Furstenberg F F
University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia 19104-6299, USA.
Stud Fam Plann. 1998 Jun;29(2):246-53.
This article reflects on the process that leads to perceptions of teenage childbearing as a social problem and examines whether that process will occur in developing countries as it has in the United States. In postindustrial Western economies, family and adult control over young peoples' sexual behavior has loosened, while marriage rates have declined. In the United States, nonmarital births to adolescents, particularly among poor minorities who have few opportunities and reasons to delay childbearing, have become a cause for public concern. However, the economic, educational, and nuptial changes that have occurred in other postindustrial countries have not necessarily led to fertility problems among teenagers, because of a greater willingness to acknowledge their sexual activity and to provide the resources to prevent their childbearing. Although developing nations may undergo changes that result in more schooling and greater autonomy for adolescents, whether nonmarital births will come to constitute a problem will depend on many different factors; the United States provides an example of the conditions they may wish to avoid.
本文反思了导致青少年生育被视为社会问题的过程，并探讨这一过程是否会如在美国那样，在发展中国家发生。在西方后工业化经济体中，家庭和成年人对年轻人性行为的控制有所放松，而结婚率则有所下降。在美国，青少年非婚生育，尤其是在几乎没有机会和理由推迟生育的贫困少数族裔中，已成为公众关注的一个问题。然而，其他后工业化国家发生的经济、教育和婚姻变化并不一定会导致青少年生育问题，因为人们更愿意承认他们的性活动，并提供资源来防止他们生育。尽管发展中国家可能会发生一些变化，导致青少年接受更多教育并获得更大自主权，但非婚生育是否会成为一个问题将取决于许多不同因素；美国就是一个他们可能希望避免的情况的例子。
