In most societies, out of wedlock pregnancy and childbearing violate the optimal life course pattern of completion of schooling, gaining employment, marriage, and then parenthood. The phenomenon of adolescent pregnancy is particularly troubling though. Although this occurrence often results in a personal, as well as very real, social dilemma, it must be recognized from the outset that it is not the behaviors themselves that are problematic, but their timing. Adolescence is a period of intense …showed first 75 words of 2850 total…

…showed last 75 words of 2850 total…Impact of a new curriculum on sexual risk-taking. Family Planning Perspectives, 23, 253-263. Mosher, W. D., & McNally, J. W. (1991). Contraceptive use at first premarital intercourse: United States, 1965-1988. Family Planning Perspectives, 23, 108-116. Nathanson, C., Dangerous Passage: The Social Control of Sexuality in Women's Adolescence, Temple University Press, 1991. Ravoira, L., & Cherry, A., Social Bonds and Teen Pregnancy, Praeger Publishers, 1992. Zabin, L. S., & Streett, R., (1991). Reasons for delay in contraceptive clinic utilization, Journal of Adolescent Health Care, 12, 225-232.