Teenage Mothers in Nuclear and Extended Households

As an initial step in expanding our understanding of the influence of family context on adolescent mothers, this article investigates the patterns of, and factors associated with, their household arrangements. Although adolescent mothers are at great risk of eventually living in female-headed households and facing economic hardship, past research has said little about the households of these young mothers while they are teenagers. Using individual-level data from the 1980 U.S. Census, we show household arrangements vary by marital status, race/ethnicity, age, number of children, and central city residence. And there are important differences by race/ethnicity in the way the other variables are related to household arrangements. Importantly, household arrangements are related to school enrollment, labor force participation, poverty status, and receiving public assistance.