This study followed 243 younger brothers and younger sisters of parenting teens and nonparenting teens across a 1.5-year period. The average age of siblings was 13.6 years at Time 1 and 15 years at Time 2. Relative to other youths, the sisters of parenting teens exhibited a sharp increase in drug and alcohol use and partying behavior across time and had the highest pregnancy rate at Time 2 (15%). The siblings of parenting teens spent 10 hr a week caring for their sisters' children, and, for girls, many hours of child care was associated with negative outcomes including permissive sexual behavior. Findings suggest that the younger sisters of parenting teens are at very high risk of early pregnancy and that this risk becomes increasingly pronounced across time.Numerous reports have documented that the sisters of teenage mothers have adolescent childbearing rates 2 to 6 times higher than women in the general population depending on the comparison group used (Cox, Emans, & Bithoney, 1993;Friede et al., 1986;Hogan & Kitagawa, 1985; reviewed in East & Felice, 1992). The sisters of teenage mothers have also been shown to be younger at first pregnancy (Cox et al., 1993), younger at sexual onset (Hogan & Kitagawa, 1985), and more likely to have had sexual intercourse during early adolescence (East, 1996b;East, Felice, & Morgan, 1993) than girls of comparable race and socioeconomic status.Although these studies clearly point to an increased pregnancy risk among the sisters of childbearing teens, they do not address at what point in development these sisters begin to show an increased vulnerability to early pregnancy and which behaviors emerge as indicative of high pregnancy risk. In addition, very little attention has been paid to the likelihood of the brothers of teenage mothers causing a pregnancy during adolescence. Are brothers of teenage mothers more likely to father a child as a teen than other boys their same age, race, and socioeconomic status? If so, at what age is this likelihood apparent and which specific behaviors emerge as risk factors for teen fatherhood for boys? Previous research has also not addressed whether the sisters of childbearing teens are at higher risk for adolescent parenthood than the brothers of childbearing teens. Girls may be more strongly and more negatively affected by a sister's teenage pregnancy than boys because of stronger withingender modeling and identification processes (Bandura, 1977;Bank & Kahn, 1982). For example, compared with boys, girls would be more likely to identify with their sister's role as mother. Girls may also feel more competitive and jealous of a childbearing sister because the sister has done something that they are also presumably capable of but have not yet done (East, 1996a;East & Shi, 1997). This competitiveness may incite the sisters of childbearing NIH-PA Author ManuscriptNIH-PA Author Manuscript NIH-PA Author Manuscript teens to also have a baby, whereas it may not be present for or relevant to the brothers of childbearing teens.The current study a...

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This article critically appraises the sibling-comparison method by pointing to the following limitations: (1) it assumes within-family homogeneity; (2) it neglects naturally occurring heterogeneity across siblings; (3) it overlooks the unique effects of a teen's childbearing for her family and siblings; (4) it underappreciates the selectivity of sisters of teenage mothers who delay childbearing; and, (5) it ignores differences in outcomes by sisters' birth order and age spacing. Directions for future research stemming from this new literature are discussed.

This study examined mothers' differential treatment of adolescent sibling pairs in 2 family contexts: families with and without an adolescent childbearing daughter. Results based on mothers' ratings and children's ratings revealed that the mothers of childbearing daughters treated all of their children less affectionately than did the mothers of nonchildbearing adolescents. In families with a childbearing daughter, mothers expected a brighter future for and treated their never-pregnant daughter(s) more favorably than their childbearing daughter, and mothers' harsh treatment toward their children was correlated with high financial stress, excessive time spent caring for their daughter's child, and younger children's sexual behavior and drug and alcohol use. Findings highlight the preferential parenting that occurs within the families of childbearing teens and suggest its ramifications.

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