Risking the Future Adolescent Sexuality, Pregnancy, and Childbearing, Volume II Working Papers only (1987) / Chapter Skim
Currently Skimming:
8. The Children of Teen Childbearers
8. The Children of Teen Childbearers
Pages 174-206
The Chapter Skim interface presents what we've algorithmically identified as the most significant single chunk of text within every page in the chapter.
Select key terms on the right to highlight them within pages of the chapter.
From page 174... ...
The fourth section focuses on intervening factors: e.g., family structure, socioeconomic status, and materns1 education. ~ t also look at the pert parenting behaviors play in distinguishing adolescent from older parents and the influence of such behaviors in mediating child outcomes.
|
From page 175... ...
. A second explanation is the dif ferential soc ial character istics of teenage mothers-lower SES, lack of access to prenatal care, poor nutrition, poverty and ignorance (see, for example, Baizerman, 1977: Mednick and Baker, 1980)
|
From page 176... ...
Neonatal Health vital stat ist ics data (NCHS, 1984 ~ show that children of teen mothers are Snore likely to be below 2500 grams at birth than children of mothers 20 to 39, and the younger the age of the mother the higher the proport ion of inf ants of low birth weight. In 1982, twice as many infants of 10-14 year olds ( 13.
|
From page 177... ...
A number of recent studies failed to f ind any difference by age of mother in health status of neon nates at birch (Apgar score, birth weight, prematurity, birth trauma, etc. ~ once initial differences such as differences In SES between adolescents and non-adolescents were controlled ~ Zuckerman et al.
|
From page 178... ...
They found that infants living with their grandmothers had the best mean health score; infants living with both biolog ical parents a mid-range score, while infants who lived with their unmarried mother or in an institution or foster home showed the worst scores at one year. In one analysis, after controlling for birthweight and pregnancy complications, number of nurturing adults was strongly related to a positive one year health status among children of teen mothers.
|
From page 179... ...
Background factors (spacing, mother's age, precarious health, data on previous pregnancy, wontedness, use of institutional day care, SES, mother' s employment and family size) were assumed to predict one year infant outcome through the following health and medical var tables: complications of pregnancy and delivery, multiple births, birth weight, and neonatal physical and neurological status.
|
From page 180... ...
Although none of the expected background factors has an impact at age one, environmental influence on physical status can be seen through the direct ~ negative) impact of institutional day care, and the indirect ~ and also negative} influence of maternal employment.
|
From page 181... ...
Harecek ( 1979} found no consistent evidence for a relationship between age at f irst birth of the mother and the child's motor development at age 4. At age 7, Marecek found a slight curvilinear relationship such that children of both older and younger mothers do slightly less well on the BenderGestalt test than children of mothers in their late teens and early twenties.
|
From page 182... ...
The infant Behavior Profile was designed to evaluate qualitative aspects of children' s behavior. Finally, the 8 month exam includes summary ratings of general development based on evaluations of the examiners Marecek found that, among blacks, first born children of mothers under 20, as a group, scored lower on the average than f irst born children of older mothers on the Bayley mental scale.
|
From page 183... ...
also found a dif ference in cognitive performance between black children of adolescent parents and black children of classmates who delayed childbearing until age 18, even when differential school attendance was controlled. Cognitive performance (as measured by the Preschool Inventory)
|
From page 184... ...
The results showed no direct effect of mother's age at first birth on child's $Q score. There were small indirect effects through mother' s marital status, number of parents in the ::~usehold and per capita household income which were stronger for ankles than for females.
|
From page 185... ...
Thus they used a measure both of mother's age (in years) and a dummy var table ind icat ing whether or not the mother was a teenager at the bi rth of the study child.
|
From page 186... ...
Here the direct effects eliminated (Cohen et a1.~. The major indirect effects operated throug.u family size, in particular the number of births subsequent to the study child (since birth order is also controlled)
|
From page 187... ...
He found significant effects of mother's age at birth of the study child on WISC vocabulary and block design scores, as well as the two sub~cests tom gether, controlling for sex and age of child. These relationships did not disappear when controls were introduced for race, birth order, income, education, household structure, household size and ecological factors.
|
From page 188... ...
The measure of intelligence used in this data set is the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test, a test that measures both innate ability as well as stimulation in the home environment. The results show that children of teen mothers are less likely than children of older mothers to do well on this test, a result which is statistically signif leant for whites but not for blacks (Moore et al., 198S)
|
From page 189... ...
Results are similar to those found with Ache WISC: significant effects of another' s age at first birth on the WRAT arithmetic and reading scores, as well as the full test, after controlling for sex and age of child. These relationships do not disappear when controls are introduced for race, birth order, income, education, household structure, household size and ecological factors.
|
From page 190... ...
