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Community attitudes toward the unmarried mother: A formula for change
Sot. Sci. & Med., 1970, Supplement 1, Vol. 4, pp. 13-20
COMMUNITY
ATTITUDES
Pergamon Press
TOWARD THE UNMARRIED
A FORMULA
MOTHER:
FOR CHANGE
Georgia L. McMurray
One of the more important developments from the Economic Opportunity Act of 1964 has been the encouragement of new patterns of servicesfor the neglected in our society. The problems of these many, heretofore invisible people have been highlighted through programs supported by Office of Economic Opportunity
grants mandating community
participation. Such involvement by local
residents has spawned the establishment of programs for preschool children, neighborhood health and legal services for the poor, services for school drop-outs and unemployed youth, and, most significantly, neighborhood-based programs for pregnant, unmarried teenagers. The pregnant, unmarried adolescent has long been one of the most neglected persons in our society. Yet who becomes an unmarried mother? This question is being posed today as never before. The ferment brought by the pressure for enlightened social legislation to provide equal opportunity and justice for all has paved the way for a new and radical look at this traditionally maligned member of our society. The unmarried mother has been considered a pariah in the community because her very existence has made the violation of moral and family laws manifest. She has been rejected by the community through exclusion from school because of pregnancy, denied equal access to housing facilities, and borne the brunt of repressive public welfare regulations. The stigma of her social misbehavior has fallen, even more tragically, upon her children who have been denied equal protection under the law because they have been born “out-of-wedlock.” The concept of unmarried mother has been based upon legal definitions of family and parent-child relationships which date back to Roman and Greek civilizations. The impact of Christianity upon these was profound. This new religion with its idealization of chastity and its strict laws about marriage and family refined the legal and moral framework through which a child could be designated an heir of his parent, i.e., father. Thus, a child, illegally born, had no legal or moral right to claim the name of his father, much less his estate. It should be remembered, also, that until very recently, women had no property rights. This history lives with us today. It can be seen by the legal distinction between children born “in” and “out” of wedlock and by punitive and rejecting approaches in providing social services to these women and children who, by far, are impoverished and need concentrated help to survive. It is an historical accident that the majority of children born out of wedlock in this country are Negro; an accident because the “chance” import of African slaves two centuries ago created a caste system in which deterioration of family structures could be nourished. The havoc wrought by years of poverty, unemployment, and social ostracism has produced today’s statistics indicating high rates of illegitimate births among Negroes. A note of caution, though. This does not mean that there is 13
14
G.L. McMurray
inherent in the Negro family structure a proclivity to illegitimacy. The conditions of economic and social deprivation have produced these statistics about Negro family life, not the moral and social values of Negroes themselves. The Negro family does not condone illegitimacy-it
endures it.
We are beginning to recognize that the unmarried mother exists in all strata of society. The unmarried mother who is white and middle class has been invisible because community and private services have been available which provide shelter to her during the pregnancy and adoption facilities for her often-unwanted child. Further, marriage has been a frequent solution following the discovery of pregnancy. These avenues of protection have not been available to the poor, black woman pregnant out-of-wedlock. She has been highly visible to the community because of her need, if nothing else. Yet, community help has come almost solely through the availability of free medical clinics and public assistance,and the administration of these serviceshas been, by and large, punitive and demeaning. We are now in a period of rapid change when traditional values are suspect and the basic patterns of family and sexual relationships are being restructured. There is wide practice of pre-marital sexual intercourse from adolescence on; the use of family planning techniques is greatly advocated; the incidence of illegitimate births is rising in all segmentsof the population with its corollary of teen-age marriages and broken families. Serious consideration is now also being given to liberalizing abortion laws in many states. Within this climate of change, social servicesfor the unmarried mother are coming under close scrutiny. The unmarried mother, though legally defined, exists in her most hapless state as a woman who needs help in providing a home for her child. Thus, the community, by so defining her state, now bears the responsibility for providing her help. Project Teen Aid, a community action programfor pregnant teenagers, was established in 1965 to develop comprehensive services for such teenagers from low-income, socially deprived families. This program is sponsored by Willoughby House Settlement, Inc. and The Visiting Nurse Association of Brooklyn, Inc. through funds from the Office of Economic Opportunity. Project Teen Aid is a new and unique pattern of servicesfor this population. Its most radical departure from existing servicesis the use of community action as a fundamental part of service. By enlisting the help of the people to be served, a viable community program is being built and sustained. The program has attracted much attention for several reasons: 1) It is neighborhood-based and provides services to pregnant teen-agers who remain at home and keep their children. 