BECOMING AN ADOLESCENT FATHER - PRECURSORS AND PARENTING

Precursors and outcomes of adolescent pregnancy receive considerable r esearch attention; however, most studies deal with adolescent mothers. This study examined whether risk factors that are precursors to adole scent fatherhood would be consistent with the family coercion model (G . R. Patterson, 1976) of the development of antisocial behavior in chi ldhood. Hypotheses were tested in the Oregon Youth Study (OYS) sample of 206 at-risk boys who were first seen at 9 or 10 years of age. At 18 -20 years of age, the profiles for the 35 adolescent fathers included more arrests and substance use than the other OYS participants. At aro und 2 years of age, 40% of the children had no contact with their fath ers. The children, compared with a normative control sample, had somew hat greater health risks. The at-risk parents, compared with a control sample, were observed to show higher levels of negative reactions whe n their children were working on a puzzle task.