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DEVELOPMENTAL REVIEW 6, 224-251 (1986)
The Children of Adolescent Mothers: Physical,
Academic, and Psychological Outcomes
J. BROOKS-GUNN
Educational Terting Ser-t+cc~
AND
FRANK
F.
FURSTENBERG,
JR.
Teenage parenthood is bclicved to cause special problems for both the young
mother and her children. In this review. individual differences in the expression
of parenting by different-aged mothers are explored in light of two questions:
How do parenting practices originate, and how do parental practices affect the
young child’s social, physical, and cognitive development? Approaches to the
study of teenage pregnancy are considered. ‘Then. the prevalence of teenage
pregnancy is explored. Next, research on teenage parenting practices, on the
likely antecedents of parenting practices, and on outcomes of teenage mother-
hood for the child is reviewed. Finally. problems in methodology and with the
interpretation of findings about teenage parenting are discussed. Social and eco-
nomic disadvantages and teenage parenting often cooccur; most studies have not
separated out the relative effects of the two, making interpretation of the out-
comes of teenage parenting difficult. In addition, most studies focus on the proto-
typic teenage mother (black, urban. poor. unmarried). making generalizations to
other groups difficult. The major outcome findings may be summarized as
follows. First, intellectual differences in children born to teenage and older child-
bearers become more pronounced as children develop. Small differences are seen
in studies in the preschool years and larger differences are found by the elemen-
tary school years. Adolescents of early childbearers are not doing as well in
school as adolescents of older childbearera. Second, behavior differences as a
function of age of childbearing are more likely to be seen in the early years than
intellectual differences. Problems appear in activity levels, hostility, and under-
contt-ol of behavior. Third, boys at-e more affected by teenage childbearing than
are girls, at least in the early years. r 19X6 Academy Prri,. Inc
Teenage parenthood is believed to cause special problems for both the
mother and her children, not only in the form of short-term biological
consequences but also in creating longer-term psychological, social, and
economic difficulties. The life course of teenage mothers during their
This article was prepared with much appreciated support from The Commonwealth Fund.
Lorraine Luciano and Rosemary Deibler are thanked for their help in manuscript prepara-
tion. Reprint requests may be addressed to Dr. J. Brooks-Gunn, Educational Testing Ser-
vice, Princeton. NJ 08541.
0273-2297186 $3.00
Copyright 0 1986 by Academic Press. Inc.
All rights of reproduction in any form reserved.
224
TEENAGEMOTHERHOOD
225
early adulthood has been extensively studied. We know, for example.
that adolescent childbearers are less likely to complete high school, at-
tend college, find stable employment, marry, or be self-supporting than
later childbearers (Chilman, 1983; Furstenberg, 1976; Furstenberg, Lin-
coln, & Menken, 1981; Moore & Burt, 1982). In brief, the adolescent
mother finds her life chances to be truncated.
What about her children’s life chances? Are they limited also‘? Much
less is known about the child of the teenage mother (cf. Baldwin & Cain,
1981; Hoffreth, 1985). With regard to the consequences of teenage par-
enthood for children, several issues are examined in this article: (1) the
areas of a child’s development that are affected, (2) the ages at which
negative effects appear, (3) differences in negative consequences for boys
and girls, and (4) the antecedents of deleterious child outcomes.
Individual differences in the expression of parenting (including actual
behavior, expectancies, and attitudes) can shed light on two central ques-
tions: How do parenting patterns originate, and how do parental prac-
tices affect the young child’s social, physical, and cognitive develop-
ment’? This review, which specifically looks at the teenage mother, ad-
dresses both of these issues (research on the teenage father is not
reviewed, as most of it does not directly address these isues; cf. Card &
Wise, 1981; Ester & Lamb. in press; Furstenberg, 1976; Parke & Tinsley.
1984). First, approaches to the study of teenage parenting are considered.
Then, the prevalence of teenage pregnancy is examined. Next, we review
research on teenage parenting practices and their likely antecedents as
well as the small literature on outcomes of teenage motherhood for chil-
dren. Finally, problems with the interpretation of findings about teenage
parenting are discussed.
In general, the vast majority of the studies reviewed focus on black
teenagers, especially those living in disadvantaged, urban neighbor-
hoods. This state of affairs is a reflection of policy makers’ and service
providers’ concern about this particular group. The majority of programs
for adolescent mothers are directed toward the population of black, urban
teens, in large part because of the disproportionately high number of teen
births to blacks. Not only does the focus limit our knowledge about other
groups of teenage mothers (rural blacks, whites, Hispanics), but it serves
to reinforce the stereotype of the modal teenage mother (black, urban,
poor, unmarried). In absolute numbers, the stereotype does not represent
the majority of teenage mothers. Furthermore, individual differences in
the consequences of early parenthood, even within this select group,
exist (Furstenberg & Brooks-Gunn, in press). More germane to this re-
view is a cautionary note about generalizing the results to samples of
white, middle-class, or married teenagers. Another issue to keep in mind
has to do with the age of the early childbearers who are studied. Com-
plete age distributions of teenage parents typically are not included, in
226
BROOKS-GUNN AND FURSTENBERG
part because fertility rates differ for younger and older teens, and
samples are often drawn from clinics and social agencies which direct
their services to specific subgroups of teenage mothers. Most of the re-
search reviewed is focused on the older teen, who is over 16 years of age.
However, the popular image of the teenage childbearer generally features
the younger teens, who are not so often the object of study.
APPROACHES TO THE STUDY OF PARENTING
Parental contributions to outcomes of children born to teenagers have
been studied using several different approaches. Most frequently, either
differences in parental practices or differences in child outcomes are doc-
umented for mothers or families who differ on an interrelated set of di-
mensions (age, economic, educational, and marital status). The premise
underlying much of this research is that parental practices directly affect
the child’s cognitive and social development. However, in the case of
teenage mothers, the premise is typically examined inferentially rather
than directly. Thus, if children of teenage mothers have lower school per-
formance than children of older mothers, it is assumed that the mothers’
parental practices differ. However, child outcome differences may be due
to a variety of factors, with age of parent being only one. In brief, group
differences either in parental practices or child outcome are typically ex-
amined, rather than the patterns of relationships between practices and
outcomes.
A second tradition focuses upon the origins of individual differences
(Belsky, 1984). For example, language delays are sometimes seen in pre-
school children of teenage mothers (Furstenberg, 1976; Marecek, 1979).
Since teenage mothers are less likely to vocalize to their infants than are
older mothers (Field, 1981; Sandler, Vietze, & O’Connor, 1981), it is as-
sumed that these differences are related to later delays (although not all
studies of white, middle-class mothers and young children report such
relationships; Bates et al., 1982). Links between parent and child be-
havior need to be directly studied in samples of early childbearers.
