The younger siblings of teenage mothers: A follow-up of their pregnancy risk.

Abstract

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...

Sibling Similarity in Family Formation

“…For instance, Lyngstad and Prskawetz (2010) showed that siblings' birth events influence the transition to first parenthood but lose relevance for higher-order parities. The literature on older sisters' out-ofwedlock or teenage childbearing and their younger sister's risk of experiencing these events as well points in a similar direction (e.g., East and Jacobson 2001;Powers and Hsueh 1997). Because men experience family formation events later than women, an extension of the observation period might weaken the sibling-gender interaction that we found for women while strengthening it for men.…”

“…Findings include that older siblings, particularly brothers, affect younger siblings' sexual initiation (Haurin and Mott 1990;Widmer 1997); sisters influence one another in the transition to first birth but not notably in second-parity transitions (Lyngstad and Prskawetz 2010); and the number of siblings affects own family size preferences (Axinn et al 1994) as well as own fertility (Murphy and Knudsen 2002). Further, girls' teenage pregnancy and premarital birth increase their sister's risk of experiencing these events as well (East 1998;East and Jacobson 2001;Powers 2001;Powers and Hsueh 1997). In these studies, it is generally unclear both whether the sibling effect extends to the entire family-formation process or only to specific transitions, and how important shared parental background is relative to mutual sibling influence.…”

Influencia de los hermanos en el comportamiento sexual de riesgo y preventivo: una revisión

“…Finalmente, es importante destacar que en el entendimiento de las estrategias de socialización sexual fraterna y en la influencia que tienen los hermanos en el comportamiento sexual, existen diversos estudios (Haurin, & Mott, 1990;East, Felice, & Morgan, 1993;East, 1996;Widmer, 1997;Olenick, 1998;East, & Jacobson, 2001;Klein, Graff, Green ,& Kodjo, 2003;Rucibwa, Modeste, Montgomery, & Fox, 2003;Diop-Sidibé, 2005;East, Reyes, & Horn, 2007;Borges, Latorre, & Schor, 2007) que marcan una tendencia de conceptuar a los hermanos mayores como agentes "patógenos" o "de influencia negativa" sobre el comportamiento sexual de los hermanos menores; sin embargo, son escasas las investigaciones que buscan determinar los aspectos de influencia positiva para prevenir algún problema de salud sexual (Kornreich, Hearn, Rodríguez, O'Sullivan, 2003;Kowal, & Blinn-Pike, 2004). b) Influencia de los hermanos sobre el comportamiento sexual de riesgo y prevención Gran parte de la investigación especializada que se ha dirigido a estudiar cómo los hermanos influyen en el comportamiento sexual de riesgo, ha destacado que la condición de tener "un hermano/a mayor adolescente con hijos" es un factor que predispone en la interacción fraterna de ciertas variables psicológicas.…”

“…Por ejemplo, en diversos estudios se ha descrito cómo los adolescentes que tienen experiencia sexual y que juegan el rol de hermanos menores (Rucibwa, et al, 2003;Klein, et al, 2003;Diop-Sidibé, 2005), iniciaron su debut sexual a edades tempranas (East, et al, 1993;Borges, Latorre, & Schor, 2007), no usan píldoras anticonceptivas o condón para protegerse durante el coito (Klein, et al, 2003) e informan de un incremento en la frecuencia de la actividad sexual y el número de parejas sexuales (East, & Jacobson, 2001); son quienes reportan tener un hermano/a adolescente con hijos -en su rol de hermano mayor-. Además, la interacción con los hermanos en esta condición incrementa en las mujeres las posibilidades de haber estado embarazada alguna vez (East, & Jacobson, 2001;Klein, et al, 2003;East, et al, 2007).…”

“…Además, la interacción con los hermanos en esta condición incrementa en las mujeres las posibilidades de haber estado embarazada alguna vez (East, & Jacobson, 2001;Klein, et al, 2003;East, et al, 2007).…”