Also in this Issue:
-
Early Behaviour Problems
and Teen Pregnancy
-
Suicide in Adolescents
with Disruptive Disorders
-
Personality Traits in
Juvenile Delinquents and Recidivism
-
Parents' Perception of
Treatment andTreatment Outcome
-
ADHD: Does Parent Training
Help?
-
Peer Relationships and
Antisocial Behaviour
-
Treatment for the Long-term
Effects of Child Abuse
 Early
Behaviour Problems and Teen Pregnancy
Woodward, L.J., & Fergusson,
D.M. (1999). Early conduct problems and later risk of teenage pregnancy
in girls. Development and Psychopathology, 11, 127-141.
Teenage
mothers and their children often deal with numerous physical, social,
and emotional concequences. To prevent early pregnancy and motherhood,
an understanding of the risk factors associated with teen pregnancy is
essential. One factor that has been associated with an increased risk
of teenage pregnancy is early behaviour problems and difficulties. However,
there are various social and contextual factors that are related to both
early conduct problems and teen pregnancy that may account for this assocation.
These factors include: social background and disadvantage, child characteristics,
and early parenting and family functioning.
Research
has also suggested that children who show early conduct problems are at
increased risk, not only just for teenage pregnancy and early parenting,
but also for a broad range of adverse adolescent outcomes that reflect
a tendency toward increased risk taking behaviour and norm violation (i.e.,
early sexual development and behaviour, deviant peer affiliations, early
substance use, and disruptive behaviour such as school truancy and difficulties
with school authorities).
In
this study, a large group of New Zealand girls part on the Christchurch
Health and Development Study (CHDS; Ferguson, Horwood, Shannon, &
Lawton, 1989).
Results of
the study suggested that: 
- The higher rate of teenage
pregnancy among girls with early behaviour problems reflected their
relatively disadvantaged
family backgrounds and their tendencies towards risk taking behaviour
in adolescence.
- The social/contextual factors
found to be significantly related to teenage pregnancy included: maternal
educational qualifications, parental changes, and punitive early mother
interaction. However, the relationship between early behaviour problems
and later teenage pregnancy was significant even after the social/ contextual
factors were accounted for. This suggests a possible causal relationship
between early behaviour problems and later teenage pregnancy.
- The relationship between
early behaviour problems and later teenage pregnancy appeared to be
mediated by a pattern of risk taking behaviour in adolescence. In other
words, girls with early behaviour problems had: early onset of sexual
intercourse, multiple sexual partners, adolescent substance use, and
affiliations with deviant peer groups or partners. This pattern of risk
taking behaviour subsequently lead to teenage pregnancy.
Reference
Fergusson,
D.M., Horwood, J.L., Shannon, F.T., & Lawton, J.M. (1989). The Christchurch
Child Development Study: A review of epidemiological findings. Paediatric
and Perinatal Epidemiology, 3, 278-301.
Childhood
Predictors of Deviant Peer Relationships
Woodward,
L.J., & Fergusson, D.M. (1999). Childhood peer relationship problems
and psychosocial adjustment in late adolescence. Journal of Abnormal
Child Psychology, 27, 87-104.
This
study examined children who were having problems with peers at 9 nine
years of age and followed them up to 18 years of age. The objectives of
the study were to determine:
- how these children would
behave psychosocially at 18 years of age
- the extent to which peer
relationship problems are causally related to later difficult and antisocial
behaviour
- ·whether peer problems
at 9 years of age are related to the family social background and quality
of the child parent relationship
Children
in the study were members of a large group of New Zealand girls that has
been extensively studied from birth as part of the Christchurch Health
and Developmental Study (CHDS). Teachers were asked to rate the quality
of children's peer relationships at age 9. At age 18, participants completed
questionnaires examining a range of psychosocial outcomes.
Results:
·By
age 18, children with high rates of early peer relationship problems were
at increased risk of externalizing behaviour problems such as:
- Criminal offending
- Substance abuse
Child and
family factors associated with both early peer relationship problems and
later adjustment largely explained the above association.
Contrary
to several other studies, no association was found between children's
peer functioning and later risks of anxiety disorder or major depression.
The extent
of children's early conduct problems was the most important factor in
explaining associations between peer relationship
problems and later adjustment.
While
an association was found between early peer relationship problems and
increased risk of behaviour problems, this relationship was not causal.
Rather, the measure of childhood conduct problems was most influential
variable. Thus, it may be the socially difficult behavioural features
of children with early conduct problems (e.g., aggression and cruelty
to others, destruction of property, temper outbursts, tendencies to interpret
ambiguous behavioural cues of other children as hostile provocations,
lying, stealing, etc.) that account for these children's poor peer acceptance
and the apparent associations found between childhood peer relations and
later adjustment.
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Institute
for the study of Antisocial behaviour in Youth (lAY) 