Content area
Abstract
This dissertation uses survey data on norms about the timing of life transitions to assess and explain basic tenets of life course theory. Material resources and social categories such as race and gender are important for these explanations. The empirical case analyzed is teenage parenthood, which is useful for studying transition norms because there are indisputably strong norms in the United States today that discourage adolescents from becoming parents. Analyses measure teenage pregnancy norms directly using the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, the National Education Longitudinal Study, and the National Pregnancy Norms Study, an original survey from a nationally representative sample of adults.
I evaluate and find support for the claim that people who make life transitions too early experience worse socioeconomic outcomes than others. Life course theory asserts that these negative consequences occur because these individuals have violated societal norms about the appropriate timing of life transitions, but how these norms lead to worse outcomes is not specified. I propose and find support for one explanation: Family members who perceive strong negative norms against teenage pregnancy are less willing to provide badly needed material resources to the teenage parent. This lack of resources leads to poor socioeconomic outcomes. However, the influence of specific types of resources on education varies by the gender of the teenage parent.
Additional analyses focus directly on pregnancy norms. I map norms about teenage pregnancy among adolescents and adults and show that they vary across subpopulations, including differences by race/ethnicity and socioeconomic status. Empirical evidence supports a structural explanation for this variation, in which community members' shared evaluations of the socioeconomic opportunities available to adolescents shape local norms against teenage pregnancy. This mechanism addresses an important criticism of the conception of norms by modeling change in norms across time and place.
Results provide information about contemporary teenage mothers and fathers and how to help them. Findings also test and extend life course theory. By addressing criticisms of the theoretical and empirical treatment of social norms, I strive to restore transition norms to their central position in life course theory.