1. For a discussionof the legal implications for children born out-of-wedlock, refer to Goldstein, Joseph and Katy, Jay, The Family and the Law, New York: The Free Press, 1965. 2. See Frazier, E. Franklin, The Negro Family in the United States, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1939; Greenleigh Associates, Inc. Facts, Fallacies, and Future: A Study of the Aid to Dependent Children Program in Cook County, Illinois. New York: 1960; Koos, Earl L., Families in Trouble. Morningside Heights: King’s Crown Press, 1946; Myrdal, Gunnar, An American Dilemma: New York: Harpers and Bros., 1944. 3. United States Department of Health, Education, and Welfare. Trends in Illegitimacy: United States 19461965. Public Health Service, National Center for Health Statistics, Series 21, Number 15.
Community Attitudes Toward the Unmarried Mother
15
2) The servicesare comprehensive in scope with the crucially important inclusion of accredited continued education. The project is structured similar to a day center program and most of the activities occur in a group setting. The pregnant teenager attends the program four-and-a-half days weekly and remains throughout the day. She is admitted into the program at the time of initial contact. Intake requirements consist of: residence-Fort Greene Health District; income-low-income or public welfare recipient; age-thirteen through nineteen; marital status-single. Services are continued for the teenager throughout pregnancy. The young mother is involved in follow-up activities after the birth of the baby until her educational and/or vocational goals have been effected. Staff is also available to any former program participant even though she is no longer enrolled in ongoing activities.
The following is an account of the project services: 1) Education - Accredited education is provided by two teachers assigned from the Board of Education, Bureau for the Education of the Physically Handicapped. These teachers come to the program two days a week. Both junior high and high school courses have been available with the curriculum developed according to the student needs. Nine students graduated from Project Teen Aid school in June 1967 with official school diplomas. 2) Maternity Education - Instruction is given in group sessionsby the public health nurse in the following areas: maternity and child health, human reproduction and physiology, sex education, family planning, preparation for child birth and delivery, and use of community health facilities. The nurse also provides practical demonstrations in infant care. She acts as liason for the home visiting program and coordinates the medical care of the program participant at the local hospital. 3) Home Visiting-There
is routine home visiting by the Visiting Nurse Association on all
referrals to the program. Each teenager is seen during ante- and post-partum periods. It should be noted that this is the only community in New York City which has such extensive routine home visiting by public health nurses for pregnant teenagers. The cost of this service is borne by the Departments of Hospitals and Social Services since all the clients served are of low-income. 4) Counselling - Counselling around problems precipitated by the pregnancy and related matters is provided by a social worker for the pregnant teenager, her family and the baby’s father when appropriate. There are regular group counselling sessionswith the teen-agers and their parents. The social worker also coordinates social servicesactivity with other community agencies, such as the local hospital and the Department of Social Services. 5) Vocational Guidance-A
vocational counsellor is responsible for assessingthe teen-ager’s
educational and vocational potential through interview and testing techniques. She also evaluates her past school history in planning referrals for college placement, vocational training or employment. A career development program is conducted by the counsellor through which she introduces various careers to the teenagers, utilizing group discussionand audiovisual aids. 6) Homemaking and Handicraft Instructions - Meal preparation including menu and budget development, use of local markets, sewing, knitting, crocheting and personal grooming are taught by
G.L. McMurray
16
local residents who are employed in the program. A hot meal is served each day under the tutelage of one such resident with the assistanceof two program participants. 7) Volunteer Activities - The services of the program are supplemented by volunteer help in the following areas: a.
