Analyses of observational, survey, interview, and journal data gathered on a diverse group of pregnant and parenting adolescents indicate that the relationships between adolescent girls and their mothers are influential forces in promoting (or in preventing) teenage childbearing and in shaping adolescent mothers' attitudes and behaviors toward their children. Although in some ways overlapping with a range of other social, economic, and psychologic factors, mother-daughter relationships also play a distinct and prominent role in patterns of teenage childbearing and childrearing.