The purpose of the proposed research is to examine the relationship between maternal age on the one hand and parenting behavior/child development outcomes on the other. Based on earlier research, it is hypothesized that womnen who are younger at first birth will provide less favorable home environments for their young children than older mothers, and their children will manifest less favorable development in terms of cognitive functioning and socioemotional development than children of older mothers. Five possible explanatory mechanisms in the link between maternal age and parenting/child development will be explored: (1) immnature development of the mother; (2) stress/social supports deficits; (3) maternal cognitive deficits; (4) socioeconomic factors; and (5) fertility patterns. The relative contribution of these five mechanisms will be tested using data from a sample of about 2,000 first-born children aged 2 to 8 whose mothers were aged 15 to 25 when they were born. These data are available from the National Longitudinal Survey of Labor Market Experiences of Youth (NLS), a data base that contains extensive information on a nationally representative cohort of youth who were aged 14 to 21 in 1979, and who have been re- interviewed annually. In 1986 numerous assessment tools were adrministered to the children of NLS female respondents. The proposed research will extend the research that has documented nurnerous adverse eonsequenees of early childbearing for the mothers but has, until the NLS child supplement, been unable to perform comparable analyses on a national sample of their children.