Group therapy sessions are provided by a psychiatrist from the local hospital. Also,
b.
Assistance in the sewing and knitting classes.
individual consultation for program participants is available if needed. C.
Weekly typing classfor commercial high school students.
d.
Tutorial help in reading and related subject matter.
8) Community
Education-The
staff spends much time in speaking before community,
professional and lay groups, as well as public and voluntary agencies about the needs of unmarried mothers. Consultation is provided around such areas as nutrition, housing, medical care and health as they affect this particular population. Since its inception in 1965, Project Teen Aid has served over 250 pregnant teen-agers. For these young women, out-of-wedlock pregnancy has not meant an abrupt end to their goals. Here are but two case examples of pregnant teen-agerswho have benefited by the program. Mary A: A 17-year-old Negro adolescent, pregnant out-of-wedlock, was referred by the local hospital during her first pregnancy but was highly motivated to complete her studies. The relationship with the baby’s father was stable, but the couple delayed marriage plans until they could accumulate some savings. Mary’s career goal was nursing. Her parents were separated (father’s whereabouts unknown) and the family received public assistance.Mary was admitted to the project and enrolled in the high school class. She attended school regularly until the day before the baby was born. She returned to the project classesthree weeks after childbirth and completed the semester. Mary returned to regular school in the spring term and was given credit for her studies in Project Teen Aid. She graduated from her regular high school this past June and has been admitted to a nursing school. Jane 8: Sixteen-year-old Negro adolescent, pregnant out-of-wedlock, with a history of foster home placement, psychiatric hospitalization, and severely disruptive family relations. The baby’s father (alleged) is in prison on an assault and battery charge. Jane was referred by the hospital and was known to several agencies whose serviceswere uncoordinated at the time of admission. Her behavior was impulsive and she had much difficulty in following medical advice. The project staff immediately contacted all agencies involved and began to coordinate services, working closely with the medical social worker at the hospital. It was soon apparent that Jane, although she had little self-control, was quite creative and bright. The school teacher stimulated her through individualized work. The community aide supervised her homework assignments and became a “buddy” to her. Home visits established the need for a change in housing because of the dilapidated and quite hazardous conditions in which the family lived. Jane, after a few months in the program, took the responsibility to find a new apartment for her family which included her grandmother and several relatives. She wanted a new home for the baby. The Department of Social Services authorized funds quickly to help them furnish the apartment. She also developed internal controls over her behavior, responding both to the individual attention and her desire to become an integral part of the peer group. She completed her tenth year in the Project Teen Aid school and returned to regular school the following semester. Certain general observations can be made from the pregnant teen-agers who have already been
Community Attitudes Toward the Unmarried Mother
17
served through the program. 1) There has been a marked improvement in the perinatal mortality rate of teen-age mothers at Cumberland Hospital, the local public hospital where the majority of the program participants receive prenatal care. Dr. Vincent Tricomi, Director of Obstetrics, Cumberland Hospital, cited Project Teen Aid as one of the factors in producing the break in the “traditional sound barrier” of 30 per 10,000 births which is used by medical personnel to measure the adequacy of obstetrical care. The perinatal rate at Cumberland Hospital in 1966 for pregnant teenagers was 27.95. 2) Fifty-five percent of the pregnant teenagers have returned to regular school to continue their education after the baby’s birth. 3) Twenty
percent of the clients served have been referred to jobs or vocational training
programs. 4) All but five young mothers have kept their babies and they, by all accounts, seem to be adequate mothers involved in the care of their children. 5) There is a record of only one second pregnancy in the population already served. Project Teen Aid looks forward to a bright future. The New York City Board of Education is now acknowledging its responsibility to provide continued education for pregnant school-age girls who remain in the community. Project Teen Aid has been approved by the Board of Education to become an educational center for such teenagers in School District 13, Brooklyn, with the important proviso that the community action approach will be maintained. Plans to set up a prenatal clinic for pregnant teenagers is under consideration at the local public hospital. If so established, medical care will be organized and coordinated using a team approach. It is estimated, however, by the Department of Health, New York City, that approximately 4,000 girls of compulsory school age were pregnant out-of-wedlock in 1966. Most of these adolescents were discharged or dropped from school because of pregnancy, received inadequate services from medical and public welfare agencies and because of existing patterns of serviceswere excluded from utilizing the meager community resources of maternity homes and child placement services. These teen-agers remain in the community and keep their babies. What is happening to them? The Fort Greene community asked itself this question in 1964 and responded by setting up Project Teen Aid. There is need now to review the policies and structures of services to children, including public education,
