Developmental Pathways to Adult Mental Health in Adolescent Parents: Childhood and Early Adolescent Antecedents

This study examined three questions: (a) What are the childhood predictors of becoming a teenage parent (versus a first-time parent as a young adult)? (b) Does becoming a parent in the teen years carry higher risk of young-adult internalizing and externalizing problems than becoming a first-time parent as a young adult? (c) Does the relation between childhood factors and adult mental health differ between teen parents and adult parents? We combined data from two U.S. samples that were followed up from age 6 through age 35. Family socioeconomic status, one’s parent’s marital status, parenting behavior received in childhood, child social behavior, and child internalizing and externalizing symptoms were measured at ages 6 and 12 or 13 in 143 participants who became teenage parents and 512 participants who first became parents in young adulthood. Childhood factors significantly predicted which participants became teen parents, and teen parents had higher internalizing and externalizing problems in adulthood. Developmental pathways to adult mental health were equivalent between the two groups, suggesting that greater childhood risks, not teen parenthood alone, explains higher internalizing and externalizing symptoms in teenage parents.