viewed their fathers unfavorably, and held bitterness toward them for their absence as well as lack of support (Williams, 1991). This review provides a very unfavorable view of adolescent mothers' paternal experiences, and suggests that more research is needed. Most studies have not clarified whether biological fathers are being addressed. Neither have studies adequately addressed the topic of African-American adolescent mothers' biological fathers. A qualitative approach is very useful for addressing relatively unexplored research problems (Rosenblatt & Fischer, 1993). Because of inadequate research on African-American teen mothers' fathers, we used a qualitative research approach to address the perceived role of biological fathers in family life.