if society is going to address itself to the social and economic
consequences of unmarried parenthood. The toll of rearing children out-of-wedlock is most severe. The exclusion of a pregnant school girl from continued education marks the beginning of a life half-educated and poorly equipped to assume familial responsibilities. It is no accident that many women receiving public assistanceare school dropouts because of pregnancy. Communities should begin to plan for a variety of services which grow out of a recognition that society has a responsibility to alleviate the economic burdens of child-rearing, in and out of wedlock. School policies, for instance, exclude not only the pregnant but, many times, the married student. 1. Tricomi, Vincent, M.D., Progress Report-Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, the BrooklynCumberland Medical Center, 1966. (unpublished text), page 5.
G.L. McMurray
18
Such policies need to be changed as they are based upon a moralistic, punitive approach to adolescent behavior. The pregnant student should be given the option to remain in regular school or receive continued education in neighborhood-based programs, such as Project Teen Aid. These programs can serve not only to provide accredited education, but also, health and medical care, counselling, vocational training and the like. They can thus prepare the young mother-to-be for her new role of parent. Provisions should also be made for an income maintenance system outside of public assistanceto guarantee each family a minimum standard of living. Low income public housing should be available to those financially eligible regardlessof marital status. A range of day care services from infancy to school-age should be developed so that mothers of young children can take advantage of expanding educational and vocational opportunities. These services should not be merely custodial but rather offer an environment for the physical, educational and emotional maturation of the young child. Comprehensive medical care for the total family, including family planning and liberalized abortion procedures, should also be considered in an over-all response to the problem of rearing children in economically deprived families. The social consequences of unmarried parenthood are more difficult to assessonce one controls for the economic factor. The optimum structure for child-rearing is determined by the values of a given society. There is little doubt that Western civilization supports a monogamous relationship as the basis for a family. However, it is also apparent that many children today are reared in one-parent families-families broken through death, divorce and separation. There are children too who are reared in extended family units. Documentation is sparse about the cumulative effects of rearing children in differential family structures. Any attempt, however, to study the family in a rational, objective manner should be based upon some assumptions about the nature of group life. First, society has an inherent right to designate values on social behavior in order to preserve the integrity of its culture, but it also has the task of nurturing an environment in which such values can be maintained.
It has been reasonably
demonstrated, for instance, that punitive responses to out-of-wedlock pregnancies do not suppress such conceptions but rather aggravate the difficulties in rearing children of pre- or extra-marital unions. In particular, the reticence of society to pass enlightened laws on abortion only fosters a proliferation of illegitimate births in economically deprived, one-parent families. The causative factors of conception out-of-wedlock still remain to be defined. Experience suggeststhat these cover several inter-related areas-economic, socio-cultural, psychological. The true incidence of such conceptions is unknown because of the accessibility that socially and economically independent families have to abortion procedures and other services mentioned previously. There is little known, moreover, about the rearing of children born out-of-wedlock in these families. Yet, it is recognized that such situations exist. The irrationality
that has surrounded unmarried motherhood has prevented adequate and
impartial study of child-rearing patterns in this group and their effect upon maturation. There have been tacit assumptions that such motherhood is psychologically or sociologically predetermined. Moreover, research in this field has dealt primarily with documentation of economic deprivations through analyses of welfare and medical needs. Programs which reach out to provide a range of social services to the unmarried mother now offer the opportunity to obtain further knowledge on the
Community Attitudes Toward the Unmarried Mother
nature of unmarried parenthood itself and community attitudes as they relate to this family group.
