Maternal and Perinatal Effects of Adolescent Childbearing

Abstract

The developmental consequences of adolescent childbearing were investigated in a group of 60 low income, pregnant adolescents under the age of 18, and a low income control group of 60 pregnant adult women aged 20 to 29 with equal numbers of blacks and whites in each group. The adolescents were matched to controls of the same race and parity who initiated prenatal care at the same point in pregnancy. Antepartum and postpartum measures of state and trait anxiety, depression, and hostility were taken from both groups of mothers. Data were also obtained on the antepartum, delivery, and postpartum performance of the mothers, along with data on infant status within each maternal group. No differences were found in the incidence of either maternal or infant complications between adolescent mothers and controls. Furthermore, adolescents under the age of 17 did not differ significantly from 17 year olds on maternal and infant complications. Multiple regression analysis did indicate that an adolescent under 17 was more likely to have an infant of low birth weight if she has a low prepregnancy weight, a lower than average weight gain during pregnancy, a low delivery hemoglobin, and sought prenatal care late in pregnancy. No group differences were found on maternal emotionality measures. While maternal emotionality trait scores remained stable across antepartum and postpartum periods, maternal emotionality state scores were found to be lower in the postpartum period. Whereas, adolescents did not differ significantly from controls on emotionality, a significant age by race interaction was found for depression, with white controls showing less depression than white adolescents and black controls. Adolescents and black controls did not differ significantly. Possible explanations and implications are discussed.