The scheduling of parenthood, a private behavior, is subject to a society's normative schedule. When and under what circumstances vary from one culture to another, but no society leaves it purely to biological chance. Furstenberg's normative schedules are direct results of the cultural restrictions on life that Herbert Blumer explores in his book, Society as Symbolic Interaction. According to Blumer, "social theorists have long recognized the universal existence of cultural restrictions on reproduction" (Blumer pg.50). A culture's restrictions on rep

Thorne would say teen motherhood does not support society's ideology of the family; rather it challenges it. Although early motherhood does not support the system, teen mothers are still mothers and therefore subject to suffer the ramifications of being a mother in our society. According to Thorne, "the ideology of the family, more specifically motherhood, has reinforced the economic exploitation of all women"(Thorne pg6). Thus teen mothers are thrust, early, into an institution of oppression built on a concept of exploitation and degradation, motherhood. As a result, motherhood is no longer looked upon as a private experience but rather as a public deviance to cultural law and takes on the persona of a public problem with negative results for the new mother. Research suggests that early childbearing has negative consequences for the mother as well as the child. However, the effects are not always direct, instead it seems to trigger a chain of events that undermine later social and economic development. An essentially private behavior, childbearing, has been transformed into a symbol of social disorder and the cause of other social ills. There are many direct effects on education, family size, and marital status, and the indirect effects on economic status and welfare dependency of teens who prematurely enter the status of motherhood.

Moore, Kristin, et al. Teenage Motherhood. Washington D.C.: The Urban Institute, 1979.

Women who have children early in their lives have many fecund years left. In addition, the low contraceptive effectiveness characteristic of most teenage mothers may contribute to subsequent unplanned births (The Double Jeopardy pg55).

Anonymous. "Social policy-Sexuality, Poverty, and the Inner City". National Journal. March 25,1995 (27:771).

The girl who has an illegitimate child at the age of 16 suddenly has 90 percent of her life's script written for her. Her life choices are few, and most of them are bad. Had she been able to delay the first child, her prospects might have been quite different (Campbell pg30).

Goldberg, Stephanie B. "Talking with attorney general Janet Reno." ABA Journal. January 1993 (79:46).

Some common words found in the essay are:
According Sugrue, According Furstenberg, ABA Journal, NLS PSID, According Thorne, Adan Chamul, National Journal, Teenage Motherhood, Northridge California, Parents Offspring, normative schedule, teen mothers, normative schedules, teen pregnancy, social economic, family size, outside normative schedule, aba journal, economic status, indirect effects, ideology family, role family planning, market experiences women, family planning reduction, planning reduction poverty,
Approximate Word count = 2600
Approximate Pages = 10 (250 words per page double spaced)