PREVALENCE OF TEENAGE MOTHERHOOD
Teenage motherhood is believed by many to have reached epidemic
proportions. Contrary to popular beliefs, fertility rates among teenagers
have actually fallen over the last 25 years, as is illustrated in Fig. 1.
Several factors account for the tenacity of the belief. First, today’s
teenagers are part of the baby boom; there are, in absolute terms, a large
number of teenagers. Thus, the number of adolescent births did not de-
cline between 1960 and 1970 (as is seen in Fig. 2), even though the fer-
tility rate did. The continuing decline in teenage fertility through the
1970s resulted in a small decline in the number of teenage births (see Fig.
TEENAGEMOTHERHOOD
227
FIG. I. Birth rates in the United States for 15 to l9-year-olds by race and year (sources:
Adolescent Pregnancy and Childbearing: Rates, Trends and Research Findings; Collabora-
tive Perinatal Study, NICHD, October, 1984; United States Bureau of the Census, Current
Population Reports. Series P-20, No. 385; National Center for Health Statistics Annual
Volumes).
2). Second, the percentage of teenage births relative to all births is rela-
tively high; teenage births constituted 16% of all births and 29% of all first
births in 1979 (National Center for Health Statistics, 1981).
Third, more and more teenage births are out-of-wedlock than ever be-
fore. Out-of-wedlock motherhood is a social concern since approximately
60% of unmarried mothers receive Aid for Families with Dependent Chil-
dren (Moore & Caldwell, 1976). Of the out-of-wedlock births in 1979,
44% were to adolescents. Looking at the problem another way, 39% of
white and 90% of black teenage births in 1982 were out-of-wedlock (Na-
tional Center for Health Statistics).
Finally, the declines in fertility rates are more pronounced for older
than younger teens. Unlike the 18- to 19-year-old group, no significant
declines have occurred for the 15- to IJ-year-old group. For example, for
15 to lJ-year-olds, the birth rates (per 1000 women) were 38.8 in 1970
and 32.4 in 1982. Births to females under age 15 also remained fairly con-
stant from 1970 to 1982.’
t Little research differentiates among different-aged teenage mothers even though be-
coming a mother before Age 18 is more likely to be more deleterious than motherhood after
age 18 (Moore & Burt, 1982). For example. educational attainment may be truncated for
young teens. In 1979, two-thirds of black and four-fifths of white teenage mothers were not
enrolled in school 9 months after the birth of their tirst child (Mott & Maxwell, 1981). Since
education is related to later economic and job status, teenage mothers of school age are
more at risk for limited life chances than are older teenage mothers.
228
BROOKS-GUNN AND FURSTENBERG
100 ’
1960 1970
YEAR 1982
FIG. 2. Number of births in the United States for IS- to 19-year-olds by race and year
(sources: Adolescent Pregnancy and Childbearing: Rates, Trends and Research Findings:
Collaborative Perinatal Study, NICHD, October, 1984; United States Bureau of the Census,
Current Population Reports, Series P-20, No. 385; National Center for Health Statistics
Annual Volumes).
PARENTAL PRACTICES
What evidence do we have for the belief that teenage mothers exhibit
different parental practices from those of older mothers? Surprisingly,
few studies address this question. The meager amount of existing data to
be reviewed focuses on (1) actual behavior toward the child, (2) knowl-
edge of child development, and (3) attitudes toward parenting.
Several studies have examined interactions between teenage mothers
and their infants, comparing them to those with older mothers and their
infants. The most robust finding is that teenage mothers vocalize less to
their children than do older parents (Field, 1981; Osofsky & Osofsky,
1970; Sandler et al., 1981). Field (1981) also reports that teenage mothers
are more passive in their face-to-face interactions with 4-month-olds than
are older mothers. However, all of the interaction studies find teenage
mothers to exhibit as much warmth to their infants as do older mothers.
Also, across the majority of maternal behaviors observed, differences as
a function of childbearer’s age are not found. For example, in the Nash-
ville Comprehensive Childcare Project, 48 behaviors were observed
during a mother-infant free play; only three reached significance, two
being related to the vocalization finding just presented. It would appear
that, with the possible exception of vocalization to infants, teenage
mothers do not exhibit significant differences in parenting as compared to
older mothers. A strength of these
studies
is that the socioeconomic
TEENAGEMOTHERHOOD
229
status of the mothers was controlled, so that any effects appear to be due
to maternal age. A limiting factor is the observational setting. Only one
sample of mother-child interaction was obtained, laboratory settings
were used, and the lengths of the observations were short. Whether or
not interaction in clinic or laboratory settings is representative of ma-
ternal behavior at home and in more stressful conditions is a perennial
question. However, the procedures used in these studies are similar to
those used in numerous early childhood studies and, as such, yield infor-
mation comparable to a large corpus of interaction research.
Several other studies have examined interactions with preschoolers.
Using the HOME Inventory, teenage mothers were found to provide
fewer opportunities for stimulation but not to be less responsive or more
restrictive than older mothers who delivered in the same inner city hos-
pital (Darabi, Graham, Namerow, Philliber, & Varga, 1984; Philliber &
Graham, 1981). One study looked at 48 married couples in a semirural
area rather than an urban area. The adolescent couples were described as
intolerant, impatient, insensitive, and irritable in interaction with their
children. These observations were not based on standard interaction
techniques (de Lissovey, 1973). In the Philadelphia sample of the Collab-
orative Perinatal Project, pediatricians’ ratings of mother’s behavior
during the physical examinations were made when the infants were 4 and
8 months of age (Marecek, 1979). Black early childbearers were rated as
“unaware, unresponsive, or slower” than late childbearers as well as less
involved and more rough (Marecek, 198.5). However, the Collaborative
Perinatal Project has problems in the level of reliability of observer
ratings, especially across sites. All of these studies have the limitation
that testers were not blind to the age of the mother.
Teenage mothers do appear to have less realistic expectations than
older mothers with regard to their young children’s developmental prog-
ress. Some studies have found that teenage mothers underestimate while
others have found them to overestimate the attainment of development
milestones. In a study of 98 pregnant adolescents attending health clinics
and parent education programs, the expectant mothers underestimated
their infants’ abilities in cognition, language, and social functioning.
