Health Risk Behaviors Among Pregnant Adolescents With Older Partners

The Behavioral Risks and Life Circumstances of Adolescent Mothers Involved With Older Adult Partners

“…19,20 We did not find that adolescent females with older adult partners were more likely to experience intimate partner violence. These observations held across both sets of stratified analyses and are consistent with findings by Rickert et al 6 who observed that there were no differences in intimate partner violence between pregnant adolescents with similar-aged vs older adult partners. Given the unequal power balance often found in relationships in which one partner is significantly older, more educated, or has greater life experiences than the other, we also examined more subtle forms of possible coercion and control, including partner's refusal to use condoms or contraception.…”

“…COMMENT Consistent with reports of pregnant adolescents, 2,6 we found that 1 in 5 adolescent mothers report having a partner who is both an adult and at least 5 years older at 12 months' postpartum. The absence of racial/ethnic differences in the prevalence of partnering with an older adult male observed in this study has been reported by others.…”

“…4 However, a recent study of pregnant adolescents found that intimate partner violence toward adolescent mothersphysical or sexual assault-was no more frequent among older adult partners than among similar-aged partners. 6 In addition, several findings support the popular lay opinion that older adult partners may encourage pregnancy at higher rates than similar-aged partners. For example, among women younger than 18 years, those with older partners are more likely to become pregnant and to report that the pregnancy was planned than those whose partners were no more than 2 years older.…”

Teen pregnancy, motherhood, and unprotected sexual activity

“…A history of incarceration is known to be an important proxy for a multitude of HIV risk behaviors; AIDS incidence in incarcerated males is reported to be seven times that of the general population (Mahon, 1996). The partners of participants in this sample were predominantly adolescents rather than adult men, supporting the findings of some researchers that most male partners of adolescent mothers are themselves adolescents (Lindberg, Sonenstein, Ku, & Martinez, 1997;Rickert, Wiemann, & Berenson, 1997), although other investigators have reported a higher incidence of older partners (Landry & Forrest, 1995;Males & Chew, 1996). Descriptive findings on the psychological factors examined in this study warrant further consideration.…”

Associations Between Health Screening Questions and Sexual Risk Behaviors in Adolescent Female Clinic Patients: Identifying a Brief Question Format to Yield Critical Information

“…Previous studies indicate that adolescent girls in relationships with older partners are more likely than those with same-age partners to initiate intercourse, have unprotected sex, and experience pregnancy and STI. [30][31][32][33][34][35] Including participants whose partners were 2 to 3 years older in the "lowrisk" response group may have artificially elevated the level of sexual risk behaviors within the low-risk group. Recognizing the importance of partner age discrepancies in the sexual risk behaviors of adolescent girls, further consideration must be given to identifying an appropriate cut point for elevated risk with this screening question.…”