Michigan State University Extension
Diversity and Pluralism - D1120074
12/95/
ERIC TITLE NUMBER: ED337516 AUTHOR: Karraker, Meg Wilkes
TITLE: Growing Up in a Single-Parent Family: Some Not-So
Negative Effects on Adolescent Females' Plans for the
Future.
YEAR PUBLISHED: 1991
NOTE: 12 p.; Paper presented at "The Troubled Adolescent:
The Nation's Concern and Its Response" (Milwaukee, WI,
April 9-11, 1991).
ABSTRACT: This paper explores the impact of single-parent
families on adolescent females and their aspirations for
the future. The study, taking data from the national
longitudinal High School and Beyond (HSB) study, uses a
stratified weighted national sample of 4,573 black and
white high school senior females in the class of 1980. The
sample includes girls who were living with their mothers or
other female guardians at the time they participated in the
HSB study. Analysis using multiple regression reveals that,
when other variables such as race, family income, mother's
education, mother's employment status, and mother's
occupation are controlled, girls living with their mothers
are more likely to plan for higher education and delay or
forgo marriage than are girls who lived with both a mother
and a father-figure. The study also indicates that when
other factors are controlled, black females plan to marry
at later ages than do white females. Also, those from high
income families and those with more educated mothers plan
to marry at later ages than do other girls. The possible
reasons for these patterns may be freedom from traditional
gender roles or a high value on self-reliance. This
research indicates that successful prediction of females'
plans for education and marriage are not consistent with a
"culture of poverty" thesis. Statistical data are presented
in two tables. A list of 21 references is appended. (JB)
KEY DESCRIPTORS: Black-Students; Comparative-Analysis; High
Schools; Long-Range-Planning; Marriage-; National-Surveys;
Postsecondary-Education; Sociocultural-Patterns; Urban
Problems; White-Students
KEY DESCRIPTORS: *Academic-Aspiration; *Fatherless-Family;
*Females-; *High-School-Seniors; *Parent-Influence; *Racial
Differences
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