MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Maureen Pirog PhD Rudy Professor of Policy Analysis School of Public and Environmental Affairs Indiana University  MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: We analyzed parenthood, education and income statistics over a long time span from two groups of about 10,000 people -- those born in 1962-64 and those born in 1980-82.

• Teen fathers and mothers came increasingly from single-mother families with disadvantaged backgrounds.
• The proportion of teen mothers or fathers living with their partners didn't change, but far fewer were married.
• The birth rates to teenage girls across the two groups didn't change, but the reported rate of teenage fatherhood increased, a seemingly contradictory conclusion. For example, 1.7 percent of the men in the older group were fathers by the time they were 17, while in the younger group, nearly double that number were dads. About 8 percent of the 17-year-old females in both groups were mothers.

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