19
COMMUNITY
ATTITUDES
Pergamon Press
TOWARD THE UNMARRIED
A FORMULA
MOTHER:
FOR CHANGE
Georgia L. McMurray
One of the more important developments from the Economic Opportunity Act of 1964 has been the encouragement of new patterns of servicesfor the neglected in our society. The problems of these many, heretofore invisible people have been highlighted through programs supported by Office of Economic Opportunity
grants mandating community
participation. Such involvement by local
residents has spawned the establishment of programs for preschool children, neighborhood health and legal services for the poor, services for school drop-outs and unemployed youth, and, most significantly, neighborhood-based programs for pregnant, unmarried teenagers. The pregnant, unmarried adolescent has long been one of the most neglected persons in our society. Yet who becomes an unmarried mother? This question is being posed today as never before. The ferment brought by the pressure for enlightened social legislation to provide equal opportunity and justice for all has paved the way for a new and radical look at this traditionally maligned member of our society. The unmarried mother has been considered a pariah in the community because her very existence has made the violation of moral and family laws manifest. She has been rejected by the community through exclusion from school because of pregnancy, denied equal access to housing facilities, and borne the brunt of repressive public welfare regulations. The stigma of her social misbehavior has fallen, even more tragically, upon her children who have been denied equal protection under the law because they have been born “out-of-wedlock.” The concept of unmarried mother has been based upon legal definitions of family and parent-child relationships which date back to Roman and Greek civilizations. The impact of Christianity upon these was profound. This new religion with its idealization of chastity and its strict laws about marriage and family refined the legal and moral framework through which a child could be designated an heir of his parent, i.e., father. Thus, a child, illegally born, had no legal or moral right to claim the name of his father, much less his estate. It should be remembered, also, that until very recently, women had no property rights. This history lives with us today. It can be seen by the legal distinction between children born “in” and “out” of wedlock and by punitive and rejecting approaches in providing social services to these women and children who, by far, are impoverished and need concentrated help to survive. It is an historical accident that the majority of children born out of wedlock in this country are Negro; an accident because the “chance” import of African slaves two centuries ago created a caste system in which deterioration of family structures could be nourished. The havoc wrought by years of poverty, unemployment, and social ostracism has produced today’s statistics indicating high rates of illegitimate births among Negroes. A note of caution, though. This does not mean that there is 13
14
G.L. McMurray
inherent in the Negro family structure a proclivity to illegitimacy. The conditions of economic and social deprivation have produced these statistics about Negro family life, not the moral and social values of Negroes themselves. The Negro family does not condone illegitimacy-it
endures it.
We are beginning to recognize that the unmarried mother exists in all strata of society. The unmarried mother who is white and middle class has been invisible because community and private services have been available which provide shelter to her during the pregnancy and adoption facilities for her often-unwanted child. Further, marriage has been a frequent solution following the discovery of pregnancy. These avenues of protection have not been available to the poor, black woman pregnant out-of-wedlock. She has been highly visible to the community because of her need, if nothing else. Yet, community help has come almost solely through the availability of free medical clinics and public assistance,and the administration of these serviceshas been, by and large, punitive and demeaning. We are now in a period of rapid change when traditional values are suspect and the basic patterns of family and sexual relationships are being restructured. There is wide practice of pre-marital sexual intercourse from adolescence on; the use of family planning techniques is greatly advocated; the incidence of illegitimate births is rising in all segmentsof the population with its corollary of teen-age marriages and broken families. Serious consideration is now also being given to liberalizing abortion laws in many states. Within this climate of change, social servicesfor the unmarried mother are coming under close scrutiny. The unmarried mother, though legally defined, exists in her most hapless state as a woman who needs help in providing a home for her child. Thus, the community, by so defining her state, now bears the responsibility for providing her help. Project Teen Aid, a community action programfor pregnant teenagers, was established in 1965 to develop comprehensive services for such teenagers from low-income, socially deprived families. This program is sponsored by Willoughby House Settlement, Inc. and The Visiting Nurse Association of Brooklyn, Inc. through funds from the Office of Economic Opportunity. Project Teen Aid is a new and unique pattern of servicesfor this population. Its most radical departure from existing servicesis the use of community action as a fundamental part of service. By enlisting the help of the people to be served, a viable community program is being built and sustained. The program has attracted much attention for several reasons: 1) It is neighborhood-based and provides services to pregnant teen-agers who remain at home and keep their children. 