Search Results

Author: Furstenberg, Frank F. Jr.
Resulting in 15 citations.
1. Dechter, Aimee R.
Furstenberg, Frank F. Jr.
Harris, Kathleen Mullan
The Changing Consequences of Adolescent Childbearing: A Comparison of Fertility and Marriage Patterns Across Cohorts
Presented: Washington, DC, American Sociological Association Annual Meetings, 1990
Cohort(s): Mature Women, NLSY79, Young Women
Publisher: American Sociological Association
Keyword(s): Adolescent Fertility; Childbearing; Childbearing, Adolescent; Educational Attainment; Fertility; First Birth; Marital Status; Racial Differences; Teenagers

Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher.

Much is known about the implications of adolescent childbearing for the fertility and marital patterns of contemporary cohorts of women in the U.S., however, it is not known whether the long term implications of teenage childbearing for future family formation are persistent across successive cohorts of women. This paper focuses on differences in the implications of the timing of first birth on subsequent childbearing and on marital patterns, across several cohorts. The fertility and marital patterns are discussed within the context of social and historical changes, including the soaring rates of both high school completion and out of wedlock childbearing. The differences between adolescent mothers and others are contrasted across cohorts born in the following periods: the 1920s and 1930s; the years surrounding the Second World War; and in the late 1950s and early 1960s. The data, drawn from the Mature Women, Young Women, and Youth Cohorts of the NLS, suggest that differentials associated with the timing of first birth in the risks of out of wedlock childbearing, marriage, and divorce have increased and differentials in subsequent fertility have converged across the cohorts. Futhermore, racial differences in the differentials associated with adolescent childbearing have increased with respect to the marriage indicators and decreased with respect to children ever born.
Bibliography Citation
Dechter, Aimee R., Frank F. Jr. Furstenberg and Kathleen Mullan Harris. "The Changing Consequences of Adolescent Childbearing: A Comparison of Fertility and Marriage Patterns Across Cohorts." Presented: Washington, DC, American Sociological Association Annual Meetings, 1990.
2. Furstenberg, Frank F. Jr.
As the Pendulum Swings: Teenage Childbearing and Social Concern
Family Relations 40,2 (April 1991): 127-138.
Also: http://www.jstor.org/stable/585470
Cohort(s): NLS General, NLSY79
Publisher: National Council on Family Relations
Keyword(s): Adolescent Fertility; Data Quality/Consistency; Demography; Heterogeneity; Poverty; Pregnancy, Adolescent

Argues against conclusions drawn by Geronimus from analysis of sisters in the NLSY. This article assesses the evidence for revisionist views of teenage childbearing. These theories suggest that the perception of teenage pregnancy as a growing social problem has been caused by the political agendas of certain interest groups; the consequences of early childbearing have been exaggerated; and that pregnancy among disadvantaged teens may be an adaptive response to poverty. The article first considers demographic patterns and fertility trends that point to why teenage pregnancy and childbearing was regarded as a growing problem in the 1970s. Next, the consequences of early childbearing are considered. Finally, the notion that early childbearing is the desired outcome of a rational choice is considered in light of survey and ethnographic data.
Bibliography Citation
Furstenberg, Frank F. Jr. "As the Pendulum Swings: Teenage Childbearing and Social Concern." Family Relations 40,2 (April 1991): 127-138.
3. Furstenberg, Frank F. Jr.
Teenage Childbearing and Cultural Rationality: A Thesis in Search of Evidence
Family Relations 41,2 (April 1992): 239-243.
Also: http://www.jstor.org/stable/584839
Cohort(s): NLSY79
Publisher: National Council on Family Relations
Keyword(s): Adolescent Fertility; Childbearing, Adolescent; Fertility

