Childhood sexual abuse is a common antecedents of adolescent pregnancy
. We studied the pregnancies of 127 poor, black, 12- to 18-year-olds;
42 (33%) of whom reported that they had been physically or sexually ab
used prior to conception. We hypothesized that during pregnancy: (a) P
reviously abused adolescents report more stress and depression and les
s adequate social support than do nonabused adolescents; and (b) Previ
ously abused adolescents obtain less prenatal care, gain less weight,
engage in more substance abuse, and give birth to smaller babies than
do nonabused adolescents. Consistent with the first study hypothesis,
we found that abused adolescents scored significantly higher on stress
and depression scales and rated their families as less supportive tha
n did nonabused adolescents. Although there were no group differences
in the rate of weight gain or the quantity of prenatal care obtained d
uring pregnancy, abused adolescents were more likely to report substan
ce use during pregnancy and gave birth to significantly smaller, (2,90
4+/-676 vs. 3,198+/-443 grams; p = .01), less mature (38.0+/-3.4 vs. 3
9.1+/-1.7 weeks; p = .05) infants. Our findings demonstrate the import
ance of asking pregnant adolescents about abuse.