When Elaine Bell Kaplan first decided to look at black teenage mothers, the sociologist felt sure she knew why the teens kept their babies. The big mystery, reasoned the researcher who is herself a former teen mother, was why the teenagers even allowed themselves to get pregnant in the first place. Imagine Kaplan's surprise to learn that teens were no better informed about birth control than she had been and that the teens' mothers raised no objections to abortions - they vehemently advocated them.
Realities Hiding Behind the Myths - is the future of the African American community.
Of these families, more than half have daughters who were or will become mothers during their teenage years. The subjects, who lived in East Oak-land and Richmond, ranged from 14 to 43 years of age, but all had become mothers between the ages of 14 and 17. In addition to leaving little energy for affection, the mothers' low-status, poorly paid jobs spawned deep pessimism in the teens. A few were still enthusiastic about education, but most of the teens were convinced by their own experiences and those of the people around them that education would not help them out of their situation. Mothers have taught them that they will be working one day, but they find themselves in classrooms where the teachers are paying far more attention to the boys.