This article is one of two that continue the dialogue begun by this publication of the Frank Furstenberg, Jr. article titled, "As the Pendulum Swings: Teenage Childbearing and Social Concern," (April) 1991, pp. 127-138, and the Arline Geronimus article titled "Teenage Childbearing and Social and Reproductive Disadvantage: The Evolution of Complex Questions and the Demise of Simple Answers," (October) 1991, pp. 463-471. Here, Furstenberg replies to Geronimus' comments in re: Furstenberg's misresentation of Geronimus' thesis.
Bibliography Citation
Furstenberg, Frank F. Jr. "Teenage Childbearing and Cultural Rationality: A Thesis in Search of Evidence." Family Relations 41,2 (April 1992): 239-243.
4. Furstenberg, Frank F. Jr.
Brooks-Gunn, Jeanne
Morgan, S. Philip
Adolescent Mothers and Their Children in Later Life
Family Planning Perspectives 19,4 (July-August 1987): 142-151.
Also: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2135159
Cohort(s): NLSY79
Publisher: Alan Guttmacher Institute
Keyword(s): Adolescent Fertility; Childbearing; Children; Current Population Survey (CPS) / CPS-Fertility Supplement; Educational Attainment; First Birth; Marital Status; Mothers, Adolescent; National Survey of Family Growth (NSFG); Socioeconomic Status (SES); Teenagers; Work Attachment

Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher.

Reviews the results of a longitudinal study of over 300 primarily urban black women who gave birth as adolescents in the 1960s with follow-up results obtained from reinterviews in 1972 and 1984 with both the mothers and their then teenage children. This study found that a substantial majority of the mothers completed high school, found regular employment, and escaped dependence on public assistance. However, while many teenage mothers do break out of the cycle of poverty, the majority did not fare as well as they would have had they been able to postpone parenthood. Data from the 1982 NLSY, 1983 Current Population Survey, and 1982 National Survey of Family Growth are used to provide comparisons with national samples of women. Interviews with the teenage children of the mothers originally interviewed in 1966 revealed that: (1) mother's economic status had pervasive effects on the child's academic performance; (2) receipt of welfare in the first five years after the child's birth had a negative impact on preschool behavior and temperament; and (3) mother's marital status was clearly associated with poor academic performance and behavior problems among adolescents.
Bibliography Citation
Furstenberg, Frank F. Jr., Jeanne Brooks-Gunn and S. Philip Morgan. "Adolescent Mothers and Their Children in Later Life." Family Planning Perspectives 19,4 (July-August 1987): 142-151.
5. Furstenberg, Frank F. Jr.
Brooks-Gunn, Jeanne
Morgan, S. Philip
Adolescent Mothers in Later Life
New York, NY: Cambridge University Press, 1987
Cohort(s): Young Women
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Keyword(s): Childbearing; Children; Educational Attainment; Fertility; First Birth; Marital Status; Mothers, Adolescent; Socioeconomic Status (SES); Teenagers; Work Attachment

Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher.

The National Longitudinal Surveys (NLS) are a set of studies designed to examine the sources of variation in labor-market experience and behavior among four age and sex groups in the United States population: women 30-44, men 45-59 and men and women 14-24. The surveys began in 1966 and have been continued through 1984. In 1979 a new cohort was added, youth ages 14-21. In the analysis presented in Table 2.2 the data from the Survey of Young Women aged 29-36 are used. The women were interviewed for the first time in 1968 and followed through 1982. The cohort is represented by a multistage probability sample of 5,533 women, designed to represent the civilian, noninstitutional population of the United States at the time of the initial survey. A weight is used to correct for noninterviews, oversampling of certain population subgroups, sample attrition and chance variation from population distributions. Included in the NLS is information about labor-market experience: current employment status, characteristics of current or more recent job, and work experience; human-capital and other socioeconomic variables: early formative influences, migration, education, training, health, marital and family characteristics, financial characteristics, job and work attitudes, educational and job aspirations, retrospective evaluation of labor-market experiences, socialpsychological measures; and environmental variables.
Bibliography Citation
Furstenberg, Frank F. Jr., Jeanne Brooks-Gunn and S. Philip Morgan. Adolescent Mothers in Later Life. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press, 1987.
6. Furstenberg, Frank F. Jr.
Levine, Judith A.
Brooks-Gunn, Jeanne
The Children of Teenage Mothers: Patterns of Early Childbearing in Two Generations
Family Planning Perspectives 22,2 (March-April 1990): 54-61.
Also: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2135509
Cohort(s): NLSY79
Publisher: Alan Guttmacher Institute
Keyword(s): Adolescent Fertility; Childbearing; Childbearing, Adolescent; Inner-City; Mothers and Daughters; Pregnancy and Pregnancy Outcomes; Teenagers; Underclass

Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher.