However, their expectations were on target for health and nutrition,
motor development, and basic care-aspects of development covered in
their health education classes (Epstein, 1979). It is interesting that
teenage mothers expect too little, too late from infants in the areas of
cognition and language, which possibly is related to the lower rates of
vocalization seen in teenage mothers. Two other studies report that
teenage mothers expect their children to reach developmental milestones
earlier (Field. 1981; de Lissovey, 1973), while one study of black primi-
230
BROOKS-GUNN AND FURSTENBERG
parous early and late child childbearers found no differences in parenting
knowledge (Parks & Smeriglio, 1983). In the study by Field, these unreal-
istic expectations were especially pronounced for teenage mothers with
preterm infants; she speculates that these mothers might have less infor-
mation about delays in preterm development and/or might be denying
their infants’ health problems. In brief, teenage mothers seem to have
less knowledge about child development milestones than do older
mothers, even when social class is similar.
Attitudes toward parenting have been assessed in several studies. In
the Nashville Project, control of children’s aggressive impulses, reci-
procity, closeness, acceptance of the emotional complexity of child care,
and feelings of competence were assessed. No maternal age differences
were seen in any of these dimensions (Sandler et al., 1981). Interestingly,
the sample as a whole, which consisted of 327 women from low-income
families, was likely to deny the emotional complexity of child care. In the
Field study, teenage mothers’ attitudes toward child rearing were more
punitive than those of older mothers, a finding also reported by de Lis-
sovey (1973). With older children, only one study has examined child-
rearing practices. As reported by mothers of 6- to 1 I-year-olds in the
Health Examination Survey, younger childbearers were less likely to
control bedtime, know many of the child’s friends, or have taken the
child to a doctor or dentist recently than older childbearers. These rela-
tionships were found even when controlling for social demographic
factors (Levin, 1983).
ANTECEDENTS OF PARENTING
Three major determinants of parenting have been identified-personal
resources of an adult, sources of stress and support, and characteristics
of the child (Belsky, Robins, & Gamble, 1982). Historical conditions, co-
hort differences, cultural beliefs, and socioeconomic status are other pos-
sible antecedents of parental practices. Parenting, in the majority of
studies cited, is measured by behavior exhibited in parent-child interac-
tions, including the parent’s interpretation and expansion of child’s
signals, reciprocal interchanges or turn taking, parental responsivity,
communication patterns, conditional probabilities, and sensitivity (Bell,
1968; Field & Fogel, 1982; Lewis & Rosenblum, 1974; Osofsky, 1979;
Osofsky & Connors, 1979; Wachs, 1982). In the following review, ma-
ternal attitudes, historical and cohort effects, social support, experience
of life events, and child characteristics are considered as possible ante-
cedents of teenage parental patterns. A problem with much of this litera-
ture is that control groups of adolescents who were not mothers or older
childbearers were not surveyed.
TEENAGE MOTHERHOOD
231
Endogenous Variables
Endogenous variables include maternal reactions to the birth of her
child, physical health and energy level, overall mental health, and mood
states.
Physical health und energy. Caregiving demands require a great deal of
energy; the amount of available energy may affect how mothers use avail-
able supports and service systems (Lavelle & Keogh, 1980), as well as
their actual parental patterns. Mothers report that fatigue is their primary
symptom in the first few months after birth (Melges, 1968; Robson &
Moss, 1970). In addition, such fatigue may exacerbate negative reactions
to the birth of a child and ability to cope with a new child (Larsen, 1966),
as has been suggested in the postpartum depression literature (Parlee,
1978). Teenage mothers, if they have adequate support, may be less likely
to experience negative feelings relative to fatigue than older mothers.
However, no information is available on fatigue or postpartum reactions
in teenage mothers.
Ego strength. Constructs such as ego strength and maturity have been
hypothesized to contribute to effective parenting. In studies of middle-
class mothers, responsivity and reciprocity directed toward infants is re-
lated to ego strength as measured during pregnancy (Feldman & Nash,
1985; Brunnquell, Crichton, & Egeland, 1981). Teenage mothers are be-
lieved to have lower levels of ego strength and to be less mature socially
and emotionally, due to the necessity of negotiating the developmental
tasks of adolescence (Hamburg, 1980). However, few studies directly test
this hypothesis. Early case studies tend to report difficulties in psychoan-
alytic terms (teenage pregnancies represent “hysterical disassociation
states.” Kasanin & Handschin, 1941: “object losses,” Greenberg,
Loesch, & Lakin, 1959; “passive dependencies,” Barglow, Bornstein. &
Exum et al., 1968). In studies using more experimental approaches, few
differences between teenage and older pregnant subjects are found
(Quay, 1981). In one of the few prospective studies, MMPI profiles taken
in ninth grade were compared for girls who became pregnant later during
high school and those who did not. The profiles were very similar; the
only differences suggested that pregnant girls were more energetic, out-
going, and socially active (Pauker, 1969). These characteristics may be
related to earlier age of first intercourse. In any case, those girls who
became pregnant were not less socially mature, more passive, or less
emotionally integrated than their classmates who did not become preg-
nant.
Lack of maturity may be inferred from indicators of self-orientation
during pregnancy. In middle-class samples, women who are preoccupied
with themselves, as measured by physical and sexual concerns, seem to
232
BROOKS-GUNN AND FURSTENBERG
show less effective parenting patterns in the postpartum year (Grossman,
Eichler, & Winickoff, 1980). Directed inward, these mothers may not be
especially sensitive to their children’s needs. Whether or not this would
be more true of teenage than older mothers is not known.
Mood states und depression. Several investigators have found that
moods tend to fluctuate during pregnancy (Leifer, 1977). Emotional la-
bility during pregnancy would make it less likely that assessments of
pregnancy mood states would predict later parental patterns (Feldman &
Nash, 1985). However, in two studies of middle-class mothers, anxiety
and depression measured during pregnancy were negatively related to
effective mothering in the first year postpartum (Feldman & Nash, 1984,
1985; Grossman et al., 1980). Whether or not similar relationships would
be found within disadvantaged samples or within a sample of teenage
parents is unknown.
In terms of comparisons across samples, limited evidence to date sug-
gests that teenage mothers are not more depressed than older mothers.
For example, in a sample of over 500 disadvantaged women in Harlem,
no differences in the incidence of depression and anxiety was found as a
function of maternal age (Brooks-Gunn et al., 1984).
Attitudes toward pregnancy. Even though teenage mothers may not
exhibit more depressed mood states or more psychopathology than older
mothers, one might expect their attitudes toward pregnancy to differ. For
example, in
a study
of 400 teenagers who attended a prenatal clinic in
Baltimore City hospitals in the late 196Os, only one adolescent in five
indicated that she had been happy about becoming pregnant. And even
these women qualified their responses by saying that they felt “kind of
good” or “sort of happy” about getting pregnant. Another fifth of the
sample reported mixed feelings about becoming pregnant, or indicated
that they had not been affected much one way or the other. Three-
quarters of the expectant mothers said they wished they had not become
pregnant, and three-fifths stated their first reactions in unambivalently
negative terms. Half of them could not bring themselves to tell their
parents of the pregnancy for several months. After the first postpartum
year, 70% of the teenage parents indicated they were feeling less negative
about the pregnancy than they had been initially. However, fewer than
one-third described themselves as “very happy” (Furstenberg, 1976,
1981).
