According to a widely held stereotype, unwed mothers" and"babies having babies" in the United States are premere dominantly African American. However, this view is not entirely accurate. While African Americans account for a men disproportionate share of births to unmarried women and out to teenagers, the majority of all babies born to unmarried havi teenage mothers are born to White adolescents. Moreover since 1990, birthrates among Black teenagers have declined more than any other group(Ventura et al, 1998a) App will While 76 percent of single parents in the United States are mothers, the number of households headed by divo single fathers has more than quadrupled over the period step hous 1980 to 1998. The stereotypes of single fathers are that they raise only boys or older children. In fact, about 44 1990 of th percent of children living in such households are girls; almost one-third of single fathers care for preschoolers. Step Whereas single mothers often develop social networks, single fathers are 9typically more isolated. In addition, they his t must deal with schools and social service agencies more accustomed to women as custodial parents(Bureau of the Tim Census 1999a: 62; D. Johnson 1993) step What about single fathers who do not head the household? This is typically an understudied group for Etha sociological purposes, but a study of low-income unmarmar ried fathers in Philadelphia came up with some unex