Breaking the Adolescent Parent Cycle: Valuing Fatherhood and Motherhood

533 Pages·2009·1.61 MB·English

by  Jack C. Westman

University Press of America®, Inc.
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“Please listen to perhaps the only person in America who has the knowledge and the answers
WESTMAN B R E A K I N G T H E
. . . If everyone in government did, our prisons would be virtually empty in twenty years. And
childhood would again be a time of joy instead of the nightmare it now is for too many children.”
—JUDGE CHARLES D. GILL, Connecticut Superior Court
“Offers the child advocate a solid foundation for doing good.
It is grounded in research and theory and in profoundly ‘pro-child’ values.” A D O L E S C E N T
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—JAMES GARBARINO, director, Center for the Human Rights of Children,
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and professor, Loyola University Chicago
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“Seldom do we see someone analyze social problems, review the relevant research, K
and offer practical solutions as compellingly . . . His insights no doubt derive from IN P A R E N T C Y C L E
a unique combination of clinical, teaching, and research experience.”
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—JAY BELSKY, director, Institute for the Study of Children, Families,
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and Social Issues, and professor, University of London
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“A tour de force . . . the first 360-degree examination of adolescent parenting—looking at its
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social, cultural, and biological roots; its consequences for not only the adolescent mother, but
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also the generations on either side of her; and strategies for preventing adolescent childbearing, O
as well as for creating nurturing environments for children who are born to adolescent parents.” L
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—REBECCA MAYNARD, university trustee and professor of education
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and social policy, University of Pennsylvania
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This book addresses the dilemma created by the discrepancy between our efforts to prevent N
adolescent pregnancy and our support of adolescent parenthood, which the author argues is T
VALUING FATHERHOOD
America’s greatest unrecognized public health crisis. It is the most preventable cause of crime P
and welfare dependency, and because we hold no expectations for parents who conceive and A
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give birth to children, rates of child neglect and abuse in the United States far exceed those of
E AND MOTHERHOOD
other developed nations. Westman explores the circumstances and values that make mother-
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hood seem to be girls’ best option and that induce males to conceive without the ability to
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support their children. It proposes a feasible legal procedure as the basis for ensuring that ado-
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lescents’ babies have competent parents with the resources and environments they need.
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JACK C. WESTMAN, M.D. and M.S., is professor emeritus of psychiatry at the University of L
Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health. He has served as editor of Child Psychiatry E
and Human Development, president of the American Association of Psychiatric Services, and
president of the Multidisciplinary Academy of Clinical Education. He is currently president of
Wisconsin Cares, Inc.
JACK C. WESTMAN
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Breaking the
Adolescent Parent Cycle
Valuing Fatherhood and Motherhood
Jack C. Westman
UNIVERSITY PRESS OF AMERICA,® INC.
Lanham •Boulder •New York •Toronto •Plymouth, UK
Copyright ©2009 by
Jack C. Westman
University Press of America,®Inc.
4501 Forbes Boulevard
Suite 200
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All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
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Library of Congress Control Number: 2009924130
ISBN: 978-0-7618-4536-2 (paperback : alk. paper)
eISBN: 978-0-7618-4537-9
Figure 10.1 is derived from a figure in the article Structural Magnetic Resonance Imaging
of the Adolescent Brain in the Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, Volume
1021: 77–85, ©2004, with the permission of Blackwell Publishing.
Figure 31.1 is derived from figure 2.6 in Heckman, James J. & Krueger, Alan B., edited
by Benjamin M. Friedman, introduction by Benjamin M. Friedman, Inequality in
America: What Role for Human Capital Policies? ©2004 Massachusetts Institute of
Technology, by permission of the MITPress.
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requirements of American National Standard for Information
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Dedicated to our grandchildren
and to their generation:
Matthew, Laura, Carly,
Peter, Megan, Eric,
Luke, Clay and Alexander