The relationship between initial reactions to pregnancy and later ad-
justment to parenthood was assessed, as these mothers were seen several
times during their first child’s first 5 years of life. In the Baltimore study,
no relationships were found between the initial reactions to pregnancy
and maternal behaviors measured 4 years after the birth of the child.
However, attitudes remained consistent: Women who were initially un-
TEENAGE MOTHERHOOD
233
happy about parenthood continued to report low interest in their children
4 years later. Even at the follow-up, however, attitudes about parenthood
were not related to parenting behavior (Furstenberg. 1976).
Child Charucteristics
Most of the literature on antecedents of behavior concentrates on in-
fant characteristics that influence parenting (Belsky et al., 1982). A series
of studies have shown that age of the child, birthweight, gender, birth
order, and developmental level influence maternal behavior (cf. Bell,
1968; Brooks-Gunn & Lewis, 1984; Goldberg & Lewis, 1969: Lewis &
Rosenblum, 1974). These effects have been well documented.
Few studies have examined the effect of infant characteristics upon
parenting behavior in teenage samples. Field’s study comparing teenage
mothers’ interactions with their preterm and term infants described ear-
lier may be the only example. Of particular interest is whether or not
teenage parents would be more or less sensitive to altering behavior as a
function of infant characteristics than older mothers. Available evidence
suggests that teenage parents may have difficulty in fine-tuning their be-
havior, given their lack of knowledge about normative development. their
possible denial of the problems of their infants, and/or their concentration
on problems in their own life. However, little research addresses this
issue directly.
Historicml und Cohort Changes
Changes have occurred in social structural variables associated with
parenthood in the last several decades. It is believed that these changes
affect parental practices, although few studies look at direct links be-
tween the two (Brooks-Gunn, 1985). Four of the major changes include
reduction in family size, increase in maternal employment, increase in
single-parent households, and increase in out-of-wedlock births. Teenage
mothers are more likely to be unmarried, to have children out-of-wed-
lock, and to head a single-parent household than are older childbearers
even from the same neighborhoods (Moore & Burt, 1982; Furstenberg &
Crawford, 1981). Thus, their children are more likely to be living in pov-
erty than are children born to older mothers.
Negative Life Events
The socioeconomic context in which an early pregnancy occurs has
repeatedly been shown to affect later parent and child outcomes. Less
attention has been directed toward the occurrence of negative life events
or the strains of daily living often associated with the life of poverty, a life
in which the teenage mother is likely to find herself, or toward the pos-
234
BROOKS-GUNN AND FURSTENBERG
sible influence of these events upon her adjustment to parenthood or pa-
rental behavior.
The literature on the relationship of life events to psychological well-
being may give us clues as to the importance of life events to parenting.
The occurrence of negative life events is moderately related to psycho-
logical adjustment (Dohrenwend & Dohrenwend, 1974; Mueller, Ed-
wards, & Yarvis, 1977; Ross & Mirowski, 1979). In addition, undesirable
life events are more prevalent in the economically disadvantaged, the
poorly educated, the female, the young, and the unmarried (Brown,
Bhrolchain, & Harris, 197.5; Pearlin & Johnson, 1977; Pearlin & Lie-
berman, 1977; Thoits, 1982). Obviously, then, teenage parents are likely
to experience undesirable life events and strains of daily living, given that
they possess many of these characteristics.
Not only are certain groups likely to experience negative events, but
these very same groups may be more vulnerable to them: That is, they
will be more likely to exhibit psychological disturbance when confronted
with negative events, as Kessler (1979; Kessler & Cleary, 1980) has sug-
gested. Such vulnerability may be due, at least in part, to the unavail-
ability of personal and social resources needed to cope with the stresses
associated with negative events (Kessler & Essex, 1982). This has been
demonstrated elegantly in several studies, where the joint occurrence of
many stressful events and low social support are more predictive of psy-
chological distress than either separately (Kessler & Essex, 1982; Liem
& Liem, 1978; Thoits, 1982).
With regard to teenage mothers, several approaches have been taken to
study the possible effects of undesirable life events. Pregnancy, child-
birth, and parenting are considered to be stressful events in and of them-
selves. The distinction between desirable and undesirable life events has
been made, since the latter are more likely to predict psychological
problems than the former (Mueller et al., 1977: Ross & Mirowski, 1979;
Thoits, 1981). The question arises, then, as to the desirability of preg-
nancy, which is assumed in planned pregnancies of married, economi-
cally stable couples. The teenage parent presents a different case, how-
ever. Early pregnancy is assumed to be unplanned; as we have seen, the
adolescents in the Baltimore Study were not particularly happy about
becoming pregnant, even though they accepted it. However, initial un-
happiness was not related to later parenting practices. Likewise, virtually
all of the adolescents’ mothers accepted the pregnancy and the baby,
after their initial disappointment (Furstenberg, 1976). In a similar vein,
unplanned pregnancies may be the norm in some groups: In the Harlem
study, three-quarters of the pregnancies were unplanned, across all age
groups (McCormick et al., 198.5). However, little stigma was associated
with this state of affairs.
TEENAGE MOTHERHOOD
235
With regard to stresses occurring in conjunction with pregnancy, it is
not clear that the teenager experiences more stress than the unmarried
young adult, at least within a disadvantaged community. No differences
in number of negative life events were found in the Harlem study as a
function of maternal age (Brooks-Gunn et al., 1984).
Finally, one study has explicitly examined the relative contribution of
life events and psychological adjustment in pregnancy, finding the ex-
pected relationship (Turner & Noh. 1981). Interestingly, when social sup-
port and perceived personal control were examined as possible mediators
of the life stress-psychological adjustment relationship, high support and
personal control reduced the impact of negative life events significantly.
One would expect this effect to occur regardless of maternal age.
Social Support
As the preceding discussion implies, the availability and use of social
support may buffer the individual from the possible deleterious effects of
negative life events (Cassel, 1976; Cobb, 1976; Thoits, 1982). Indeed,
some research validates this claim, even though questions have been
raised as to whether or not what is being measured is a direct effect of life
events upon social support or an interaction of events and support
(Thoits, 1982, pp. 143-146). In addition, social support may affect psy-
chological functioning more directly, rather than through interaction with
life events.
