ABSTRACT
Almost 30% of all first-time adolescent mothers have a second child within 2 years after their first delivery (Hayes, 1987; Mott, 1986; Zelnik, 1980). Subsequent pregnancies of adolescent mothers have been related to even more adverse health consequences than a first birth, including a higher incidence of low birthweight, premature, and stillborn infants, and a higher rate of infant mortality (Jekel, Harrison, Bancroft, Tyler, ampentity Klerman, 1975; McCormick et al., 1984). Jekel et al. reported that subsequent infants born to women in their teens have a rate of neonatal death almost 9 times that of firstborn infants of teenage mothers. Twenty-seven percent of the subsequent infants in the Jekel et al. study were low birth-weight, or below 2,500 grams, which was over twice the number of low birthweight firstborn infants. Furthermore, 32% of subsequent infants of low birthweight died compared to 9% of low birthweight firstborn infants Jekel et al., 1975). For the mother, subsequent childbearing brings unfavorable educational and economic outcomes, such as a decreased likelihood of school completion and higher rates of unemployment and welfare dependency for several years following the childbearing (Furstenberg, 1976a, 1976b; Moore ampentity Wake, 1977; Mott, 1986; Polit ampentity Kahn, 1986; Trussell ampentity Menken, 1978; Upchurch ampentity McCarthy, 1989). Women whose first birth occurs during the teenage years tend to have larger families, and family size is a strong predictor of welfare recipiency (Moore, Hofferth, Wertheimer, Waite, ampentity Caldwell, 1981). A teen with two children is much more likely than even a teen with one child to drop out of school and to go on welfare (Maynard ampentity Rangarajan, 1994).