Twenty years after a mostly black group of Baltimore women became adolescent mothers, the majority of their first-born children had not become adolescent parents, a finding that challenges the popular belief that the offspring of teenage mothers are themselves destined to become adolescent parents. Almost all of the offspring had had intercourse by age 19. About half of the young women had experienced a pregnancy before that age, and approximately one-third of the young men reported having impregnated a partner before age 19. The Baltimore youths were just as likely to have had a live birth before age 19 as were the children of teenage mothers in a national sample of urban blacks, and both of these groups were more likely to have done so than were the children of older mothers in the national sample. In the Baltimore sample, maternal welfare experience only increased a daughter's likelihood of early childbearing if welfare was received during her teenage years. Within the Baltimore sample, a direct comparison of the daughters who became adolescent mothers with their own mothers at a comparable age reveals that the daughters have bleaker educational and financial prospects than their mothers had, and are less likely to ever have married. These results suggest that today's teenage parents may be less likely than were previous cohorts of adolescent mothers to overcome the handicaps of early childbearing. This trend could portend the growth of an urban underclass, even though only a minority of the offspring of teenage mothers go on to become adolescent parents.
Bibliography Citation
Furstenberg, Frank F. Jr., Judith A. Levine and Jeanne Brooks-Gunn. "The Children of Teenage Mothers: Patterns of Early Childbearing in Two Generations." Family Planning Perspectives 22,2 (March-April 1990): 54-61.
7. Furstenberg, Frank F. Jr.
Thrall, Charles A.
Counting the Jobless: The Impact of Job Rationing on the Measurement of Unemployment
Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 418,1 (March 1975): 45-59.
Also: http://ann.sagepub.com/content/418/1/45.abstract
Cohort(s): Mature Women, Older Men
Publisher: Sage Publications
Keyword(s): Behavior; Job Search; Social Security; Unemployment

Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher.

This paper argues that the official definition of unemployment does not accurately consider the actual population available for work. The behavior involved in actively seeking employment is subject to a normative bias resulting from expectations, from feelings of obligations, sense of right to a job, and ease in accomplishing the job search. These expectations are a part of "job rationing ideology" which is present in Social Security regulations, which conceals the level of job shortage while alleviating strain which would otherwise result. Secondary analysis of data for women 30 to 44 supports a model of continuum of attachment to employment. Finally, normative considerations must be recognized in order to improve methods of determining labor supply; otherwise a failure to use such methods would be a barrier to intelligent economic and social planning.
Bibliography Citation
Furstenberg, Frank F. Jr. and Charles A. Thrall. "Counting the Jobless: The Impact of Job Rationing on the Measurement of Unemployment." Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 418,1 (March 1975): 45-59.
8. Hoffman, Saul D.
Foster, E. Michael
Furstenberg, Frank F. Jr.
Re-evaluating the Costs of Teenage Childbearing
Presented: Bethesda, MA, NICHD Conference, "Outcomes of Early Childbearing: An Appraisal of Recent Evidence", May 1992
Cohort(s): NLSY79
Publisher: National Institute of Child Health and Human Development
Keyword(s): Adolescent Fertility; Childbearing; Childbearing, Adolescent; Family Background and Culture; Family Size; Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID); Siblings; Well-Being