1. For a discussionof the legal implications for children born out-of-wedlock, refer to Goldstein, Joseph and Katy, Jay, The Family and the Law, New York: The Free Press, 1965. 2. See Frazier, E. Franklin, The Negro Family in the United States, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1939; Greenleigh Associates, Inc. Facts, Fallacies, and Future: A Study of the Aid to Dependent Children Program in Cook County, Illinois. New York: 1960; Koos, Earl L., Families in Trouble. Morningside Heights: King’s Crown Press, 1946; Myrdal, Gunnar, An American Dilemma: New York: Harpers and Bros., 1944. 3. United States Department of Health, Education, and Welfare. Trends in Illegitimacy: United States 19461965. Public Health Service, National Center for Health Statistics, Series 21, Number 15.
Community Attitudes Toward the Unmarried Mother
15
2) The servicesare comprehensive in scope with the crucially important inclusion of accredited continued education. The project is structured similar to a day center program and most of the activities occur in a group setting. The pregnant teenager attends the program four-and-a-half days weekly and remains throughout the day. She is admitted into the program at the time of initial contact. Intake requirements consist of: residence-Fort Greene Health District; income-low-income or public welfare recipient; age-thirteen through nineteen; marital status-single. Services are continued for the teenager throughout pregnancy. The young mother is involved in follow-up activities after the birth of the baby until her educational and/or vocational goals have been effected. Staff is also available to any former program participant even though she is no longer enrolled in ongoing activities.
The following is an account of the project services: 1) Education - Accredited education is provided by two teachers assigned from the Board of Education, Bureau for the Education of the Physically Handicapped. These teachers come to the program two days a week. Both junior high and high school courses have been available with the curriculum developed according to the student needs. Nine students graduated from Project Teen Aid school in June 1967 with official school diplomas. 2) Maternity Education - Instruction is given in group sessionsby the public health nurse in the following areas: maternity and child health, human reproduction and physiology, sex education, family planning, preparation for child birth and delivery, and use of community health facilities. The nurse also provides practical demonstrations in infant care. She acts as liason for the home visiting program and coordinates the medical care of the program participant at the local hospital. 3) Home Visiting-There
is routine home visiting by the Visiting Nurse Association on all
referrals to the program. Each teenager is seen during ante- and post-partum periods. It should be noted that this is the only community in New York City which has such extensive routine home visiting by public health nurses for pregnant teenagers. The cost of this service is borne by the Departments of Hospitals and Social Services since all the clients served are of low-income. 4) Counselling - Counselling around problems precipitated by the pregnancy and related matters is provided by a social worker for the pregnant teenager, her family and the baby’s father when appropriate. There are regular group counselling sessionswith the teen-agers and their parents. The social worker also coordinates social servicesactivity with other community agencies, such as the local hospital and the Department of Social Services. 5) Vocational Guidance-A
vocational counsellor is responsible for assessingthe teen-ager’s
educational and vocational potential through interview and testing techniques. She also evaluates her past school history in planning referrals for college placement, vocational training or employment. A career development program is conducted by the counsellor through which she introduces various careers to the teenagers, utilizing group discussionand audiovisual aids. 6) Homemaking and Handicraft Instructions - Meal preparation including menu and budget development, use of local markets, sewing, knitting, crocheting and personal grooming are taught by
G.L. McMurray
16
local residents who are employed in the program. A hot meal is served each day under the tutelage of one such resident with the assistanceof two program participants. 7) Volunteer Activities - The services of the program are supplemented by volunteer help in the following areas: a.