Social support, as related to pregnancy and early parenting, has not
been studied extensively, although the evidence to date suggests that it
plays an important role. For example, in an often quoted study, ante-
partum social support was related to positive pregnancy outcomes
(Nuckolls, Cassel, & Kaplan, 1972). In the teenage pregnancy literature,
the child’s developmental functioning is related to the presence of an-
other adult in the household or at least the presence of a significant other
in child care (Furstenberg, 1976; Kellam, Ensminger. & Turner, 1977).
The presence of another may (1) act as a buffer, in lessening the psycho-
logical or economic impact of negative events upon the family (as illus-
trated by the Turner and Noh study); (2) act as a source of socioemotional
support for the mother (which results in indirect benefits to the child);
increased maternal well-being due to support may result in more interest
in or responsivity to the child (Lewis & Feiring, 1981); and/or (3) act as a
direct source of support for the child. In any case, social support may be
critical to teenage parents, whether it affects their parental practices di-
rectly or indirectly.
One specific source of support, the biological father, has been studied
in terms of indirect and direct support provided to the teenage mother.
Maternal parenting and perceptions of parental competence were not re-
236
BROOKS-GUNN AND FURSTENBERG
lated to marriage patterns or paternal involvement. However, one factor
did make a difference: Women who had married a man who was not the
father of their first child were less confident of their abilities as a parent
and reported having more difficulty with their child (Furstenberg, 1976).
These findings parallel the results of research on the consequences of
marital disruption and remarriage for children (Furstenberg, 1983).
CONSEQUENCES OF PARENTING UPON
CHILDREN’S DEVELOPMENT
It is believed that children’s development is affected negatively by
teenage parenthood. However, risks associated with teenage parenthood
have not been calculated except for neonatal morbidity and mortality
(McCormick, Shapiro, & Stat-field, 1984). With regard to later health
status, social problems, or cognitive functioning, little is known. In addi-
tion, whether or not effects are equally distributed as a function of child’s
age, gender, or birth order has not been studied. Finally, individual dif-
ferences among children of teenage parents have not been examined; the
characteristics of teenage mothers that predict later child dysfunction and
those that foretell future success need to be identified.
Neonatal Status
In general, when medical care is adequate, little or no risk is found in
terms of the health of neonates born to teenage mothers (Broman, 1981;
McCormick et al., 1984; Sandler et al., 1981). Earlier studies reporting
adverse health outcomes did not control for quality and quantity of ob-
stetrical care (Baldwin & Cain, 1981). Obstetric risk factors predict neo-
natal mortality and morbidity better than does maternal age. However, an
increased risk of neonatal mortality has been associated with race, ma-
ternal age at the extremes, low maternal educational attainment, and
prior adverse obstetric outcome (i.e., fetal death). The neonatal mortality
rates of these groups are accounted for primarily by low birth weight,
which is associated with these factors (McCormick, 1985; McCormick et
al., 1984; Shapiro et al., 1980). The birth weight differentials account for
race, adolescent motherhood, and low maternal education effects on neo-
natal mortality (McCormick, 1985).
Thus, it is not surprising that when ethnic and socioeconomic back-
grounds are controlled, neonatal morbidity and mortality differences be-
tween teenage and older mothers disappear (Broman, 1981; Monkus &
Bancalari, 1981). The only exception may be very young mothers (under
15). Most studies have been unable to look at very young mothers, given
the small number of them in any sample. This is the group most likely to
conceal their pregnancy, and thus they may begin their antenatal care
later than older teenagers. This hypothesis was not substantiated in the
TEENAGEMOTHERHOOD
237
Collaborative Perinatal Project, however. Broman (198 1) examined I2- to
15-, 16- to 17-, and 20- to 29-year-old mothers. The black 16- to 17-year-
olds had fewer antenatal visits than did the 12- to IS- or 20- to 29-year-
olds. In addition, the young and old teens did not differ with respect to
neonatal morbidity rates.
Other studies have examined neonatal outcomes in hospitals offering
special antenatal programs or a uniformly high level of prenatal care.
Again, no neonatal health differences as a function of maternal age are
found (Mednick, Brock, & Baker, 1979; Sandler et al., 1981; Zackler,
Andelman, & Bauer, 1969). In two recent studies, neonatal health status
did not differ as a function of maternal age once initial differences in
prenatal care were controlled (Rothenberg & Varga, 1981; Zuckerman et
al., 1983). In addition, two studies examined neonatal status using the
Neonatal Assessment Scale (Brazelton), finding no differences asso-
ciated with maternal age (Lester, Garcia-Coil, & Sepkoski, 1983; Sandler
et al., 1981).
Infant Status
In general, health status does not differ for infants (from first 28 days of
life to the first year of life) of teenage and older mothers (Marachek.
1979). In one study where a composite physical health score was calcu-
lated for babies at I year of age, those infants raised by single teenage
mothers were less healthy than those raised in teenage parent households
with another adult present, either grandmother or father (Mednick et al.,
1979). In this same study, infants of younger and older mothers were
somewhat more healthy at 1 year than infants born to mothers in their 20s
(Mednick et al., 1980, Danish cohort). The teens were more likely to be
living with other adults, suggesting social support as the mechanism fa-
voring the younger mothers. However, the best predictors of health
status were birth weight and gender, with maternal age contributing little
or nothing to health status at Age 1, either directly or indirectly. Accident
rates, another indicator of health status, were higher in infants with
mothers under 20, controlling for parity and maternal education (Wick-
lurid, Moss, & Frost. 1982).
In terms of developmental status, as measured by infant intelligence
tests, babies of teenage and older mothers do equally well, when control-
ling for social class and/or maternal education (Marecek, 1979; Broman,
1981). In the Marecek study, infants born to younger mothers tended to
have slightly higher scores on motor and mental scales compared to those
of older mothers. These differences may be meaningless in terms of func-
tional status (for example, they tend to be one or two points). Means foi
children of black 12- to IS-, 16- to 17-, and 20- to 29-year-olds were 79.
79. and 78. respectively (Broman. 1981). Also. infant intelligence test
238
BROOKS-GUNN AND FURSTENBERG
scores do not predict later intellectual functioning (Lewis, 1983), sug-
gesting that the small early differences do not forecast higher functioning
later on. Indeed, these differences may be due to teenagers’ slightly dif-
ferent treatment of their infants than older mothers. Early tests are com-
posed of more motoric than verbal items. If teenage, as compared to
older, mothers are talking less but playing equally with their infants, they
may facilitate early motoric development. One might expect the children
of teenage mothers to be at a disadvantage when language becomes more
prominant (see Bates et al., 1982, however, for a review of the literature
on maternal behavioral effects on child language). This hypothesis has
not been directly tested.
