This proposed research will examine the relationship among socioeconomic context, intergenerational family dynamics, and role transitions in black families with pregnant adolescents. Families from three socioeconomic groups-persistent poor, transient poor, and working/middle class will be compared. The study has three objectives: (1) to identify similarities and differences in social arrangements and family context (including norms) that govern the timing of transitions to parenthood and grandparenthood; (2) to explore the relationship among socioeconomic status, family norms, and patterns of stress and coping exhibited by family members as they experience the role transitions that accompany teenage childbearing (e.g., fatherhood, grandparenthood); and (3) to examine patterns of intergenerational exchanges (monetary and material resources, intergenerational caregiving, household assistance, companionship and advice) among parents, grandparents, and-great-grandparents in response to teenage pregnancy. Personal interviews will be conducted with three- and four-generation black families (50 families per socioeconomic group) residing in a metropolitan community in Pennsylvania. Participants (N-600) from each family unit include the pregnant teenager, her mother, her grandmother, and the father or grandfather of the baby. Families will be recruited through the Department of Public Welfare and local hospitals, clinics, and churches. To capture the effect of role transition, interviews will be conducted with each respondent at two points in time--when the adolescent (age 17 and under) is 5-6 months pregnant and 5-6 months post-partum. This study provides a rare comparative look at adolescent childbearing and interdependent lives in multigeneration black families from three socioeconomic sub-populations of American society. As such, this study will contribute to the formulation of life-course models of family development that recognize sociocultural and socioeconomic diversity and, more specifically, to our understanding of the effects adolescent pregnancy on the life course of kin.
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| Burton, L M (1992) Black grandparents rearing children of drug-addicted parents: stressors, outcomes, and social service needs. Gerontologist 32:744-51 |
