Risk Factors for Teenage Fatherhood

• Published in: Journal of marriage and family Vol. 59; no. 3; pp. 505 - 522
• Main Authors: Thornberry, Terence P., Smith, Carolyn A., Howard, Gregory J.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Malden National Council on Family Relations 01.08.1997; Blackwell; Blackwell Publishing Ltd
• Subjects: Academic Achievement; Adolescent Fathers; Adolescent Parenthood; Adolescents; African Americans; At Risk Persons; Behavior Patterns; Children; Class; Drug abuse; Drug design; Drug Use; Early Parenthood; Educational Attainment; Educational development; Family; Family Characteristics; Family Relationship; Fatherhood; Fathers; High Risk Students; Hispanics; Human sexual behavior; Longitudinal Studies; Males; Modeling; Mothers; National Surveys; New York; Parents; Peer Influence; Predictive Measurement; Predisposing factors; Pregnancy; Risk; Risk Factors; Secondary Education; Sexual behaviour; Sexuality; Social Class; Sociology; Sociology of the family. Age groups; State Surveys; Teenagers; U.S.A; Urban Population; Urban Youth; Youth Problems; United States Of America; Drug; Socio-Economic Factor; Urban environment; Personality Development; Adolescent; Academic Achievement; Sexuality; Contraception; Paternity; Child; Social Class
• ISSN: 0022-2445; 1741-3737
• DOI: 10.2307/353942

The study of teen parenthood has become almost synonymous with the study of teen mothers, but relatively little research attention has been devoted to the study of teen fathers. Nevertheless, because it appears that becoming a teen father has negative developmental consequences for both the teen father and his children, it is an important area of inquiry. This article uses data from the Rochester Youth Development Study, an ongoing panel study of urban youth, to identify early risk factors for the likelihood of becoming a teen father. The study is well suited to this task because the prevalence of teen fatherhood in this sample is quite high, and the project has collected extensive data in a range of developmental domains. We found teen fatherhood to be related to a variety of risk factors, such as social class, educational performance, precocious sexual activity, and drug use. Perhaps most important is the finding that teen fatherhood is strongly related to the cumulation of risk factors across many domains.