The temperamental characteristics of infants born to teenage and older
mothers may differ. Field’s teenage mothers report that their 4-month-
olds are more distractible and less adaptable; it is possible that the young
mothers’ passivity in face-to-face interactions contributes to these
perhaps less desirable infant characteristics. Alternatively, these differ-
ences may be due to the fact that temperament was assessed on a ma-
ternal-report scale. Since teenage mothers seem to have less knowledge
about child development, as discussed earlier, perhaps they rate their
4-month-olds as distractible or nonadaptive because of unrealistic expec-
tations for their infants’ behavior. No temperament differences were
found in the Nashville study (Sandler et al., 1981). In the Collaborative
Perinatal Project, testers rated the infants of teenage mothers as less
likely to be hypoactive, unresponsive, or slow to respond than infants of
older mothers (Broman, 1981). In the Philadelphia sample of the Perinatal
project, infants of teenagers were rated as more apprehensive than in-
fants of older mothers (Marecek, 1985).
These findings are consistent with those of Field: More active infants
may be rated as more distractible and less adaptable. In addition, they
may be more likely to exhibit motoric competence given their higher ac-
tivity levels. If temperament differences do exist for babies of teenagers
(a corpus of three studies is too limited to make such a broad generaliza-
tion), what might account for them? Perinatal history is a possibility, as is
maternal behavior. Genetic variation between children born to women in
their teens and 20s is unlikely. However, genetics may play a role if black
urban women who are early childbearers are different from those who are
later childbearers. For example, girls who become young mothers may be
less verbal than those who do not (indeed, some of our recent research
suggests that school failure, which probably is indicative of a combina-
tion of low motivation, competence, and academic interest, is related to
early unplanned parenthood; Furstenberg & Brooks-Gunn, in press). If
linguistic ability rather than motivation or opportunity is found to be the
primary factor, then the low verbal performance of teenager’s children
TEENAGE MOTHERHOOD
239
could reflect shared genetic and environmental variance. In one study
attempting to disentangle these two sources of variance using an adoption
paradigm, communication in I-year-olds was more related to cognitive
assessments of the birth than the adoptive mother (Hardy-Brown.
Plomin. & DeFries, 1981). While environmental effects probably become
stronger with age, as these authors note, the findings do
suggest
that ge-
netic factors cannot be ignored. The same may be true for the tempera-
ment differences between young children of early and late childbearers.
Intellectually, the functional
status
of children born to teenagers and
older mothers begins to divrerge in the preschool years. In the Collabora-
tive Perinatal Project (CPP), Stanford-Binet IQ scores were 87 for black
children of 12- to IS-year-old mothers, 89 for 16- to 17-year-olds, and 92
for 20- to 29-year-olds. Similar findings were found for the white sample
(Broman, 1981). Within social classes the same trends were found, even
though social class accounted for more IQ variation than did maternal
age. In both samples, the effects were
most
pronounced in the highest of
three social classes. In two other studies using the CPP data, differences
were found for blacks but not for whites (Hardy et al., 1978: Marechek.
1979).
Broman (1981) also examined the number of children with IQs under
70, a clear measure of developmental dysfunction. Maternal age is nega-
tively related to mental retardation in children. Marecek (1979) reports
lower Stanford-Binet IQ scores for black 4-year-old boys but not for girls
born to teenage rather than older mothers in the Philadelphia sample of
the Perinatal project. Since no sex difference was found for children of
20- to 25year-old mothers, Marechek concludes that teenage mother-
hood negatively affects boys more than girls (Hoffreth, 198.5). In the Bal-
timore study, cognitive functioning was not related to age
)l’ithitz
a sample
of teenage mothers, although social class and childrearing shared with
another adult (father or female relative) were positively related to 4-year-
old’s cognitive functioning (Furstenberg. 1976).
With regard to psychosocial functioning, the preschoolers born to
black teenage mothers in the Philadelphia sample of the CPP were rated
as more conforming and suggestible than those with older mothers (Mar-
ecek, 1985).
By 7 years of age, IQ performance is depressed for children of teenage
mothers in the Philadelphia study, but not in the National CPP sample,
across social classes. An interaction of gender of child and age of mother
indicated that boys of mothers under 17 at their birth had the lowest
240
BROOKS-GUNN AND FURSTENBERG
WISC scores (Marecek, 1985). The effect of maternal age was found for
verbal and performance IQ scores. In the Collaborative Perinatal Project,
lower IQ scores were found for children of the teenage than older
mothers in the highest but not lowest social class. In a path analysis of
the Philadelphia CPP data for blacks, Marechek finds no direct effects of
maternal age on WISC scores, when education, marital status, income,
and child’s behavioral control were held constant. Using the Health Ex-
amination Survey (HES) data, Cycles II and III, Cohen, Belmont,
Dryfoos, Stein, and Zayac (1980) also found no direct effects of teenage
childbearing upon child intellectual functioning, except for blacks in
Cycle III. Instead, a linear effect of maternal age was found, such that
children of women in their late 20s do better than children of mothers in
their early 2Os, who do better than children of mothers in their teens.
Maternal education was a much more potent predictor in the white
sample; an additional year of maternal education added an additional IQ
point. Father absence and family size also influenced child IQ. Thus, ef-
fects of teenage childbearing, when found, are mediated by factors such
as education, single-parent households, and family size. Direct effects,
when found, are small (Levin, 1983).
School achievement, as tapped by Wide Range Achievement Test
(WRAT) scores, was depressed by teenage parenthood in the CPP also.
However, this effect was primarily accounted for by social class. Repeti-
tion of a grade was more likely to occur when a black child’s mother had
been a teenager in the Philadelphia CPP sample (Marecek, 1985). Using
the HES data, Levin (1983) found maternal age to affect WRAT scores,
even when controlling for race, birth order, income. education, house-
hold structure, and household size. The magnitude of the maternal age
effect is small-less than 1% of the variance when the other variables are
controlled (out of 18 to 33% of explained variance).
With regard to behavior problems, children of black teenage mothers
compared to those of older mothers were more active, had less impulse
control, were low in frustration tolerance during the testing session (Mar-
ecek, 1979), had more difficulty adapting to school (Kellam et al., 1977),
and were more likely to be rated as hyperactive (Broman, 1981). Boys
born to teenage mothers were rated as more hostile, assertive, and willful
than were boys of older mothers in the Philadelphia CPP; these differ-
ences were not seen for girls. Boys with teenage mothers were more
likely to have speech problems and excessive thumb-sucking than their
male peers, while girls with teenage mothers were more likely to have
phobias and to wet their beds (Marecek, 1985). Overall ratings of suspect
or abnormal behavior, based on testers’ ratings, were more likely to
occur in children of white teenage compared to older mothers even after
controlling for SES (Broman. 1981). And in the Philadelphia sample, so-
TEENAGE MOTHERHOOD
241
cial maladjustment ratings were given to S% of 7-year-olds born to
women under 17 years of age, as compared to under 2% for children with
older mothers (Marecek, 1985). In the HES data, problem in social be-
havior and speech were reported for adolescent childbearers, after con-
trolling for social demographic factors (Levin, 1983). Such behavior
problems may set the stage for later difficulties, as Kellam et al. (1977)
have found in the Woodlawn study.
