Upchurch D M, McCarthy J
Department of Population Dynamics, Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health, Baltimore.
Fam Plann Perspect. 1989 Sep-Oct;21(5):199-202.
More adolescent mothers are now graduating from high school than ever before. Since the 1950s, the high school completion rate of women who became mothers at age 17 or younger has nearly tripled--from 19 percent in 1958 to 56 percent in 1986. However, graduation rates did not increase equally for all racial and socioeconomic groups, and the increases did not occur in the same periods for all groups. Black mothers who were school-age when they had their first child made their greatest gains in graduation rates between 1958 and 1975, while their white counterparts made their greatest gains between 1975 and 1986. By 1986, black women who were 17 or younger when their first child was born were more likely to have graduated than similar white women--61 percent and 54 percent, respectively. Nevertheless, when overall levels of high school graduation are considered, white women were more likely than black women to have graduated. Regardless of race, women from more advantaged backgrounds were more likely to be graduates than were those from less advantaged backgrounds, and the younger the women were when their first child was born, the less likely they were to be graduates.
现在，从高中毕业的未成年母亲比以往任何时候都多。自20世纪50年代以来，17岁及以下生育的女性的高中完成率几乎增长了两倍——从1958年的19%增至1986年的56%。然而，并非所有种族和社会经济群体的毕业率都以相同幅度增长，而且各群体的增长期也不尽相同。首次生育时处于学龄的黑人母亲在1958年至1975年间毕业率提升幅度最大，而她们的白人同龄人则在1975年至1986年间提升幅度最大。到1986年，首个孩子出生时17岁及以下的黑人女性比类似情况的白人女性更有可能毕业——分别为61%和54%。尽管如此，从高中总体毕业水平来看，白人女性比黑人女性更有可能毕业。无论种族如何，出身更优越家庭背景的女性比出身较差家庭背景的女性更有可能毕业，而且首次生育时年龄越小的女性，毕业的可能性就越小。
