Teenage mothers and the adult mental health of their sons: evidence from a Stockholm cohort
Data from a Swedish male cohort born in 1953 is used to investigate the effects of teenage motherhood on later mental health and illness. Measures of coping ability and psychiatric impairment at the age of 19 years and of hospitalization with a psychiatric diagnosis at ages 20-30 show that the sons of teenage mothers have a poorer health record than those born to older women. The differences disappear, however, when controls are introduced for the marital and socio-economic status of the boys' mothers, and the data suggest that teenage motherhood is not associated with poor outcomes in the absence of other predisposing factors.
Timms
D
Department of Applied Social Science, University of Stirling, , Stirling, FK9 4LA, Scotland