Changing the pattern of children having children.

Statistical patterns today reveal that an overwhelming majority of Black children are born to single, teenage mothers. In 1980, for example, 57 percent of births to those were to mothers 15-17 years of age. The infant mortality rates among such births is strikingly high and even for those infants who survive their first year of life, there are studies which show disproportionately high physical and mental deficits among the offspring of teenagers. Few adolescent mothers turn to the fathers of their children for help. They understand that these young men are rarely in a position to support a young mother and child since unemployment among Black male teenagers is in the 47 percent range. Large numbers of these young women never marry and, instead, head their own households in poverty. Others continue to live with mothers, sisters, or other relatives who may themselves be mothers, with children born out of wedlock. The cycle of dependency on public assistance, or low paying jobs is, thereby, passed on to second, and even third generations. Traditional family values must be strengthened if children born today are to be prepared to participate in our ever more complex, and technologically advanced society. Teenage parents who drop out of school, and are not prepared to participate fully in home and community responsibilities, are also unprepared to provide the goals, education, and skills needed by their children.