The Psychology of Adolescent Out-of Wedlock Pregnancy and Childbearing

Illegitimate adolescent pregnancy creates a variety of problems, beginning with the difficult decision about whether or not to terminate the pregnancy. If the pregnancy is carried to term, choices follow regarding marriage or single parenthood and keeping or relinquishing the child. All of these choices involve consequences for the adolescent, many of them negative ones. This paper examines the problem of out-of-wedlock teen pregnancy and its possible psychological sources. It also introduces a method for analyzing the psychology of unwed teen pregnancy and childbearing and reviews the literature on the subject by this method. NOTE: Approvals page submitted to digital archive lacks signatures

Correlates of Program Completion in Juvenile Diversion

The current study evaluated the State Juvenile Diversion Program, managed by the District Attorney’s (DA) office in Denver Colorado. The purpose of this study was to review factors, which potentially contribute to success or failure in diversion. Research in diversion programing typically focuses on recidivism rates, but fails to examine which factors contribute to program completion. The analysis was conducted using data from 57 juveniles who entered the DA diversion program in 2015. This represents the majority of juveniles in the diversion program rather than a sample. The current study confirmed prior research findings that those juveniles who do not successfully complete a diversion program are more likely to reoffend. Additionally, the factors which were significantly correlated with successful completion of the diversion program were grade point average (GPA) and number of municipal tickets. The number of behavior reports in school before and after the Diversion program was significantly lower for both groups. Non-significant findings are also discussed as they may help guide future research.