BOOK REVIEWS

Lives on the Edge: Single Mothers and Their Childrenin the Other America. By Valerie Polakow. Chicago: TheUniversity ofChicago Press, 1993,232pp., $22.50 (hardcover).

According to Valerie Polakow, a teacher of educationalpsychology and early childhood education at Eastern Michi­gan University, one in five children and one in two singlemothers live in destitution in the United States. The author'spremise for this state of affairs is the feminization and"infantilization" of poverty.

In this book, Polakow considers the historical and ideologi­cal sources of society's attitudes toward single mothers andtheir children. She shows how the dominant images of"normal families" and motherhood have shaped perceptions,practices, and public policies. She illustrates through casestudies the untruth of the popular image of welfare mothersas moral degenerates breeding children solely for the mealtickets they represent. In her illustrations, the mothers carefor their children and strive to improve their lot but arehampered by social policies that thwart their efforts ratherthan help them. Many become trapped by the welfaresystem.The schools, too, are prejudicial against children whosemothers are on welfare and do not give the children thesupport they need to develop self-esteem and to learn.

At the end of the book, Polakow calls for an overhaulof American social policies. She advocates that health care,housing, child allowances, child care, and parental leave allbe mandatoty entitlements provided by the government.

For those people who are concerned about all children,this is a disturbing look into the lives of the American poorin the inner city. The presentation of the historical dataand the cases are very revealing and thought-provoking. Themajor problem with the book, however, is that the authoradvocates measures to help this segment of the populationwithout looking into the cost of these measures, personalresponsibility, and whether more fundamental changes needto be made.

One fifth ofall black children are born to unwed teenagers;about 14% of unwed white mothers are under 24 years old.Almost all teenage mothers who are unwed keep their babiesto raise alone or with the help of their families. Teenagepregnancy and motherhood are positively correlated withpoverty, unemployment, and welfare assistance.

Pregnancy is one of the primary reasons why youngwomen leave school before graduation. Without educationand training, women who drop out of school face a futureof low-paying, low-prestige jobs with few opportunitiesfor advancement.

The effects of early childbearing have contributed signifi­cantly to poverty in households headed by women. Becausea young woman cannot support her child (or children), she

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may be a candidate for welfare at an early age. Within ayear after giving birth, roughly half of unmarried teenagemothers are receiving welfare benefits. Also, since adolescentmothers are more likely than other mothers to spend alifetime as single heads of households, they are more likelyto be long-term welfare recipients. This is the populationthat must be targeted if there is to be a significant reductionin children living in poverty.

Education about birth control does not seem to be theanswer; in the 1980s Leon Dash found that teenagers wentout of their way to have babies to announce that they were"adult." Robert Samuelson advocates ending welfare forteenagers and young adults so that there would not be anincentive to have babies without the fathers being financiallyresponsible. He believes that the moral principle that peopleshould not have babies before they are ready to care forthem should be emphasized; then, some social stigma mightreattach to impulsive or ill-considered pregnancy. LynnMartin wants the government to stop sending the messagethat unwed teenage mothers can, with a few dollars fromgovernment, both raise their children and seek a decentfuture for themselves.Martin advocatesa system ofresidentialcare for these unwed, pregnant teenagers, and their childrenwhen they are born, where they can be protected, learnabout caring for the child, and grow up.

Instead of more money for these unwed mothers asPolakow suggests, perhaps these group homes could incorpo­rate her ideas in a more cost-effective manner. Instead ofwelfare checks, the money could go into the running of thegroup home and the programs issuing from it. The workerscould be college graduates working off their college loansin community service.

Health care could be provided, not only for sickness butalso for preventive care. Child care could be offered; someof the teenagers could learn to be child care workers withon-the-job-training. The mothers could either attend a localschool or have instruction in the group home in order toearn their high school diploma, technical training, or collegedegree. They would be eligible to stay in the home untilthey have finished their education.

Besides academic courses, the mothers could learn bud­geting, cooking, nutrition, sewing, doing laundry, and otheraspects of running a household. When these women areready to leave the group home, they should have the skillsand self-confidence to be good, able mothers as well asproductive members of society. Perhaps this type of grouphome should be available to teenagers before they have theneed to become parents.

Abby L. Wasserman, M.D.Medical Director

United Behavioral Systems, St. Louis

J. AM. ACAD. CHILD ADOLESC. PSYCHIATRY, 34:5, MAY 1995