Secondary School Years
Long-term effects of teenage parenting may be expected, given the
patterns seen in elementary school. Elementary school adjustment pre-
dicted secondary school adjustment and delinquency in the Woodlawn
study (Kellam et al., 1977), with teenage parenthood being related to ini-
tial adjustment problems. In an analysis of the Project TALENT data on
375,000 teenagers in 1960, those whose mothers were teens at their birth
had lower cognitive scores, had lower educational aspirations. and were
more likely to have become teen parents themselves (Card, 1977, 1981).
Not only was there a direct effect of adolescent parenthood, but there
was an indirect effect via single-parent households (Card, 1977). In the
HES sample, Levin’s findings for I?- to 17-year-olds are similar to those
for the elementary schoolers (1983). Age of childbearing affects WISC
and WRAT scores over and above the social demographic factors men-
tioned earlier and account for less than 1% of the explained variance.
Presser (1978), in a sample of women in New York City, found maternal
age at first birth to be the best predictor of the subjects’ age at first birth.
Finally, we are conducting a 17-year follow-up of the original teenage
mothers in the Baltimore study; 80% of the original teenage mothers and
their firstborn children, who are now adolescents themselves, have been
reinterviewed. Preliminary analyses of their school-related behavior indi-
cates a high level of maladjustment. Forty percent of the 15 to 16-year-
olds reported that their parents came to the school because of a problem
in the past year. Over one-quarter had skipped school and had fought at
school in the past year. The mothers reported that 49% of the adolescents
had been suspended or expelled from school in the past 5 years. and 56%,
had received a note from the school about a behavior problem in the past
5 years. The figures were compared with those for the black subsample of
the National Survey of Children (NSC; Furstenberg, Winquist-Nord, Pe-
terson, & Zill, 1983). The Baltimore study adolescents were compared
with the NSC adolescents also born to teenagers and those born to older
mothers. The results for the Baltimore study were almost identical to
those of the NSC early childbearers. In contrast, the 1.5- to IS-year-olds
born to later childbearers exhibited much less school misbehavior: Seven
percent had skipped school, 20% had fought, and 14% had their parents
242
TEENAGE MOTHERHOOD
brought to school in the past year because of a behavior problem. Only
one-quarter had been expelled in the past 5 years. In a similar vein, 15 to
16-year-olds whose mothers were early childbearers were much more
likely to have repeated a grade than those whose mothers were later
childbearers. Fifty-three percent of the adolescents in the Baltimore
study repeated a grade, compared to 42% of the NSC early childbearers,
and 19% of the NSC later childbearers’ adolescents. While repeating a
grade was related to socioeconomic
status
with the Baltimore Study, SES
does not totally account for these findings (Furstenberg & Brooks-Gunn,
in press).
Behavior problems also are associated with adolescent childbearing in
the secondary school years. In the HES sample, delinquency and social
behavior problems were more marked in adolescents of younger
mothers, controlling for other factors (Levin, 1983). Card (1981) also re-
ports sociability problems, although these disappear when controlling for
social demographic factors.
ISSUES IN TEENAGE PARENTING
Relative Effects of Maternal Age
Much of the literature to date does not address a major question: What
is the effect of maternal age on child outcome, relative to other influ-
ences, such as education, poverty, and residence in single-parent house-
holds? In the well-studied case of low birth weight (LBW), maternal age
has little effect when controlling for other influences. The higher inci-
dence of low birth weight in neonates born to teenage mothers (at least
those over age 15) is not due to a biological condition, but is associated
with behavioral and environmental characteristics. Teenagers may re-
ceive less adequate antenatal care, and receive it later, if special pro-
grams are not provided for them. The potential reasons are numerous-
attempts to conceal or deny pregnancy, lack of initiative, ignorance about
the availability of neighborhood health services, fear or distrust of the
health system, and/or misinformation about the effects of inadequate
care. From a structural point of view, women in poverty neighborhoods
may have less access to quality obstetrical care. Economically, teenagers
from poor families may be concerned about payment for care. These pos-
sibilities underscore the need to elucidate the personal, structural, and
economic factors contributing to antenatal care differences. We know
that enrollment in special obstetrical clinics for teenagers lowers the inci-
dence of LBW births. However, how these programs do so is not known;
in other words, which of the personal and structural barriers may be
overcome by special programs has not been documented.
Several investigators, using national data bases, have attempted to
tease apart the effects of maternal age and conditions associated with
BROOKS-GUNN AND FURSTENBERG
243
teenage parenting. These studies point to the fact that many deleterious
effects of adolescent childbearing are indirect, being mediated primarily
by the low maternal educational attainment and the high incidence of
single-parent households. However, direct effects of early childbearing
controlling for other factors are consistent, but small. How these factors
actually influence parental behavior or child responses is not known.
Comparison Groups
A related issue has to do with the appropriate groups with which to
compare teenage mothers. As we have seen, teenage and older mothers
may differ on a set of interrelated dimensions, making it difficult to at-
tribute differences in parental practices to a single cause.
Typically, inferences are made about the consequences of teenage par-
enting by controlling for as many differences between younger and older
mothers as possible. In general, young mothers are compared to older
mothers holding education, work status, ethnicity, and economic well-
being constant, or using these variables as covariates. A problem exists
with this approach, as major demographic variables used as covariates
are typically in flux for the teenage mother. The teenage mother, at least
when she is under 18, may not be classified as to high school completion,
public assistance, or employment (Moore & Burt, 1982). For example,
she may be on maternity leave from school, be in school, or have left
school. Although teenage mothers are less likely to complete high school
or to be employed, it is difficult to predict an individual’s life course or
even their status at Age 20 on an a priori basis. Therefore, social struc-
tural factors known to affect child outcome may not be assessed very
precisely in the teenage years.
