Citation URL: http://www.urban.org/GladysMartinez

The role of adult men in adolescent childbearing has received heightened attention in recent years, and new policy efforts have focused on statutory rape laws as a way to reduce adolescent childbearing. Analyses of the 1988 National Maternal and Infant Health Survey indicate, however, that these policies would not apply to most teenage births.

This paper focuses on the role of older men in teen births and examines five related questions about the young mothers and adult men involved in these partnerships. Discussed are (1) how many minor mothers have "older" (more than five years difference in age) partners; (2) which minor mothers have "older" partners; (3) how close are the relationships between minor mothers and "older" partners; (4) of men who father children with minors, are "older" men or similar-age men more desirable partners; and (5) are adult men who father children with minors more or less desirable partners than adult men who father children with adult women?

Young males' reports of their fertility experiences provide the foundation for substantive research into adolescent males' family roles. Repeated findings that men underreport their fertility in social surveys raises concerns about the usefulness of data collected from men. This study involved calculation of birth rates reported by unmarried males ages 15 to/through 19 in the 1988 National Survey of Adolescent Males and its 1991 follow-up study. Then these rates were compared with estimates based on the reports of mothers from the 1988 National Maternal and Infant Health Survey to determine if statistically significant differences existed.

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