Contents
Preface vii
Acknowledgments xi
Introduction xiii
Prolog xix
PART1: THE PROBLEM 1
1 The Neglect of Children and Adolescents in the United States 3
2 Adolescent Pregnancy and Childbirth Trends 19
3 The Denigration of Parenthood 25
4 Divergent Parenthood Styles 36
5 Dysfunctional Social Policies and Services 50
PART2: THEORETICALFOUNDATION 59
6 Chaos/Complexity Theory 61
7 The Rights of Babies and Adolescents 77
8 The Rights of Parents 93
PART3: THE HUMAN DEVELOPMENTALPROCESS 103
9 Developing Human Relationships: Attachment Bonding 105
10 Adolescent Development 115
11 Emerging Adulthood 135
12 Parenthood as a Developmental Stage in Life 143
PART4: THE DYNAMICS OFADOLESCENTPARENTHOOD 149
13 Choosing to Be an Adolescent Parent 151
14 Profiles of Adolescent Parents 160
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vi Contents
15 The Impact of Parenthood on Adolescents 167
16 The Impact of Adolescent Parenthood on Children 175
PART5: FAMILIES 181
17 The Families of Adolescent Parents 183
18 The Impact of Adolescent Parenthood on Families 187
PART6: NEIGHBORHOODS AND COMMUNITIES 199
19 Social Class and Adolescent Parenthood 201
20 Peer Influences on Adolescent Parenthood 215
21 Gang Influences on Adolescent Parenthood 226
PART7: CULTURE 233
22 Cultural Influences on Adolescent Parenthood 235
23 Black Adolescent Parenthood 246
24 Latino Adolescent Parenthood 261
25 American Indian Adolescent Parenthood 269
26 Muslim Adolescent Parenthood 275
27 Hmong Adolescent Parenthood 280
PART8: SOCIETY 287
28 Impact of Adolescent Parenthood on Society 289
29 Programs for Adolescent Parents 295
30 Dampening and Amplifying Trends 313
PART9: SOLUTIONS 325
31 Preventing Adolescent Pregnancy and Parenthood 327
32 Valuing Parenthood 349
33 Parenthood Planning Teams and Certification of Parenthood 363
34 Adoption 380
PART10: CONCLUSION 403
Notes 413
Index 495
Preface
Our personal experiences as adolescents are relevant for readers of this book. Each
one of us had a unique experience during this formative stage of life. For me, reading
Sigmund Freud’s Introductory Lectures to Psychoanalysis as an adolescent revealed
that human motives are not always what they seem to be. Discovering hidden motives
behind the façades of adult behavior appealed to me. This curiosity led me to become
a psychiatrist.
In order to understand the behavior of individuals, I need information ranging from
molecules to environments. In order to understand the behavior of individuals in
groups, I need information about families, societies and cultures. The living system
and chaos/complexity theories help me make sense out of all of this information.
Over forty-five years of clinical practice and research, I participated in the lives of
many poor and affluent young people and their families. My interest is in connecting
systems that influence them and their families—childcare, schools, neighborhoods,
communities, health and mental health care, social services, law enforcement, courts
and corrections. I was inspired to write this book by the growing strain on these sys-
tems created by the intractable cycle of adolescent parents—the most preventable
cause of crime and welfare dependency.
My book Child Advocacy played a role in the child advocacy movement in the
1980s. I developed the child advocacy team that brought an interdisciplinary focus on
the family into courts. Similarly formed coordinated service and wraparound teams
now integrate public and private services for families in many communities across the
nation.
I learned that “child advocacy” actually diverted attention from the more important
need for “family advocacy.” I began to refer to myself as a family psychiatrist and
joined the parent licensing movement in 1990s. That brought both positive and nega-
tive attention. I found that the word “family” is controversial and needs clarification.
I decided to focus on public policies to strengthen “childrearing families.”
All too often the words we use derail thoughtful dialog. Difficulty in finding the
most appropriate language contributes to the lack of objective thinking about adoles-
cent pregnancy and parenthood. It reflects the inherent ambiguity of adolescence as
vii
viii Preface
the “child-adult” stage of life. Referring to adolescent girls and boys as “women” and
“men” ignores adolescence as a vital developmental stage in life. Any words used to
refer to minority groups can evoke positive and negative stereotypes.
The words used in this book inevitably will evoke negative associations, especially
“adolescence” and “adoption.” Adolescents may prefer to be referred to as
“teenagers,” “teens,” “kids” or “youth” because “adolescence” connotes immaturity
when they are trying to be mature. “Adoption” can evoke images of taking babies
away from their mothers.
Legal adulthood also complicates thinking about adolescence. Two-thirds of all
adolescent mothers are eighteen and nineteen. They are at a different stage of adoles-
cent development than those under eighteen. Although still adolescents, they are
considered legal adults in most respects in our society. To further complicate matters,
the term “woman” often is used to refer to a pregnant minor. Even “adolescent preg-
nancy” takes the focus off the male contributor. In a broader sense, “sexually active”
has replaced “promiscuous”; “affair” has replaced “adultery”; and “hooking up” has
replaced “dating.”
This book approaches cultural differences by referring to minorities, particularly
those who live in poverty, as Asians, American Indians, Blacks, Hmong, Latinos and
Muslims. Referring to the nation’s second largest minority group as colored, African-
American, Negro, black or Black is an especially sensitive issue, although each of
these terms have been used by Black luminaries.1
The term “white” is even more confusing because it covers a wide variety of back-
grounds and is gradually being overshadowed by the “browning” of America. Lower
case “black” and “white” often is used to de-emphasize racial backgrounds consistent
with an effort to minimize racial differences between people. As did Beverly Tatum in
her book Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria, I capitalize
“Black” and “White” to follow the capitalization of “African-American” and the
names of other ethnic groups and to acknowledge the fact that ethnic background is
important.2
“Latino” is preferred over “Hispanic” by Latin America activists.3For them, Latino
describes their cultures better than the language they speak.
The term “American Indian” is ambiguous. It and “Native American” encompass
all indigenous Indians on the American Continent but refer to Indians in the United
States and Alaska, where the latter also may be referred to as Native Alaskans.
Ethnicity does matter. For the sake of consistency, I capitalize ethnicity in the
United States as American Indian, Asian, Black, Hmong, Latino, Muslim and White.
There may come a time when ethnicity no longer matters, but we are not there yet.
It is easy to overlook the importance of brain development in adolescents who
appear to be young adults. Consequently, I refer to “teenagers,” “teens” and “youth”
as “adolescents” and as “girls” and “boys.” I also refer to “infants” as “babies” to ac-
knowledge the nurturing feelings they evoke. Referring to “babies” as “infants” makes
it possible to deal with them as objects rather than as human beings.
All of these words used to describe people still can be misinterpreted because of
the sensitive nature of the topics addressed in this book. For this, I ask the reader’s
indulgence.
Preface ix
I cite research in the social sciences recognizing that their methodologies cannot
achieve the validity and reliability of research in the physical sciences. At the same
time, I know that all physical and social science research is subject to bias. I ac-
knowledge my bias in favor of the interests of babies, girls, boys and parents com-
mitted to the career of parenthood.
I hope that sharing my perspective will highlight the vital role of parenthood in our
society and help to bring adolescent parenthood into public awareness as a public
health crisis that can be resolved.
Jack Westman
Madison, Wisconsin