Teen Mothers--Citizens or Dependents?

In this study sponsored by various government agencies of a program designed to help inner-city teenage mothers acquire GED (general education development) diplomas, Horowitz, a professor of sociology at the University of Delaware, examines why this social service has not functioned as intended. She notes that there is often a breakdown in communications between the providers and their clients, as well as among the providers themselves. The author's yearlong involvement as an observer in a program designed to reduce dependence on welfare provides a salient view of ambivalent, changing relationships between staff and young mothers, as her report questions ``how social control operates on the microlevel and to what end.'' This close look at a social-service program should have significance for sociologists, if not for general readers. (Jan.)