Factors which influence the decision of unwed mothers to keep or surrender their illegitimate children to a public adoption agency

The general purpose of this study is to turn to the possibilities of a second focus of research into the adoption process, that is, to what can be learned about the natural mother. The particular purpose of this study is threefold: (1) to identify the socio-economic characteristics of those women contacting a public adoption agency for the placement of their children with prospective adoptive families; (2) to identify and examine the sociological factors which appear to influence the natural mother to wither keep or surrender her child; and (3) to determine if the women contacting the agency in 1969 represent the same socio-economic characteristics as those women who contacted the agency in 1959