Effect of teenage pregnancy on educational disabilities in kindergarten

Teenage pregnancies have become a public health issue because of their obse rved negative effects on perinatal outcomes and long-term morbidity. The as sociation of young maternal age and long-term morbidity is usually confound ed, however, by the high prevalence of poverty, low level of education, and single marital status among teenage mothers. The authors assess the indepe ndent effect of teenage pregnancy on educational disabilities and education al problems in a total population of children who entered kindergarten in F lorida in 1992-1994 and investigate how controlling for potentially confoun ding factors affects the relation between teenage pregnancies and poor outc ome. When no other factors are taken into account, children of teenage moth ers have significantly higher odds of placement in certain special educatio n classes and significantly higher occurrence of milder education problems, but when maternal education, marital status, poverty level, and race are c ontrolled, the detrimental effects disappear and even some protective effec ts are observed. Hence, the increased risk for educational problems and dis abilities among children of teenage mothers is attributed not to the effect of young age but to the confounding influences of associated sociodemograp hic factors. In contrast to teen age, older maternal age has an adverse eff ect on a child's educational outcome regardless of whether other factors ar e controlled for or not.