American Journal of Epidemiology Vol. 154, No. 3 : 212-220
Copyright © 2001 by The Johns Hopkins University School of Hygiene and Public Health
ORIGINAL CONTRIBUTIONS |
Effect of Teenage Pregnancy on Educational Disabilities in Kindergarten
1 Yale University, School of Medicine, New Haven, CT.
2 University of Florida, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, Gainesville, FL.
3 University of Florida, College of Medicine, Gainesville, FL.
4 University of South Florida, College of Public Health, Tampa, FL.
Teenage pregnancies have become a public health issue because of their observed negative effects on perinatal outcomes and long-term morbidity. The association of young maternal age and long-term morbidity is usually confounded, however, by the high prevalence of poverty, low level of education, and single marital status among teenage mothers. The authors assess the independent effect of teenage pregnancy on educational disabilities and educational problems in a total population of children who entered kindergarten in Florida in 1992–1994 and investigate how controlling for potentially confounding factors affects the relation between teenage pregnancies and poor outcome. When no other factors are taken into account, children of teenage mothers have significantly higher odds of placement in certain special education classes and significantly higher occurrence of milder education problems, but when maternal education, marital status, poverty level, and race are controlled, the detrimental effects disappear and even some protective effects are observed. Hence, the increased risk for educational problems and disabilities among children of teenage mothers is attributed not to the effect of young age but to the confounding influences of associated sociodemographic factors. In contrast to teen age, older maternal age has an adverse effect on a child's educational outcome regardless of whether other factors are controlled for or not.
child development; education, special; logistic models; morbidity; pregnancy in adolescence; socioeconomic factors
Abbreviations: EH, emotionally handicapped; EMH, educable mentally handicapped; IQ, intelligence quotient; LD, learning disabled; PI, physically impaired; PMH, profoundly mentally handicapped; TMH, trainable mentally handicapped
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