RISK-FACTORS FOR ADULT PATERNITY IN BIRTHS TO ADOLESCENTS

Objective: To examine the risk factors for adult (aged 20 years and ol der) paternity in births to teenagers (14-17 years of age). Methods: T his was a population-based, retrospective cohort analysis of 27,215 ad olescent mothers residing in California who had a live singleton birth during 1993. Adjusted risks for adult paternity by paternal and mater nal characteristics were derived from comparisons of adult-teen and te en-teen couples. Results: Adult fathers, who were responsible for 49.2 % of births to teenage mothers, were a mean of 6.4 years older than th e mother. The most important risk factors for adult paternity were as follows: father's (odds ratio [OR] 5.19; 95% confidence interval [CI] 4.43, 6.08) or mother's (OR 1.33; 95% CI 1.14, 1.55) educational attai nment of at least 3 years lower than expected for their age, two or mo re previous live births (OR 3.34; 95% CI 2.48, 4.53), mother's birthpl ace outside the United States (OR 2.33; 95% CI 2.11, 2.58), father's ( OR 2.16; 95% CI 1.98, 2.36) br mother's (OR 1.28; 95% CI 1.15, 1.42) e ducational attainment 1-2 years lower than expected for their age, one previous live birth (OR 1.92; 95% CI 1.75, 2.12), and Asian (OR 1.29; 95% CI 1.04, 1.62) or African American race (OR 1.25; 95% CI 1.06, 1. 46) of the father. Conclusions: Teenage pregnancy prevention programs must address adult paternity, which contributed to almost half of the births in our study. These programs should consider education adequacy , cultural beliefs and practices, previous live births, and race and e thnicity when designing programs to decrease the number of adults invo lved in teenage births. Copyright (C) 1997 by The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists.