A study of one hundred unmarried mothers in Los Angeles

UnrestrictedThis study of one hundred married mothers is based upon an analysis of one hundred case records secured through the California Children's Home Society. The writer was given access to its files and was thus able to secure the information given in the following pages. The study includes only records of clients who were under the observation of the agency between January 1, 1932 and January 1, 1933. These cases were selected to be as representative as possible of all the cases handled by the agency.; The study endeavors to analyze some of the factors in the lives of the parents of illegitimate children. What were the social situations which they were forced to confront? To what influences have they been subjected? What was their age at the birth of the child? What was their occupation, education, nationality, religion? Did they have good health and normal mentality? All these factors and a number of others are considered in the following study.; Before beginning this study the problem of illegitimacy was discussed with various people interested in such social problems. Several heads of agencies dealing with the unmarried mother contributed many ideas and suggested various points to be included in an outline for such a study. A number of books dealing with this subject were also read. From these sources ideas for an outline were formulated. Many of the divisions were changed or omitted after further study, while others were added, until the outline which appears in Chapter II was prepared.; The thesis is divided into six chapters dealing with different phases of the problem. The first chapter is an introductory one; the second deals with statistics showing the volume of illegitimacy in Europe and America; the third chapter relates primarily to the one hundred unmarried mothers, and contains information as listed in the previous paragraph; the fourth chapter brings out the likenesses and differences of this study as compared with similar studies; the fifth chapter contains suggestions for a model law on illegitimacy; the sixth chapter contains a short summary, restating the findings of the preceding chapters and showing the more important findings of the whole study