Group therapy sessions are provided by a psychiatrist from the local hospital. Also,
b.
Assistance in the sewing and knitting classes.
individual consultation for program participants is available if needed. C.
Weekly typing classfor commercial high school students.
d.
Tutorial help in reading and related subject matter.
8) Community
Education-The
staff spends much time in speaking before community,
professional and lay groups, as well as public and voluntary agencies about the needs of unmarried mothers. Consultation is provided around such areas as nutrition, housing, medical care and health as they affect this particular population. Since its inception in 1965, Project Teen Aid has served over 250 pregnant teen-agers. For these young women, out-of-wedlock pregnancy has not meant an abrupt end to their goals. Here are but two case examples of pregnant teen-agerswho have benefited by the program. Mary A: A 17-year-old Negro adolescent, pregnant out-of-wedlock, was referred by the local hospital during her first pregnancy but was highly motivated to complete her studies. The relationship with the baby’s father was stable, but the couple delayed marriage plans until they could accumulate some savings. Mary’s career goal was nursing. Her parents were separated (father’s whereabouts unknown) and the family received public assistance.Mary was admitted to the project and enrolled in the high school class. She attended school regularly until the day before the baby was born. She returned to the project classesthree weeks after childbirth and completed the semester. Mary returned to regular school in the spring term and was given credit for her studies in Project Teen Aid. She graduated from her regular high school this past June and has been admitted to a nursing school. Jane 8: Sixteen-year-old Negro adolescent, pregnant out-of-wedlock, with a history of foster home placement, psychiatric hospitalization, and severely disruptive family relations. The baby’s father (alleged) is in prison on an assault and battery charge. Jane was referred by the hospital and was known to several agencies whose serviceswere uncoordinated at the time of admission. Her behavior was impulsive and she had much difficulty in following medical advice. The project staff immediately contacted all agencies involved and began to coordinate services, working closely with the medical social worker at the hospital. It was soon apparent that Jane, although she had little self-control, was quite creative and bright. The school teacher stimulated her through individualized work. The community aide supervised her homework assignments and became a “buddy” to her. Home visits established the need for a change in housing because of the dilapidated and quite hazardous conditions in which the family lived. Jane, after a few months in the program, took the responsibility to find a new apartment for her family which included her grandmother and several relatives. She wanted a new home for the baby. The Department of Social Services authorized funds quickly to help them furnish the apartment. She also developed internal controls over her behavior, responding both to the individual attention and her desire to become an integral part of the peer group. She completed her tenth year in the Project Teen Aid school and returned to regular school the following semester. Certain general observations can be made from the pregnant teen-agers who have already been
Community Attitudes Toward the Unmarried Mother
17
served through the program. 1) There has been a marked improvement in the perinatal mortality rate of teen-age mothers at Cumberland Hospital, the local public hospital where the majority of the program participants receive prenatal care. Dr. Vincent Tricomi, Director of Obstetrics, Cumberland Hospital, cited Project Teen Aid as one of the factors in producing the break in the “traditional sound barrier” of 30 per 10,000 births which is used by medical personnel to measure the adequacy of obstetrical care. The perinatal rate at Cumberland Hospital in 1966 for pregnant teenagers was 27.95. 2) Fifty-five percent of the pregnant teenagers have returned to regular school to continue their education after the baby’s birth. 3) Twenty
percent of the clients served have been referred to jobs or vocational training
programs. 4) All but five young mothers have kept their babies and they, by all accounts, seem to be adequate mothers involved in the care of their children. 5) There is a record of only one second pregnancy in the population already served. Project Teen Aid looks forward to a bright future. The New York City Board of Education is now acknowledging its responsibility to provide continued education for pregnant school-age girls who remain in the community. Project Teen Aid has been approved by the Board of Education to become an educational center for such teenagers in School District 13, Brooklyn, with the important proviso that the community action approach will be maintained. Plans to set up a prenatal clinic for pregnant teenagers is under consideration at the local public hospital. If so established, medical care will be organized and coordinated using a team approach. It is estimated, however, by the Department of Health, New York City, that approximately 4,000 girls of compulsory school age were pregnant out-of-wedlock in 1966. Most of these adolescents were discharged or dropped from school because of pregnancy, received inadequate services from medical and public welfare agencies and because of existing patterns of serviceswere excluded from utilizing the meager community resources of maternity homes and child placement services. These teen-agers remain in the community and keep their babies. What is happening to them? The Fort Greene community asked itself this question in 1964 and responded by setting up Project Teen Aid. There is need now to review the policies and structures of services to children, including public education,
if society is going to address itself to the social and economic
consequences of unmarried parenthood. The toll of rearing children out-of-wedlock is most severe. The exclusion of a pregnant school girl from continued education marks the beginning of a life half-educated and poorly equipped to assume familial responsibilities. It is no accident that many women receiving public assistanceare school dropouts because of pregnancy. Communities should begin to plan for a variety of services which grow out of a recognition that society has a responsibility to alleviate the economic burdens of child-rearing, in and out of wedlock. School policies, for instance, exclude not only the pregnant but, many times, the married student. 1. Tricomi, Vincent, M.D., Progress Report-Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, the BrooklynCumberland Medical Center, 1966. (unpublished text), page 5.
