Frank F. Furstenberg

Frank Furstenberg, Zellerbach Family Professor of Sociology at the University of Pennsylvania, will work on a book examining how U.S. policies relating to welfare, sex education, work, and marriage affect teenage childbearing rates, as well as what happens to teenagers who do get pregnant. He will argue in favor of adopting a public-health approach to managing teenage sexual initiation and moving away from an "abstinence only" policy. Furstenberg contends that teenage parenting is not as costly to society as the public believes, but that those with a stake in continuing the myth perpetuate this misinformation. He will also work on a project studying how families, schools, and communities affect youth development in highly disadvantaged settings, using data on Philadelphia school children.