Adoption versus parenting among young pregnant women

Three groups of young pregnant women living in maternity residences--those who intended to place their babies for adoption, those who considered adoption but planned to parent and those who never considered adoption--were compared regarding their socioeconomic characteristics, attitudes toward adoption and the personal influences on their decisions. Of the 430 young women, those who intended to place their babies for adoption tended to be at one extreme on most profile variables, those who had considered placing were in an intermediate position, and those who never considered placing their babies were at the other extreme. Placers were both the most advantaged socioeconomically and held the most positive attitudes toward adoption, while young women who never considered adoption were the least advantaged and held the least favorable attitudes. Placers consistently reported that their choice to place their babies rather than parent would increase the likelihood of outcomes such as continuing with school, having enough money to live comfortably and benefiting the baby's emotional development, while those young women who did not consider adoption tended to feel that these outcomes would be more likely if they parented, or that the likelihood of the outcomes would not be affected by their choice. Young women who intended to place their babies were encouraged in that direction by their mothers, fathers and boyfriends, while the two groups of women who chose parenting were encouraged to do so by those in their social networks.