CHILDBEARING AMONG UNWED AFRICAN-AMERICAN ADOLESCENTS - A CRITIQUE OFTHEORIES

Although nonmarital births are on the rise for all women, they are dis proportionately high for adolescents, especially those who are poor an d African American. Scholars agree that adolescent childbearing result s in negative outcomes. This critique of the problem of adolescent pre gnancy from various theoretical paradigms argues that the alternate-li festyle paradigm is a rational explanatory model for the analysis of a dolescent pregnancy. That is, some female adolescents, regardless of r ace, see childbearing as a rite of passage to adulthood.