Adolescent Motherhood: Implications for the Juvenile Justice System

A recently released report on a major research project provides a wealth of information about the consequences of adolescent childbearing, including implications for the field of juvenile justice. Kids Having Kids: A Robin Hood Foundation Special Report on the Costs of Adolescent Childbearing synthesizes the findings from eight separate studies on the consequences and costs of adolescent motherhood.

Adolescent childbearing has both contributed to and been affected by three alarming social trends. First, child poverty rates are high and rising. Second, the number of welfare recipients and the concomitant costs of public assistance have risen dramatically. Third, among those on welfare, there is a much higher proportion of never-married women, younger recipients, and recipients who have long average durations of dependency. To better understand the full costs and consequences of adolescent (age 17 or younger) childbearing, the Robin Hood Foundation commissioned seven research studies by teams of scholars. The eighth study, a background review of previously researched trends in teenage and adolescent childbearing, informed and helped round out this set of reports.

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http://www.ncjrs.gov/txtfiles/fs9750.txt