CONSEQUENCES OF TEENAGE CHILDBEARING : A CONTROLLED COHORT STUDY IN SINGAPORE

Abstract

Many investigators in the subject of teenage childbearing have adopted the assumption that teenage childbearing creates problems by placing the teenage mother into a role for which she is not adequately prepared. However, data on later events related to the occurrence of teenage childbearing are limited, and so this study attempts to look at the longer term effects of teenage childbearing on both mother and child. A controlled cohort study method was adopted. A group of 9-year-old children born in 1971 to mothers aged below 20 were compared to a control group comprising children born in 1971 to mothers aged 20-29. The comparison pairs were matched on ethnic group, age, sex, birth order and school, and as far as possible on the nearest month of birth and class in school. The mothers of these two groups of children were included as the 'case' and 'control' mothers in the study. A divergence of the 'case' and 'control' groups' backgrounds were found to be very similar. The dependent variables included marital and parent-child relationships, economic outcome, and further reproductive experiences of the mothers; intellectual performance, physical development and health status of the children. Data were collected through both measurements such as anthropometric measurements, tests of intelligence, academic results; including a 24-hour dietary intake.