5 - The intersecting life courses of adolescent mothers and their children

Summary

As we have repeatedly stressed, the variability in the life course of early childbearers was tremendous. Some mothers had a history of welfare dependence while others managed to escape it; some married before the birth of the child, some soon after, and some never; some mothers obtained additional schooling, and others dropped out; some had many children, while others had few. By examining the occurrence, timing, and sequencing of these early events in the mother's life course, we were able to explain subsequent patterns of economic achievement and fertility in Chapter 3. This chapter examines whether these same life-course events also explain children's outcomes. Understanding the life course of a single individual is complex, and the interrelation of multiple life courses is even more so. The diversity of the mother's experience will result in vastly different childrearing environments, which, in turn, influence children's behavior. Four aspects of the maternal life course will be given special scrutiny in this chapter: marital history, schooling, fertility, and changing economic resources.

Maternal life course and children's environment

Economic resources will determine much of the variability in children's environments. Material well-being may influence a variety of contextual conditions: safety of the neighborhood, residence in a particular neighborhood, attendance at a particular school, interaction with a particular peer group, access to cultural opportunities, availability of informal networks of other adults, and importance of the street culture in determining behavior.