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Title: Early Maternal Age at Childbearing and Offspring Functioning During Adolescence: A Sibling-Comparison Study of Sexual Behavior and Depression
Resulting in 1 citation.
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D'Onofrio, Brian M. Donahue, Kelly L Coyne, Claire A. Van Hulle, Carol A. Rodgers, Joseph Lee Waldman, Irwin D. Lahey, Benjamin B. |
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Early Maternal Age at Childbearing and Offspring Functioning During Adolescence: A Sibling-Comparison Study of Sexual Behavior and Depression Presented: Minneapolis MN, Behavior Genetics Association Annual Meeting, 2009 Cohort(s): Children of the NLSY79, NLSY79 Young Adult Publisher: Behavior Genetics Association Keyword(s): Age at Birth; Age at First Intercourse; CESD (Depression Scale); Depression (see also CESD); Sexual Activity; Siblings Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher. Offspring born to younger mothers are at increased risk for problems during adolescence across a range of domains. Previous research suggests that the mechanisms responsible for the associations between offspring adjustment and early maternal age at childbearing (MAC) are dependent on the outcomes being explored. The current study used statistical covariates and the comparison of siblings differentially exposed to MAC to account for alternative explanations for the statistical relations with risky sexual behavior and depression during adolescence. The study included 6,056 offspring (ages 14–21) born to a nationally representative sample of women in the US from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth and children of the NLSY studies. MAC in the sample ranged from 13- to 34-year-old (M = 23.2). Each increasing year of maternal childbearing was associated with a 14% reduction (OR = 0.86, p\0.001) in the risk of early sexual intercourse (before the age of 14). For instance, offspring born to teenage mothers were 2.46 times more likely to have sex before the age of 14 than offspring born to non-teenage mothers. The association between MAC and early sexual activity remained when controlling for maternal characteristics, such as race/ethnicity, adolescent delinquency, depression, and educational level, and when comparing differentially exposed siblings (OR = .93, p\0.05). Maternal teenage childbearing was also associated with offspring adolescent depression (from ages 14- to 17-year-old), as measured by the CESD (b = -0.04 SD/year at childbearing, p\0.001). The association remained when controlling for maternal covariates and when comparing siblings differentially exposed (b = -0.04 SD/year at childbearing, p\0.001). The results suggest that environmental factors specifically associated with early childbearing account for increased risk of early sexual activity and adolescent depression in offspring. |
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Bibliography Citation
D'Onofrio, Brian M., Kelly L Donahue, Claire A. Coyne, Carol A. Van Hulle, Joseph Lee Rodgers, Irwin D. Waldman and Benjamin B. Lahey. "Early Maternal Age at Childbearing and Offspring Functioning During Adolescence: A Sibling-Comparison Study of Sexual Behavior and Depression." Presented: Minneapolis MN, Behavior Genetics Association Annual Meeting, 2009. |