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Agency Policies And Personnel Attitudes Toward Adolescent Fathers, Sandra Gunderson Warner

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Adolescent parenting research has typically focused on the mother and ignored the father. Researchers have suggested that adolescent fathers are disregarded as the child's other parent because their parenting role is devalued. An emerging body of literature indicates that adolescent fathers are excluded from the pregnancy and parenting services provided to adolescent mothers because they are viewed as unnecessary to the parenting process and unimportant to the child's development. Moreover, researchers have alleged that service providers treat adolescent fathers as outcasts based on stereotypical beliefs that they are uncaring, irresponsible victimizers who disappear at the first mention of pregnancy. However, …