Health & Medicine - Posted by Bill Hathaway-Yale on Monday, January 18, 2010 18:08 - 4 Comments 
(1 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)
Loading ...
(1 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5) Loading ...Legacy of teen fathers: More teen fathers
“We often neglect the importance of men in reproductive and maternal-child health. We need to recognize that men play a significant role in the health and well being of families and children,” says senior author Trace Kershaw. (Courtesy: iStockphoto)
YALE—Sons of adolescent fathers are nearly twice as likely to perpetuate the cycle of young parenthood and become teenage dads themselves, a new study finds.
Share this article
Email
Republish this article
The text of this article by Futurity is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivatives License.
Previous studies have documented the intergenerational cycle of adolescent motherhood (in which the daughters of adolescent mothers are more likely to become teenage mothers), but this is believed to be the first research that confirms a similar relationship between teenage dads and their sons.
The Yale School of Public Health research team, led doctoral candidate Heather Sipsma, analyzed data from 1,496 young males who were 19 years old or younger and found that sons of adolescent fathers were 1.8 times more likely to eventually become adolescent fathers than were the sons of older men. This intergenerational effect remained significant even after controlling for a number of related risk factors including the influence of having an adolescent mother.
“We often neglect the importance of men in reproductive and maternal-child health. We need to recognize that men play a significant role in the health and well being of families and children,” says senior author Trace Kershaw, associate professor in the division of chronic disease epidemiology.
Teenage parenthood is associated with a range of problems for both the young parents and their offspring. Adolescent fathers typically have less educational achievement and poorer earning potential than their peers who delay parenthood. There is also evidence of poor parental attachment and low levels of parental support. The children of such parents are often raised in low-income homes and they are at higher risk for neglect and abuse.
“The mechanism of this intergenerational cycle remains unclear. However, research suggests that parents are a major factor in shaping adolescent attitudes and often communicate their values and expectations through their behavior,” Sipsma says.
Previous studies have found that youths who have more involved fathers are less likely to engage in risky sexual behavior.
Yale University news: http://opa.yale.edu/
Please wait
4 Comments
KarenSC
Cynthia
My son became a teen father at the age 15 and what saddens me is that at his age he was doing the responsible thing and helping her with the baby and even doing more than the mother at times. He was getting Jacob about 60/70 percent of the time all this is ovenights included while going to school and working part time while the mother did much of nothing and when it comes down to establishing his rights he has none because then it becomes a bunch of he said she said kind of thing in court to which they now give him only 1 overnight visit with 2 four hours day visit. This is our justice system. Now the mother is pregnant yet again with someone else’s baby and spends all her time with the new boyfriend’s at his house with Jacob being raised by his grandparents. Anthony now 17 will try to fight this decisions and gain joint custody. Something needs to be done where father have just as much right as mothers when fathers really want to share the resposibilites. We educate are children not to have sex be responsible if you do but what do we say when they say I am making right choices now that I have my baby why don’t I have any rights to make right choices for my son? We want them to be encouraged to be active fathers and be involved when it really does not work at all like that.
Natali Rohannana
This is more proof that teen sex is wrong even between teens. If they don’t learn to behave they need to be sterilized. Its that simple.
Some Fathers Can Understand But Most Cant, Im A Teenager And Im Going To Be A Father, Its Hard For Us. But Now We Need To Grow Up. I Am More Understanding Now Since Im Going To Be A Father. What I Can Say Is That It Is Hard For Parents! But We Need To Controll Family. I Already See Kids Now And Then Think To Myself Damn I Am Not Letting My Daughter Or Son To Grow Up Like That. Without A Father Is Sad. Trust Me. I know. But I Am Going To Be There For My Child And Suport My Family. So Being A Teenage Father Is Very Hard! And Im About To Turn 15 In May. Crazy. So I Have Lots To Do For My Baby. And For Teen Moms Some Guys Understand About Them But Some Dont, I Understand The Mother Of My Child She Is So MOODY! She Will Be Sweet And Nice One Min Then The Next She Is Crying And Blaming Me. But I Understand. Now She Is Always Crying And Needs Suport From Others And Me And I Show Her My Suport, I Look At Her And Saw Her Stomic Was Getting Big. Growing A Pregnant Belly Is Wierd But Hearing Her Belly Is Calming. I Always Hear A Heart Beat. My Mother Wasn’t Happy Of What Happen But Yet She Wasn’t Upset With Me. She Was Just Shocked. My Father Was Too. But Now We Are All Fine Soon My Girlfriend/Fiance Will Live With Me At My House So I Can Watch On Her And My Son Or Daughter. So Everybody Needs To Know That Its Hard For Us Too But We Are Young And We Have To Grow Up Now. My Mother Called Me A ” Adult” How Scary But I Have To Face The Truth And It Is True And It Already Happen. Now When My Girlfriend/Fiance Is Due Will Be Scary But I Will Be To See The Birth Of My Child. So For Everyone Know This. Its Hard For Us Too. Be Will Can Do This. So Understand Us Teenagers. We Mess Up But In The End We Will Be Making A Great Choice. I Know I Did. Thanks For Everyone Suporting Me Too.
-Anthony(a.j)amoros jr
This makes sense…but it’s interesting, as a large percentage of the partners of teen moms are older than the teen mom – often by 5+ years – so they’re not teen dads. I’d make an educated guess that in general that a greater percentage of teen girls are moms, than teen boys are dads – likely twice as many girls. So, this is likely a small sample of teen boys, but it’s good to not always be focusing on the teen moms – it does take two to tango!