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Adolescent Mothers and the Criminal Behavior of Their Children

NCJ Number
169869
Journal
Law & Society Review Volume: 31 Issue: 1 Dated: (1997) Pages: 137-162
Author(s)
D S Nagin; G Pogarsky; D P Farrington
Date Published
1997
Length
26 pages
Annotation
Data from the Cambridge Study in Delinquent Development indicate children from large families who were born to women who began childbearing early are at greatest risk of criminality.
Abstract
Research on teenage childbearing suggests very diverse explanations for a link between adolescent motherhood and children's behavioral outcomes. Three conceptually distinct accounts of how adolescent motherhood might produce criminal behavior in children are offered: (1) life course-immaturity account; (2) persistent poor parenting-role modeling account; and (3) diminished resources account. The first two accounts focus on parenting skills, while the third account focuses on consequences of resource deprivation for long-term behavioral patterns. The Cambridge Study in Delinquent Development, a longitudinal survey of 411 males from a working-class area in London, obtained data on relevant measures of maternal childbearing age and examined the impact of young motherhood on children's criminality. Findings offered no support for the life course-immaturity account. Rather, problem behaviors appeared to be rooted in more enduring circumstances and behaviors emphasized in the poor parenting-role model account and the diminished resources account. An appendix describes explanatory variables used in the Cambridge research. 38 references, 8 tables, and 1 figure