The younger siblings of teenage mothers: A follow-up of their pregnancy risk

This study followed 243 younger brothers and younger sisters of parenting t eens and nonparenting teens across a 1.5-year period. The average age of si blings was 13.6 years at Time 1 and 15 years at Time 2. Relative to other y ouths, the sisters of parenting teens exhibited a sharp increase in drug an d alcohol use and partying behavior across time and had the highest pregnan cy rate at Time 2 (15%). The siblings of parenting teens spent 10 hr a week caring for their sisters' children, and, for girls, many hours of child ca re was associated with negative outcomes including permissive sexual behavi or. Findings suggest that the younger sisters of parenting teens are at ver y high risk of early pregnancy and that this risk becomes increasingly pron ounced across time.