Teenage childbearing in the U.S. has long been regarded as an important social problem with substantial costs to mothers and their children. Recently, however, several researchers have argued that these apparent negative effect primarily reflect unmeasured family background rather than the true causal effect of a teen birth. To unravel the effect of teen motherhood from that of family background, we, following the methodology proposed by Geronimus and Korenman, compare teen mothers with their sisters, using data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics. We find that taking full account of family background reduces, but does not eliminate, the estimated consequences of early childbearing. Statistically significant and quantitatively important effects of teen parenthood remain for high school graduation, family size, and a set of measures of economic well-being.
Bibliography Citation
Hoffman, Saul D., E. Michael Foster and Frank F. Jr. Furstenberg. "Re-evaluating the Costs of Teenage Childbearing." Presented: Bethesda, MA, NICHD Conference, "Outcomes of Early Childbearing: An Appraisal of Recent Evidence", May 1992.
9. Hoffman, Saul D.
Foster, E. Michael
Furstenberg, Frank F. Jr.
Reevaluating the Costs of Teenage Childbearing
Demography 30,1 (February 1993): 1-13.
Also: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2061859
Cohort(s): NLS General, NLSY79, Young Women
Publisher: Population Association of America
Keyword(s): Adolescent Fertility; Childbearing; Childbearing, Adolescent; Family Background and Culture; Family Size; Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID); Siblings; Well-Being

Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher.

Teenage childbearing in the United States has long been regarded as an important social problem with substantial costs to teen mothers and their children. Recently, however, several researchers have argued that the apparent negative effects of teenage childbearing primarily reflect unmeasured family background rather than the true consequences of a teen birth. To distinguish the effect of teen childbearing from that of family background, we use data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics and compare teen mothers with their sisters. We find that accounting for unobserved family background reduces, but does not eliminate, the estimated consequences of early childbearing. Statistically significant and quantitatively important effects of teen parenthood remain for high school graduation, family size, and economic well-being.
Bibliography Citation
Hoffman, Saul D., E. Michael Foster and Frank F. Jr. Furstenberg. "Reevaluating the Costs of Teenage Childbearing." Demography 30,1 (February 1993): 1-13.
10. Hoffman, Saul D.
Foster, E. Michael
Furstenberg, Frank F. Jr.
Reevaluating the Costs of Teenage Childbearing: Response to Geronimus and Korenman
Demography 30,2 (May 1993): 291-296.
Also: http://www.springerlink.com/content/e17684r567083k0w/
Cohort(s): NLS General, NLSY79, Young Women
Publisher: Population Association of America
Keyword(s): Adolescent Fertility; Childbearing, Adolescent; Data Analysis; Educational Attainment; Family Background and Culture; Modeling, Fixed Effects; Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID); Siblings

Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher.

Evidence suggests that early childbearing, although not as disastrous an event as portrayed in early studies, still often causes harm to already disadvantaged women. In particular, the evidence to date suggests that educational attainment and economic well-being are reduced by a teen birth, even after controlling for the effects of family background. Although the differences between the conventional estimates and fixed-effect estimates are not always statistically significant, sister comparisons suggest that the effects of teen childbearing have been overstated somewhat in the past. None of the replications, however, provide any evidence that the remaining effects of teen childbearing are negligible, as originally suggested. In constrast to other research that uses various technical variations of sampling and data analysis, analysts argue that it is premature to conclude that the true effects of teenage childbearing are quite small.
Bibliography Citation
Hoffman, Saul D., E. Michael Foster and Frank F. Jr. Furstenberg. "Reevaluating the Costs of Teenage Childbearing: Response to Geronimus and Korenman." Demography 30,2 (May 1993): 291-296.
11. Jacobs, Jerry A.
Furstenberg, Frank F. Jr.
Changing Places: Conjugal Careers and Women's Marital Mobility
Social Forces 64,3 (March 1986): 714-732.
Also: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2578821
Cohort(s): Mature Women, Young Women
Publisher: University of North Carolina Press
Keyword(s): Children; Educational Attainment; Husbands; Marital Disruption; Marriage; Mobility; Occupational Status; Socioeconomic Status (SES)

Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher.

