Competitive Parenting: The Culture of Teen Mothers

The article contains the results of a participant-observation study of an adolescent parenting program (The Teen Center) in the US. Data were gathered in 1994-97 over a period of 3 school years. The Teen Center which is located in an affluent predominately White community offers free child care during the school day as well as parenting education and general education support to adolescent parents. The center serves 45-60 students at a time. The observer played a multifaceted role as a volunteer spending more than 500 hours at the center. Observations were supplemented with in-depth interviews with 12 adolescent mothers. Field notes and interviews transcriptions were coded according to different conceptual categories and analyzed for concepts and meaning that originated from the adolescents themselves. It was found that competitive parenting was pervasive among the adolescent mothers. The young mothers disparaged older mothers in order to cast themselves in a positive light; they pretended that they were financially independent even when they were experiencing financial difficulties; they portrayed their children as developmentally advanced for their age; they exhibited hypermaterialism in regard to their children; they selectively accepted and rejected parenting advice depending upon its source and were more likely to accept suggestions than orders. All of these tactics were employed in an attempt to overcome the stereotypical image of adolescent mothers and the culture of competitiveness was strengthened by the social class racial and ethnic background and age of the mothers.