title: Peer and Individual Risk Factors in Adolescence Explaining the Relationship Between Girls' Pubertal Timing and Teenage Childbearing.
abstract: Girls with early pubertal timing are at elevated risk for teenage childbearing; however, the modifiable mechanisms driving this relationship are not well understood. The objective of the current study was to determine whether substance use, perceived peer substance use, and older first sexual partners mediate the relationships among girls' pubertal timing, sexual debut, and teenage childbearing. Data are from Waves 1-15 of the female cohort of the National Longitudinal Surveys of Youth 1997 (NLSY97), a nationwide, ongoing cohort study of U.S. men and women born between 1980 and 1984. The analytic sample (n = 2066) was 12-14 years old in 1997 and ethnically diverse (51 % white, 27 % black, 22 % Latina). Using structural equation modeling, we found substance use in early adolescence and perceived peer substance use each partially mediated the relationships among girls' pubertal timing, sexual debut, and teenage childbearing. Our findings suggest early substance use behavior as one modifiable mechanism to be targeted by interventions aimed at preventing teenage childbearing among early developing girls.
authors.affiliation: Health Behavior and Health Education, Department of Kinesiology and Health Education, The University of Texas at Austin, 2109 San Jacinto Blvd., UT Mail Code: D3700, Austin, TX, 78712-1415, USA.
authors.forename: C Emily
authors.initials: CE
authors.lastname: Hendrick
authors.affiliation: Health Behavior and Health Education, Department of Kinesiology and Health Education, The University of Texas at Austin, 2109 San Jacinto Blvd., UT Mail Code: D3700, Austin, TX, 78712-1415, USA. jdcance@austin.utexas.edu.
authors.forename: Jessica Duncan
authors.initials: JD
authors.lastname: Cance
authors.affiliation: Health Behavior and Health Education, Department of Kinesiology and Health Education, The University of Texas at Austin, 2109 San Jacinto Blvd., UT Mail Code: D3700, Austin, TX, 78712-1415, USA.
authors.forename: Julie
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Maslowsky
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000294:Adolescent Behavior; D000367:Age Factors; D002648:Child; D015331:Cohort Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D008572:Menarche; D010379:Peer Group; D011247:Pregnancy; D011253:Pregnancy in Adolescence / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D012307:Risk Factors; D012725:Sexual Behavior / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D012747:Sexual Partners; D019966:Substance-Related Disorders / Q000150:complications / Q000453:epidemiology*; D014481:United States; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Female adolescents; Pubertal timing; Substance use; Teen childbearing; Teen pregnancy