This project examines cognitive development, behavior, and health from birth to the start of the critical period of the transition to school in a vulnerable population -- the children of teenage parents. The main goal of the project is to understand how the disadvantage associated with teenage parenthood is transmitted across generations, and which factors might help mitigate those effects. Our primary research question asks how family-related factors influence the health and cognitive, social, and behavioral development of teen parents' children from infancy to the start of the school transition. We will also address whether policy-based factors help ameliorate the developmental and health disparities experienced by children of teenage parents.
More than 1 in 6 American girls is projected to have a teenage birth, and children with current or former teenage mothers account for the majority of all children living in poverty and the majority of all children of high school dropouts. Considerable research has documented that many negative consequences are associated with early childbearing for both parents and children, but research on how young parental age and preexisting social disadvantage translate into negative consequences for children's and parents? health and development is less common. The transition to school is a critical time in the life course when the family and school contexts meet and social inequalities produced in early childhood can be either mitigated or further compounded by the educational system. The study will use new nationally representative data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study?s Birth Cohort (ECLS-B) to follow children of teenage parents from infancy through the start of kindergarten, providing rich information on their cognition, behavior, and health. This contextually oriented research focuses on families' circumstances during the first five years of life and how they influence children's developmental readiness for school. Analyses will focus on the impact of household resources, health-related risk factors, and repeated ecological changes.
Broader Impacts
Limited empirical research has been conducted on factors shaping school readiness among children of teenage parents. The study examines how family circumstances in infancy and early childhood affect various health and educational outcomes once children reach school age. Results from this study may lead to policy innovations that could help ameliorate the negative effects of teenage parenthood and social disadvantage before they intensify throughout the school years. The research will be conducted collaboratively with the full participation of graduate and undergraduate student assistants and will inform graduate and undergraduate instruction and training.
About 1 in every 7 U.S. girls is expected to become a teen mother. Children with current or former teen mothers account for the majority of children living in poverty and children of high school dropouts. Teen parenthood disproportionately affects disadvantaged populations and results in governmental costs. Therefore, it is important to understand how to reduce its effects. Examining the young children of teen parents is particularly critical because policy investments in early childhood pay off many times over. This makes early childhood ideal for intervening in the lives of teen parents’ children. This project investigated the cognitive and behavioral development and health of teen parents’ children from birth to the start of kindergarten. Children’s well-being at the start of the transition to school is crucially important for their future academic and job success. The main goals of the project were to understand how disadvantage associated with teen parenthood is transmitted across generations, and to investigate family-related factors that may improve the development and health of young children of teen parents. We expected key aspects of children’s "developmental ecologies" to be more negative among children of teen parents: limited household resources, health-related risks, and repeated changes in household environments. Past research has documented negative consequences associated with teen parenthood, but more research is needed on how teen parenthood translates into negative consequences for children’s health and development. Our project used a recent, nationally representative survey that followed children born in 2001 from infancy through kindergarten start. We expected that developmental differences between children of teen parents and children of adult parents would accumulate steadily from infancy to kindergarten entry. We found that this was indeed the case. In infancy there were few differences, but teen parents’ children lagged substantially behind their peers by the start of kindergarten. We also expected that these developmental differences would be at least partly explained by more limited resources in the households of teen parents’ children. This expectation was supported. Socioeconomic, material, and social resources at age 2 partly or fully explained the relationship between having a teen parent and children’s development at age 4½. We also found that the persistently low socioeconomic resources experienced by teen-parent families over time partly or fully explained the substantial growth in health, behavioral, and cognitive disparities that teen parents’ children experienced between infancy and kindergarten. Similarly, we expected that developmental differences between teen parents’ children and others would be at least partly explained by more frequent changes in household environments and by greater health-related risks. Using predominant profiles in the domains of household resources, health-related risks, and ecological changes, we identified four prevalent "developmental ecologies" among young children. These four groups were important for understanding children’s school readiness, often more important than differences by socioeconomic status or race. Developmental ecology groups mostly or completely explained the relationship between having a teen parent and school readiness, providing strong support for the "developmental ecologies" idea. We also found that the resources of not just teen parents, but their parents, were important for school readiness. Thus, our theoretical framework has promise for understanding disparities both between teen parents’ children and others and among children of teen parents. Research was conducted collaboratively with two professors, two Ph.D. student assistants, and two undergraduate assistants. The students (all from underrepresented groups in science) received training and mentoring that otherwise would not have been available. Both graduate students and one undergraduate have decided to pursue careers as professors. These findings inform social policy, although randomized trials are needed. We identified factors predicting improvements in school readiness for teenage parents' children. Differences between these children and others are smaller in early and middle childhood than later, making early life a good time for policies to intervene. Compared to being born to a teenage parent, which is a fixed characteristic of a child and impossible for policies to change after the fact, the three developmental ecology factors are more promising for policy intervention. By targeting teen parents’ children, we can reach a large proportion of the most disadvantaged young people and help them before their educational careers begin.