Several approaches may overcome these limitations. First, individual
differences may be examined within, rather than across, groups and over
time. This approach has been used in the Baltimore study. Second, com-
parisons can be made with older mothers from similar families of origin:
Educational, occupational, economic, and marital status of the mothers’
parents may be held constant. A variant of this approach would be to
compare teenage mothers to their high school classmates who have chil-
dren after their teen years. Classmates will have similar familial charac-
teristics, being drawn from the same neighborhoods, and will be from the
same generational cohort (often a problem when teenage mothers are
compared to mothers 5 and 10 years older). In the Baltimore study, this
approach was used to examine maternal attitudes and the outcomes of
preschoolers (Furstenberg, 1976).
Third, comparisons may be made for mothers with special character-
istics. For example, the impact of unwanted pregnancies (the modal situ-
ation for teenagers) upon parental practices may be examined by com-
244
BROOKS-GUNN AND FURSTENBERG
paring teenage and older mothers who have unwanted pregnancies
(McCormick et al., 1985). Another illustration of a more fine-grained ap-
proach is the study by Field, in which teenage and older mothers with
preterm and term infants were compared. Do teenage mothers alter their
behavior, when confronted with the special needs of preterm infants, as
older parents have been shown to do’? Typically, the available studies
have controlled for race and maternal education and/or drawn samples
from the same hospital clinic, making it likely that women were from
similar families of origin. Almost all of these studies have focused on
black teenage mothers. Thus, the findings are primarily applicable to the
group who has the highest rate of early parenthood but who does not
comprise the majority of teenage parents in America. Comparison groups
of older mothers have all controlled for race. Our point is not that the
comparison groups used in the available studies are inappropriate, but
that relative effects of social class and parental age often cannot be
teased apart in current designs.
Outcomes of the Children
Setting aside the difficulty in estimating relative effects of parental age
and socioeconomic status, what may be said about the outcomes of
teenage mothers’ children? The meager literature suggests that differ-
ences become more pronounced as the children get older. If infants are
affected, over and above the higher incidence of neonatal problems (spe-
cifically low birth weight), it is in the area of activity and undercontrol of
behavior. Higher activity is also seen in the preschoolers of teenage
mothers as is willful and aggressive behavior. Such behavior may set the
stage for later school problems, as an inattentive, distractible, nonpersis-
tent child may be more likely to have difficulty in the classroom setting.
Cognitive deficits first appear consistently during preschool, at least in
some studies, although the deficits are not as pronounced as they are for
the psychosocial domain. By elementary school, they are magnified
somewhat. Again, the child of the teenage mother may be at a disadvan-
tage when entering school, a disadvantage that becomes exacerbated by
the demands of school. By high school, the adolescent is faring poorly, in
terms of delinquency, school achievement, and early childbearing. What
transpired between elementary school and high school entrance to mag-
nify the problems of the children is not known, and constitutes a large
research gap.
Of particular interest is the fact that boys born to teenage mothers may
be more at risk than their sisters. Males may be more likely to be affected
by environmental events than girls, as literature on divorce and single-
parent families seems to suggest (Furstenberg et al., 1983). Whether or
not the presence of a male in the household is more important for boys
TEENAGE MOTHERHOOD
245
than girls is hotly debated, but unanswered. Finally, the “male effect”
may be related to gender differences in the expression of problems: Boys
are more likely to act out in aggressive ways than girls. Thus, their
problems are more evident in school (hyperactivity, inattention, school
expulsion, delinquency). Girls’ problems may appear during adoles-
cence, as expressed by early childbearing and school dropout.
Finally, effects of teenage motherhood on children other than the first-
born have not been explored. It is possible that the teenager becomes a
more effective parent with age and experience; in this scenario, her later
born children may be buffered from negative effects. On the other hand,
the social and economic conditions under which later born children are
reared may be more negative. With the firstborn. the teenager is likely to
live in her mother’s home. with all the social and economic supports of-
fered by other adults. The second child is often not greeted as enthusias-
tically by the teenager’s mother; indeed, the teenager is likely to set up
her own household at this point (Furstenberg & Brooks-Gunn, in press).
In any case, more information is needed about the later born children of
teenage mothers.
Muternal Practices
Surprisingly, teenagers’ parental practices are studied infrequently.
even given the premise that they are sometimes inadequate parents. The
exception involves parenting of infants. While few differences between
teenage and older mothers have been found, the one that has, vocaliza-
tion, may be directly linked to depressed cognitive scores in preschool
and childhood. Maternal vocalization patterns to their infants has been
found to be related to later linguistic competence in some studies but not
in others (Bates et al., 1982; Cherry & Lewis, 1975). Therefore, early
patterns may translate into later deficits, at least with respect to lan-
guage. In addition, teenage mothers may interact more passively with
their infants, which may result in undercontrol of behavior. However,
links between early parental practices and later child functioning have
not been studied in teenage mothers, so these statements are speculative
at best.
It is possible that possible negative influences of teenage parental be-
havior in the early years of the child’s life are offset by the presence of
another adult in the household. For many teenage mothers, the grand-
mother shares in, or does the majority of, the caregiving; unfortunately,
the division of labor and time spent in caregiving in multigenerational
families have not been systematically studied. In any case, the presence
of other adults may ameliorate the negative consequences of teenage
mothering (Furstenberg, 1976; Kellam et al., 1977).
With regard to older children, little is known about teenage parental
246
BROOKS-GUNN AND FURSTENBERG
practices. It is possible that individual differences among teenage
mothers become more pronounced with time, given the variability of
teenage mothers’ life courses. Also, the problems seen at specific age
points may be related to the transitions that the mother herself is making.
For example, if teenage mothers are likely to be setting up their own
households 5 to 6 years after the birth of their child, then the child is
faced with a move to a new home and possibly neighborhood and the loss
of his or her grandmother and other family members at the time of school
entrance. Thus, the first grader of a teenage mother may have a particu-
larly difficult time in the early grades, setting up a pattern of reoccurring
school-related problems.
It is important to stress that variation in parental practices, when
found, may be mediated by the antecedents of parenting discussed in this
review (see also Elster, McAnarney, & Lamb, 1983).
Summary
It is clear that many questions related to the consequences of teenage
parenthood and parenting remain. We still have little information on
teenager’s parenting practices and the likely antecedents and conse-
quences of them. As seen in this review, the relative effects of maternal
age (over and above social and educational conditions associated with
teenage parenting); possible differences in child outcome as a function of
age, gender, birth order; parental practices of teenage mothers after the
infancy period; and links between parental practices and child outcomes
have not been systematically studied. In addition, research needs to ex-
plore the effect of changes in the mother’s life on the child at different age
points, in a manner analogous to the literature on divorce and child func-
tioning. Finally, research has focused on the protypical adolescent
mother (black, urban, poor, unmarried); much more information is
needed on other groups of teenage mothers, especially those who are less
disadvantaged.
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RECEIVED: March 25. 1985: REVISED: October 18, 1985