The relationship between the socioeconomic status of successive husbands for two national samples of women (the Mature and Young Women cohorts) who married two or more times is investigated. Socioeconomic homogamy, as indicated by the educational attainment and occupational status of spouses, is similar in first and second marriages for both cohorts. On average, the socioeconomic standings of husbands in subsequent marriages are about equal to those in previous marriages, when adjustments are made for the career trajectories of the men involved. Socioeconomic variables, timing, and the presence of children all influence the chances of finding an accomplished second husband. The implications of these findings for the welfare of children of disrupted families and for future trends in socioeconomic homogamy are discussed.
Bibliography Citation
Jacobs, Jerry A. and Frank F. Jr. Furstenberg. "Changing Places: Conjugal Careers and Women's Marital Mobility." Social Forces 64,3 (March 1986): 714-732.
12. Morrison, Donna Ruane
Furstenberg, Frank F. Jr.
Ritualo, Amy R.
Parenting After Divorce: Remarriage and Cohabitation from the Perspective of Children
Presented: Washington, DC, Population Association of America Meetings, March 1997
Cohort(s): Children of the NLSY79, NLSY79
Publisher: Population Association of America
Keyword(s): Children, Well-Being; Cohabitation; Home Environment; Home Observation for Measurement of Environment (HOME); Marital Disruption; Parents, Non-Custodial; Parents, Single; Remarriage

Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher.

One million children per year experience the break-up of their parent's marriages, but divorce is only one link in a complex chain of events that may potentially affect child well-being. While children spend some time in single parent families following marital disruption, most divorced adults eventually enter new relationships. While remarriage is common, many new unions are non-marital. Neither the pattern of these often transitory relationships from the perspective of children nor their implications for child well-being are well documented in existing research. Using the National Longitudinal Survey of Youths child-mother data' this paper profiles maternal post-marital unions (remarriages and cohabitations) as experienced by children. We also explore the implications that alternative living arrangements following divorce have for the quality of the home environment provided to children.
Bibliography Citation
Morrison, Donna Ruane, Frank F. Jr. Furstenberg and Amy R. Ritualo. "Parenting After Divorce: Remarriage and Cohabitation from the Perspective of Children." Presented: Washington, DC, Population Association of America Meetings, March 1997.
13. Morrison, Donna Ruane
Furstenberg, Frank F. Jr.
Ritualo, Amy R.
Road to Remarriage: A Prospective Study of Child Well-Being Following Divorce
Working Paper, Washington DC: Department of Demography and Graduate Public Policy Institute, Georgetown University and Philadelphia PA: Department of Sociology, University of Pennsylvania, 1999
Cohort(s): Children of the NLSY79, NLSY79
Publisher: Department of Demography, Georgetown University
Keyword(s): Behavior Problems Index (BPI); Children, Well-Being; Cohabitation; Divorce; Home Observation for Measurement of Environment (HOME); Remarriage

Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher.

Given the prevalence of divorce and the prominence of concerns about family structure in political debates, reassessing the implications of remarriage and post-divorce cohbitation for children is critical. Available studies have not adequately addressed either the possibility of pre-existing differences prior to divorce or the lingering effects of the divorce process when children in step-families are compared to those in two-parent nuclear families. Using the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth mother-child data, we take a prospective approach using a pre-disruption measure of child well-being as our basis for ascertaining the effect of remarriage. We examine how children in step-families compare to their counterparts whose divorced mothers took other routes following the initial disruption including entering cohabiting unions or remaining single. Net of controls for time since disruption and the number of maternal union transitions experienced by the child, we discover remarriage is associated with fewer behavior problems than is remaining "stably" divorced, although the statisitical significance of the estimated coefficient is marginal. We found some support for the hypothesis that the more favorable economic standing of remarried families accounts for part of remarriage's salutary effect. Finally, we found no statisitcal difference between remarriage and cohabitation following divorce from the perspective of children's behavior problems, net of controls.
Bibliography Citation
Morrison, Donna Ruane, Frank F. Jr. Furstenberg and Amy R. Ritualo. "Road to Remarriage: A Prospective Study of Child Well-Being Following Divorce." Working Paper, Washington DC: Department of Demography and Graduate Public Policy Institute, Georgetown University and Philadelphia PA: Department of Sociology, University of Pennsylvania, 1999.
14. Phelps, Erin
Furstenberg, Frank F. Jr.
Colby, Anne
Looking at Lives: American Longitudinal Studies of the 20th Century
New York, NY: Russell Sage Foundation, May 2002.
Also: http://www.russellsage.org/publications/titles/lookingatlives.htm
Cohort(s): Children of the NLSY79, NLSY79
Publisher: Russell Sage Foundation
Keyword(s): Behavior; Behavior, Antisocial; Crime; Delinquency/Gang Activity; Drug Use; Inner-City; Intergenerational Patterns/Transmission; Life Course; Longitudinal Surveys; Overview, Child Assessment Data; Poverty

