RISK-FACTORS FOR TEENAGE FATHERHOOD

The study of teen parenthood has become almost synonymous with the stu dy of teen mothers, but relatively little research attention has been devoted to the study of teen fathers. Nevertheless, because it appears that becoming a teen father has negative developmental consequences f or both the teen father and his children, it is an important area of i nquiry. This article uses data from the Rochester Youth Development St udy, an ongoing panel study of urban youth, to identify early risk fac tors for the likelihood of becoming a teen father. The study is well s uited to this task because the prevalence of teen fatherhood in this s ample is quite high, and the project has collected extensive data in a range of developmental domains. We found teen fatherhood to be relate d to a variety of risk factors, such as social class, educational perf ormance, precocious sexual activity, and drug use. Perhaps most import ant is the finding that teen fatherhood is strongly related to the cum ulation of risk factors across many domains.