THE CONSEQUENCES OF PLACING VERSUS PARENTING AMONG YOUNG UNMARRIED WOMEN

This paper compares the consequences of placing versus parenting for y oung women who experienced a non-marital teenage pregnancy. We examine d whether placers were faring better, worse or no differently from par enters four years after giving birth. The findings clearly indicate th at relative to parenting, resolving a teenage pregnancy by relinquishi ng one's infant for adoption is a positive choice resulting in more fa vorable outcomes on a broad variety of sociodemographic and social psy chological outcomes. At the bivariate level, on virtually every outcom e except feelings about the pregnancy resolution decision, placers far ed significantly better than parenters. When control was introduced fo r sociodemographic background factors and several post-birth mediators , the differences in sociodemographic outcomes and feelings about the pregnancy resolution decision remained unchanged. However, the differe nces between placers and parenters on virtually all of the remaining s ocial psychological outcomes, were explained by their varying marital, fertility and welfare experiences since the birth of the index child.