The impact of long-term longitudinal studies on the landscape of 20th century social and behavioral science cannot be overstated. The field of life course studies has grown exponentially since its inception in the 1950s, and now influences methodologies as well as expectations for all academic research. Looking at Lives offers an unprecedented "insider's view" into the intentions, methods, and findings of researchers engaged in some of the 20th century's landmark studies. In this volume, eminent American scholars -- many of them pioneers in longitudinal studies -- provide frank and illuminating insights into the difficulties and the unique scientific benefits of mounting studies that track people's lives over a long period of time.

Looking at Lives includes studies from a range of disciplines, including psychology, sociology, and education, which together cover a span of more than fifty years. The contributors pay particular attention to the changing historical, cultural, and scientific context of their work, as well as the theoretical and methodological changes that have occurred in their fields over decades. What emerges is a clear indication of the often unexpected effects these studies have had on public policies and public opinion - especially as they relate to such issues as the connection between poverty and criminal behavior, or the consequences of teen-age pregnancy and drug use for inner-city youth. For example, David Weikart reveals how his long-term research on preschool intervention projects, begun in 1959, permitted him to show how surprisingly effective preschool education can be in improving the lives of disadvantaged children. In another study, John Laub and Robert Sampson build on findings from a groundbreaking study begun by Sheldon and Eleanor Glueck in the 1950s to reveal the myriad ways in which juvenile delinquency can predict criminal behavior in adults. And Arland Thornton, Ronald Freedman, and William Axinn employ an intergenerational study of women and their children begun in 1962 to examine the substantial relaxation of social mores for family and individual behavior in the latter decades of the 20th century.

Looking at Lives is full of striking testimony to the importance of long-term, longitudinal studies. As a unique chronicle of the origins and development of longitudinal studies in America, this collection will be an invaluable aid to 21st century investigators who seek to build on the successes and the experiences of the pioneers in life-course studies. Copyright Russell Sage Foundation, 2002.

Bibliography Citation
Phelps, Erin, Frank F. Jr. Furstenberg and Anne Colby. Looking at Lives: American Longitudinal Studies of the 20th Century. New York, NY: Russell Sage Foundation, May 2002..
15. Thrall, Charles A.
Furstenberg, Frank F. Jr.
Rationing of Jobs: Consequences for Women Who Want to Work
Presented: San Francisco, CA, American Sociological Association Annual Meetings, 1975
Cohort(s): Mature Women
Publisher: American Sociological Association
Keyword(s): Children; Employment; Job Search; Marital Status; Unemployment

Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher.

As a consequence of a chronic shortage of jobs in the United States, a set of norms and beliefs has developed for allocating the limited supply of jobs that do exist. This normative system serves as both a justification and a set of rules for rationing employment and has thus been labelled "job rationing ideology. " It operates as a queueing mechanism, placing individuals in line for employment with prime age white males at the head of the queue and everyone else one or more steps behind. For individuals such as women and minorities who stand back from the head of the job rationing queue, active job seeking is not a direct function of interest in working but also reflects the individual's sense of obligation to work and right to a job. To the extent that this is true, the present unemployment statistics are of little value in measuring the ability of the economy to provide work to all who are interested in working. Instead, the present measure serves to help obscure both the extent of the chronic shortage of jobs and the impact of the job rationing system on women and minorities who stand back from the head of the line.
Bibliography Citation
Thrall, Charles A. and Frank F. Jr. Furstenberg. "Rationing of Jobs: Consequences for Women Who Want to Work." Presented: San Francisco, CA, American Sociological Association Annual Meetings, 1975.