Ethylenically-unsaturated products are obtained by (a) reacting acrylic acid and 2-oxazoline or a 2-alkyl or aryl-2-oxazoline in an inert liquid reaction medium and (b) recovering the desired product from (a) by heating the reaction mixture under reduced pressure to strip away the liquid diluent and volatile components, thus leaving the desired product as a non-volatile residue. The reaction products can be cross-linked by conventional techniques (e.g. freeradical initiation) to form useful coatings and adhesives. For example, the product produced by heating equal molar amounts of acrylic acid and 2-ethyl-2-oxazoline in benzene gave an ethylenically-unsaturated oligomeric product having a number average molecular weight of 253 and a weight average molecular weight of 460 in approximately 95 percent yield.