More babies of very young mothers (under age 16) die, are medically at risk, and have developmental and educational difficulties than children of older, but still relatively young mothers. Because of the etiology of adolescent pregnancy, the young mother is unlikely to seek comprehensive prenatal care at the first realization of pregnancy. In…

In 1968 the California Education Code section on physically handicapped minors was amended to include pregnant girls. This change was intended to give school districts the responsibility and the funds to develop special classes or schools for teenage pregmant girls. This special class makes it possible to provide more educational materials,…

Young black males account for almost half of all unwed fathers. The average black adolescent unwed father is 17 years old at the birth of his first child, comes from an unusually large family, began having sex at an earlier age than other black men, and has had slightly positive educational and employment experiences. Most also exhibit a high…

Home economics education is not different from career education, but career education should include as a primary thrust preparation for family life. Career education itself is concerned with total development of all students, home and community learning, self-development, and is integrated learning. Just as career education will increase student…

This paper presents a survey of consumer needs for various types of parent education curriculum materials. The paper suggests that needs assessment should be an important part of any curriculum development process. The survey addressed four questions: (1) current sources of information about children, (2) desirable content for new materials, (3)…

This paper describes the overall conceptual and pedagogical goals of a program ('Exploring Childhood') designed to help adolescents gain competence in working with children and an understanding of the forces that shape children's development. The paper is intended as an explanation of the assumptions and questions that guided the development of…

This study was designed to determine whether children's knowledge and ability to solve problems about parenting and caregiving could be promoted by means of a school-based curriculum. The study took place over 2 years and involved 138 fifth graders the first year and 217 fifth and sixth graders the second. Subjects were divided into treatment and…

In 1984 the Pennsylvania Department of Education notified school districts that they could not deny pregnant or parenting students an education; could not put them on homebound instruction in the absence of medical conditions; and could not place them involuntarily in segregated alternative programs. The state supplied additional funds to start…

Adolescents contribute nearly 20% of all births in the United States; half of these are unplanned or unwanted. Negative health and socioeconomic consequences are associated with adolescent childbearing, and teenagers account for nearly one-third of all reported therapeutic abortions. Failure to use other than traditional research methods to study…

This study examined adults' beliefs about parenthood in terms of Veevers' (1973) notion of "cultural myths" about adulthood and tried to account for the origins and importance of the myths. Subjects were 93 undergraduates in a junior-level course on parenting who completed the Survey of Beliefs about Parenthood at the beginning and end…

A pilot program was designed to provide opportunities for a group of high-risk parents to improve their parenting. Specifically, the program provided a center in which teenage mothers could meet, share child-rearing problems, observe their children being cared for by trained personnel, interact with their children, and have opportunities for…

A brief overview describes a study in which high school students were taught to deal effectively with "critical incidents" in a pre-parenting program. The program described involved pretest; training in anger control, alternative responses to stress, and appropriate responses to behaviors; and posttesting. The study found students could be taught…

This paper discusses the evolution of parenthood education programs in Poland. The history of attitudes toward childhood is traced briefly and the roles and responsibilities of parents in the modern family are discussed. Government support of the family in Poland is documented and some parent education or education for family life programs are…

The United States educational system has a responsibility to provide adults with the necessary education to raise healthy, productive children. Learning how to be a parent does not appear to be a routine part of the growing-up process today. Therefore, in order to maximize the essential early development of children, parenthood training becomes…

The author speaks to the issue of the need in our society to prepare teenage boys and girls to become effective parents. He finds such preparation crucial for the growth and development of the individual infant, and thus is supportive of efforts to ensure that future parents have the skill and understanding to meet the social, emotional, physical…