title: Teenage parenthood among child welfare clients: a Swedish national cohort study of prevalence and odds.
abstract: To assess prevalence and odds for teenage parenthood among former child welfare clients, we used national register data for all children born in Sweden 1972-1983 (n=1,178,207), including 49,582 former child welfare clients with varying intervention experiences. Logistic regression models, adjusted for demographic, socio-economic and familial background factors, were used to estimate odds ratios. Among youth who received interventions in adolescence, 16-19% of the girls and 5-6% of the boys became teenage parents, compared to 3% for girls and 0.7% for boys without child welfare experiences. Youths who entered child welfare services in their teens had four- to fivefold adjusted odds for becoming a teenage parent. For other child welfare clients, adjusted odds were mostly twofold. Youth of both sexes who receive child welfare services in adolescence are a high-risk group for teenage parenthood. Child welfare agencies should, as a minimum, provide each individual client youth with access to birth control counselling and contraceptives.
authors.affiliation: Center for Epidemiology, National Board of Health and Welfare, S 106 30 Stockholm, Sweden. bo.vinnerljung@socialstyrelsen.se
authors.forename: Bo
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Vinnerljung
authors.forename: Eva
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Franzén
authors.forename: Maria
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Danielsson
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D002648:Child; D002669:Child Welfare / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D015331:Cohort Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D016017:Odds Ratio; D011247:Pregnancy; D011253:Pregnancy in Adolescence / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D015995:Prevalence; D011632:Public Assistance / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D012042:Registries; D013548:Sweden