Outcomes of teen mothers in three adolescent living programs

This dissertation investigates the relationship between client variables and service inputs to client outcomes of homeless adolescent teen mothers enrolled in three Adolescent Family Living programs operating in Florida, New York City and Texas, under the auspices of Covenant House, at the end of a one year service period. The Covenant House programs consist of two phases: residential and community. The sample population of homeless teen mothers between the ages of eighteen and twenty-one was drawn from 295 cases served by the program for one year or more. With existing data from the Covenant House programs which were collected over a two year period (1985-1987), an analysis was made of specific services provided to the adolescent mothers, in relation to participant outcomes on a number of variables. A descriptive research design utilizing Goal Attainment Scaling was used to determine the level of movement at the end of one year for each of the homeless adolescent mothers. A discussion of the services related to adolescent sexuality, pregnancy, and parenthood, related to outcomes in this study are presented including the findings and implications that the service variables have for the design of programs for adolescent mothers, and for new groups for which interventions may be appropriate and must be developed