The impact of adolescent females' assessments of parenthood and employment on plans for the future

Indicators suggest that today's female adolescents will spend a substantial part of their adult lives in the labor force. It is less clear, however, what significance these young women will give to the empolyee role and how they will integrate it with other roles they plan to fill as adults. The present study explores adolescent females' assessments of the rewards and costs of employment and parenthood, and the impact of these assessments on their plans for organizing their adult lives. Five hundred and forty-nine 11th- and 12th-grade females completed questionnaires addressing their future work and fertility plans, characteristics of their family life at present, and their assessments of how rewarding and costly the roles of employee and parent would be to them. Results suggest that daughters of homemakers and daughters of employed women differ in their assessment of each role, and take different factors into consideration when making these assessments. Both groups, however, appear to give priority to the costs of employment when considering how they want to organize their lives as adults. The implications of these assessments for young women's role expectations and future satisfaction are discussed.This research was supported in part by a Faculty Research Grant from Fordham University, New York, New York. The author would like to thank Dr. Toby Tetenbaum for her assistance in the development of the project and data collection, and Dr. Judy Shea and Dr. Michael Johnson for their comments on an earlier draft of the paper.Dr. Leslie received her Ph.D. in Human Development from The Pennsylvania State University. Her current interests are in the area of social networks and family functioning.