Again, the percent of var lance explained is very small. Marecek found that, among whites, mother's age at first birth is unrelated to grade repetition.
|
From page 191... ...
Besides the small direct effect of having an adolescent parent on academic aptitude, there wan a substantial ind irect effect through family structure. Children of adolescent parents were much more likely to be living with only one parent than children of older parents, and children in one-parent families had signif icantly lower aptitude scores, grades and aspirations.
|
From page 192... ...
Variables from the 7-year examination used in the Marecek study were the following: separation from mother; fearfulness; rapport with examiner; self-conf idence; emotional reactivity; degree of cooperetion; f rustration tolerance: degree of dependency; assertiveness; hostility duration of attention span; goal orientation; level of activi~cy; nature of activity; nature of co~ranunication; and indices of den viant stereotyped behavior. In addition, all 14 home interview var tables were used.
|
From page 193... ...
Both girls and boys of black adolescent mothers tended to show more problems controlling their behavior than children of black older mothers. Among 7 year olds, girls of adolescent mothers exhibited more bedwetting and phobias, while boys exhibited more thumbsucking.
|
From page 194... ...
Controlling for maternal education, there was a direct effect of materne1 age on third grade teachers' ratings of withdrawn behavior. Children of early adolescent mothers tended to have the fewest problems while children o f late adolescent mother s tended to have the most.
|
From page 195... ...
In the path model, controlling for mother's education, family size, family socioeconomic status, and birthweight, Mednick and Baker found that mother's age no longer has direct effects; however it has some indirect effects on children's socioemotional development. In particular, a younger mother's age is associated with family instability among both males and females.
|
From page 196... ...
There were a number of indirect effects of adolescent parentage on later childbearing history, educational attainment, occupation and income. These operated through family structure, family SES in 1960 and academic aptitude.
|
From page 197... ...
That is, perceptions or evaluations by teachers might have been contaminated by their knowledge of the socioeconomic status and teen parenthood status of the mother and ber family. Mednick and Baker were the only ones to also explore the intervening factors predicting socioemotional characteristics of the child ren of adolescent and nonadolescent childbearer Se Controll ing for education of the masher, socioeconomic status of the family, family size, and birth weight, they found, as for cognitive development, that mother's age did not directly affect the behavior of boys or girls; however, it did have indirect effects.
|
From page 198... ...
the crucial determinant of child behavior. Family structure appears to be one of the most important factors intervening between parental age, background factors such as SES and race and the outcomes of the child's cognitive development, such his/ her later achievements.
|
From page 199... ...
In conclusion, having a young parent, on average, is harmful to children; there is a small direct effect, but there is an even larger indirect effect which is due to differential characteristics of the mother ~ such as orderliness) , to her lesser schooling , to less stable family structure, to lower fueily socioeconomic status, and to larger family size.
|
From page 200... ...
Th is all seems very reasonable except that the dif ferences between children of adolescent and non-adolescent parents were found to be very small. Most of the differences we observed were due to indirect effects through other factors.
|
From page 201... ...
have developed a series of interventions to increase parental knowledge of child development and imp prove parenting, which appears to have been successful along low income and teenage mothers. Again, it is difficult to sort out the effects of SES, education and age of mother, since teen mothers are disadvantaged on all factors.
|
From page 202... ...
Thus birth order and family size are important variables confounded with age of mother at first birth. A second issue is the categorization of age groups in comparing teenage and older mothers.
|
From page 203... ...
Several, in addition, looked at the inf luence of intervening factors such an f airily structure and family size. One problem is whether to include parental education as a background or intervening factor, and it is included in different ways in different studies.
|
From page 204... ...
One studies suggest that such participation improves child outcomes (Mednick and Baker, 1980; Field, 1984~. Effects of mothers' age at f irst birth on the socio~emotional development of their children have been found, but appear to be very weakO Several studies found that children of adolescent childbearers are at r isk of son ial impairment and mild behavior disorders, particularly undercontrol of behavior.
|
From page 205... ...
2 The U.S. Collaborative Perinatal Project consisted of the complete population or random samples of all patients qualifying for prenatal care in the 12 participating centers dur ing 6 years of intake, 19661972.
|
From page 206... ...
home furnishings . 9 Stability of family is representated by the total number of family constellations since birth of index child, recoded on a f ive point scale, with a score of 5 including all cases with 5 or more constellations.
|
Key Terms
This material may be derived from roughly machine-read images, and so is provided only to facilitate research.
More
information on Chapter Skim is available.