Sandra L. Hofferth – författare

More than 1 million teenage girls in the United States become pregnant each year; nearly half give birth. Why do these young people, who are hardly more than children themselves, become parents? The statistical appendices and working papers for the report Risking the Future: Adolescent Sexuality, Pregnancy, and Childbearing provide additional insight into the trends in and consequences of teenage sexual behavior.

Dramatic societal changes have reshaped America’s families. Young adults have delayed marriage, and cohabitation before marriage has become commonplace. One in three women giving birth is unmarried, and the proportion of children under 18 living in single-parent families rose from 23 to 31 percent between 1980 and 2000, reflecting increased rates of both nonmarital childbearing and divorce.This authoritative volume offers a blueprint for addressing some of the most important measurement issues in family research, and it points out potential pitfalls for researchers and students who may not be familiar with data quality issues.The Handbook of Measurement Issues in Family Research will appeal to scholars in the departments of psychology, sociology, and population studies, as well as researchers working in governmental agencies.

A wide-ranging source of information on the life courses of children and youths. Contributions reflect, amongst other things: demographic analyses and projections; dualitative aspects of children's lives; and children and youth in historical and cross-cultural perspective.