G.L. McMurray
18
Such policies need to be changed as they are based upon a moralistic, punitive approach to adolescent behavior. The pregnant student should be given the option to remain in regular school or receive continued education in neighborhood-based programs, such as Project Teen Aid. These programs can serve not only to provide accredited education, but also, health and medical care, counselling, vocational training and the like. They can thus prepare the young mother-to-be for her new role of parent. Provisions should also be made for an income maintenance system outside of public assistanceto guarantee each family a minimum standard of living. Low income public housing should be available to those financially eligible regardlessof marital status. A range of day care services from infancy to school-age should be developed so that mothers of young children can take advantage of expanding educational and vocational opportunities. These services should not be merely custodial but rather offer an environment for the physical, educational and emotional maturation of the young child. Comprehensive medical care for the total family, including family planning and liberalized abortion procedures, should also be considered in an over-all response to the problem of rearing children in economically deprived families. The social consequences of unmarried parenthood are more difficult to assessonce one controls for the economic factor. The optimum structure for child-rearing is determined by the values of a given society. There is little doubt that Western civilization supports a monogamous relationship as the basis for a family. However, it is also apparent that many children today are reared in one-parent families-families broken through death, divorce and separation. There are children too who are reared in extended family units. Documentation is sparse about the cumulative effects of rearing children in differential family structures. Any attempt, however, to study the family in a rational, objective manner should be based upon some assumptions about the nature of group life. First, society has an inherent right to designate values on social behavior in order to preserve the integrity of its culture, but it also has the task of nurturing an environment in which such values can be maintained.
It has been reasonably
demonstrated, for instance, that punitive responses to out-of-wedlock pregnancies do not suppress such conceptions but rather aggravate the difficulties in rearing children of pre- or extra-marital unions. In particular, the reticence of society to pass enlightened laws on abortion only fosters a proliferation of illegitimate births in economically deprived, one-parent families. The causative factors of conception out-of-wedlock still remain to be defined. Experience suggeststhat these cover several inter-related areas-economic, socio-cultural, psychological. The true incidence of such conceptions is unknown because of the accessibility that socially and economically independent families have to abortion procedures and other services mentioned previously. There is little known, moreover, about the rearing of children born out-of-wedlock in these families. Yet, it is recognized that such situations exist. The irrationality
that has surrounded unmarried motherhood has prevented adequate and
impartial study of child-rearing patterns in this group and their effect upon maturation. There have been tacit assumptions that such motherhood is psychologically or sociologically predetermined. Moreover, research in this field has dealt primarily with documentation of economic deprivations through analyses of welfare and medical needs. Programs which reach out to provide a range of social services to the unmarried mother now offer the opportunity to obtain further knowledge on the
Community Attitudes Toward the Unmarried Mother
nature of unmarried parenthood itself and community attitudes as they relate to this family group.
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