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Random sample of 2,650 experimental group members and 2,647 control group members.

Sub-sample of 200 mothers with preschool-aged children in Teenage Parent Demonstration Program and living in Newark, New Jersey. Randomly assigned to treatment and control groups (Number in samples not reported).

"There were no differences between the treatment and control groups in mothers’ psychological functioning, the organization of the home environment, or children’s development. With regard to mothers’ parenting behaviors, a treatment effect emerged for one of the eight parenting behaviors. Specifically, intervention group mothers were less authoritarian—less harsh and controlling—during free play with their children than the control group... These findings not only indicate no evidence of harmful effects of mothers’ participation in mandated self-sufficiency activities but also suggest an association between mothers’ participation in mandated self-sufficiency activities—when accompanied by special support services—and more positive parenting behavior" (pp. ix-x).

"We also examined differences between mothers in terms of their participation in self-sufficiency activities regardless of treatment group status… Greater maternal participation in self-sufficiency activities was found to go hand in hand with positive maternal and child behaviors" (p. x).

“The first phase of the evaluation showed that states can operate large-scale, mandatory work-oriented programs for teenage parents”(xvi).

“The demonstration programs increased rates of school attendance, job training, and employment but produced few significant differences in marriage, living arrangements, fertility, or child support during the first two years following intake”(xvii).

“For most of the young mothers, the cycle of welfare dependency has not yet been broken”(xvii).

“The promising early impacts of the programs on employment-related activities and welfare dependence faded once the demonstration programs ended and participants returned to regular AFDC and Job Opportunities and Basic Skills Training (JOBS) programs”(xvii).

“The early impacts of the programs on employment-related activities and welfare started to erode at about the time sanctions and support services ended for the enhanced services group”(xviii).

“Mothers in both the regular- and the enhanced-services groups reported receiving very little financial aid support”(xviii).

“On average, during the six- to seven-year follow-up period, the young mothers in both the regular- and the enhanced-services group became pregnant twice and gave birth to between one and two additional children”(xviii).

“Exposure to the demonstration welfare policies and programs did not substantially reduce subsequent pregnancies and births”(xviii).

“When they were in elementary school, the first-born children of the teenage mothers performed poorly, compared with children nationally, on several measures of development and well-being”(xix).

“The programs produced no impacts on mothers’ parenting or on the quantity of the home environments they provided for their first-born children” (xix).

“Requiring teenage mothers to participate in activities, and increasing their use of child care when their children were very young, had neither harmful nor beneficial effects on their children’s development” (xix).

“Teenage mothers respond positively to clear expectations when financial consequences and support services accompany those expectations"”(xx).

“Most teenage parents are capable of employment but need encouragement and some support services” (xx).

“Ensuring access to child care was an important part of the intervention, but fewer participants use program-provided child care subsidies than had been anticipated” (xx).

“The evaluation results suggest that requiring teenage mothers of young children to participate in full-time (30 hours per week) out-of-home activities is not harmful to children, as some worried that it might be” (xxi).

“It is important to help teenagers reduce their fertility, but different strategies than those tried in this demonstration are needed” (xxi).

“The demonstration underscored the difficulty of changing the life courses of poor teenage parents by intervening after they become parents” (xxi).

“The noncustodial fathers of children born to poor teenage parents provide little social or economic support” (xxi).