When Children Want Children: The Urban Crisis of Teenage Childbearing (review)

Setting out to investigate black teenage pregnancy for the Washington Post in 1984, Leon Dash moved into what he described as one of the poorest neighborhoods in Washington, D.C. In his extensive interviews and interactions with community residents during a seventeen-month period, Dash searched for answers to the question of why so many black youth were "caught up in this syndrome" (14). This ostensibly straightforward yet complex question was provoked primarily by what was depicted at the time as the "nationwide teenage pregnancy" issue. Originally published in 1989, the reprinting of When Children Want Children invites scholars, policymakers, and those working with youth to revisit the issue of teenage childbearing. This issue is especially relevant given the recently reported changes in adolescent sexual behavior, including, significantly, the overall decrease in birth rates for young women during the last decade.

Strikingly different from much of the literature on urban black youth and sexuality that was available in the late 1980s and early 1990s, Dash's work portrays black youth as social actors. The voices of black youth, especially those of young women, are salient throughout the book, illustrating Dash's efforts to move beyond presuppositions in understanding the issue of teenage childbearing. Through multiple interviews with young women and others in their lives, including boyfriends, mothers, and siblings, Dash attempted to uncover the "real version" of young women's early childbearing as opposed to what he characterized as the "adopted or rehearsed version" that the young women initially shared with him. Dash's use of multiple interviews reveals not only the processes whereby young black women become teenage mothers but also how the researcher pieces together a complex story while grappling with the contradictions and diverse perspectives presented by research participants.

Hence, I found that the book's greatest strength lies in its methodology. When Children Want Children provides detailed accounts of how Dash chose his site of investigation and how he gained access to that site, including his interviews and interactions with the participants. By inserting himself within the research process, he managed to incorporate this information into his book without reducing those who entered into the project to mere research subjects. Most notable is Dash's discussion of the key dilemmas that arise when the researcher is a member of the studied group. Too often the insider-outsider status of researchers, especially researchers of color, is minimally addressed as a methodological issue, bringing forth unspoken suppositions about objectivity and who "can" and "cannot" conduct particular research projects. For instance, Dash describes some of the resistance to his efforts and, at times, anger that he encountered from other educated, middle-class blacks, who argued that such an investigation would only serve to further perpetuate negative stereotypes about blacks in the United States. His candid consideration of this subject speaks to the current tensions in research produced by the legacy of past studies on marginalized populations, which have served to justify inequalities. The book's rich methodological detail makes it an appropriate text for both undergraduate and graduate courses on "qualitative research methods," guaranteed to bring forth fruitful and critical discussions on methodology as well as the issue of teenage childbearing. Additionally, when complemented with a recent work on black youth and sexuality, this book can be used in an "introduction to social problems" course, providing students with insights into how a social phenomenon becomes defined as a social problem and how this impacts the way the issue is approached as an area of research.

Since Leon Dash was an investigative reporter for the Washington Post when he undertook this project, his book is grounded in a journalistic approach, so it reads like a journalistic piece. To be fair, Dash did not claim to be engaged in "academic research" (although he did purposively explore the issue) but rather proposed to complete in "months what academics spend years working out" (35). While he does contribute to academic scholarship on...