Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-j824f Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-13T00:45:33.276Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Adolescent Mothers and the Criminal Behavior of Their Children

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 April 2024

Daniel S. Nagin ,
Greg Pogarsky  and
David P. Farrington
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

There is little research on the relationship between adolescent motherhood and the criminality of the children. Data from the Cambridge Study in Delinquent Development reveals that children from large families who were born to women who began childbearing early are at greatest risk of criminality. Three alternative explanations for this relationship are explored—the life course-immaturity account, the persistent poor parenting-role model account, and the diminished resources account. We find no evidence supporting the first account, but in various ways the analysis provides credible support for the latter two accounts, which themselves are not mutually exclusive.

Type
Articles
Information
Law & Society Review , Volume 31 , Issue 1 , 1997 , pp. 137 - 162
Copyright
Copyright © 1997 by The Law and Society Association.

Footnotes

We thank Linda Babcock, Laura Dugan, Seth Sanders, George Loewenstein, Magda Stouthamer-Loeber, LaRue Allen, and anonymous referees for helpful comments. All errors remain our own.

References

Ahn, Namkee (1994) “Teenage Childbearing and High School Completion: Accounting for Individual Heterogeneity,” 26 Family Planning Perspectives 17–21.Google Scholar
Barrera, Manuel Jr. (1981) “Social Support in the Adjustment of Pregnant Adolescents: An Assessment of Issues,” in Gottlieb, B. H., ed., Social Networks and Social Support. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage Publications.Google Scholar
Blake, Judith (1981) “Family Size and the Quality of Children,” 18 Demography 421–42.Google Scholar
Butler, Amy C. (1992) “The Changing Economic Consequences of Teenage Childbearing,” 66 Social Service Rev. 1–31.Google Scholar
Caspi, Avshalom, Elder, Glen H., & Herbener, Ellen S. (1990) “Childhood Personality and the Prediction of Life-Course Patterns,” in Robins, L. & Rutter, M., eds., Straight and Devious Pathways from Childhood to Adulthood. New York: Cambridge Univ. Press.Google Scholar
Caspi, Avshalom, & Herbener, Ellen S. (1990) “Continuity and Change: Assortative Marriage and the Consistency of Personality in Adulthood,” 58 J. of Personality & Social Psychology 250–58.Google Scholar
Causby, Vicki, Nixon, Cynthia, & Bright, Judy M. (1991) “Influences on Adolescent Mother-Infant Interactions,” 26 Adolescence 619–30.Google Scholar
Cooper, Carolyn S., Dunst, Carl J., & Vance, Sherra D. (1990) “The Effects of Social Support on Adolescent Mothers' Styles of Parent-Child Interaction as Measured on Three Separate Occasions,” 25 Adolescence 49–57.Google Scholar
Downey, Douglas B. (1995) “When Bigger Is Not Better: Family Size, Parental Resources, and Children's Educational Performance,” 60 American Sociological Rev. 746–61.Google Scholar
Elster, Arthur B., Ketterlinus, Robert, & Lamb, Michael E. (1990) “Association Between Parenthood and Problem Behavior in a National Sample of Adolescents,” 85 Pediatrics 1044–50.Google Scholar
Farrington, David P. (1986) “Age and Crime,” in Tonry & Morris 1986.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Farrington, David P. (1993) “Childhood Origins of Teenage Antisocial Behaviour and Adult Social Dysfunction,” 86 J. of the Royal Society of Medicine 13–17.Google Scholar
Farrington, David P. (1995) “The Development of Offending and Antisocial Behaviour from Childhood: Key Findings from the Cambridge Study in Delinquent Development” (12th Jack Tizard Memorial Lecture), 360 J. of Child Psychology & Psychiatry 929–64.Google Scholar
Furstenberg, Frank F. Jr., Brooks-Gunn, J., & Morgan, S. Philip (1987) Adolescent Mothers in Later Life. New York: Cambridge Univ. Press.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Gottfredson, Michael R., & Hirschi, Travis (1990) A General Theory of Crime. Stanford, CA: Stanford Univ. Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Grogger, Jeff (1997) “Estimating the Incarceration-Related Costs of Early Childbearing,” in Maynard 1997.Google Scholar
Grogger, Jeff, & Bronars, Stephen (1993) “The Socioeconomic Consequences of Teenage Childbearing: Findings from a Natural Experiment,” 25 Family Planning Perspectives 156–61, 174.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hagan, John, & Palloni, Alberto (1990) “The Social Reproduction of a Criminal Class in Working-Class London, circa 1950–1980,” 96 American J. of Sociology 265–99.Google Scholar
Higgins, Barbara S., Schilmoeller, Gary L., Baranowski, Marc D., & Coladarci, Theodore T. (1993) “Support Systems and Caretaking Behaviors of Adolescent and Older Mothers: The First Year after Delivery,” 6 J. of Child & Pediatric Nursing 5–14.Google Scholar
Hoffman, Saul D., Foster, E. Michael, & Furstenberg, Frank F. Jr. (1993) “Reevaluating the Costs of Teenage Childbearing,” 30 Demography 1–13.Google Scholar
Leadbeater, Bonnie J., & Bishop, Sandra J. (1994) “Predictors of Behavior Problems in Preschool Children of Inner-City Afro-American and Puerto Rican Adolescent Mothers,” 65 Child Development 638–48.Google Scholar
Levine, Lauren, Garcia Coll, Cynthia T., & Oh, William (1985) “Determinants of Mother-Infant Interaction in Adolescent Mothers,” 75 Pediatrics 23–29.Google Scholar
Loeber, Rolf, & Stouthamer-Loeber, Magda (1986) “Family Factors as Correlates and Predictors of Juvenile Conduct Problems and Delinquency,” in Tonry & Morris 1986.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Maynard, Rebecca, ed. (1997) Kids Having Kids. Washginton: Urban Institute Press.Google Scholar
McElroy, Susan Williams, & Moore, Kristin Anderson (1997) “Trends: National and International Trends in Early Pregnancy and Childbearing,” in Maynard 1997.Google Scholar
McLanahan, Sara, & Sandefur, Gary D. (1994) Growing up with a Single Parent. Cambridge: Harvard Univ. Press.Google Scholar
McLoyd, Vonnie C. (1990) “The Impact of Economic Hardship on Black Families and Children: Psychological Distress, Parenting, and Socioemotional Development,” 61 Child Development 311–46.Google Scholar
Moffitt, Terrie E. (1993) “Adolescence-Limited and Life-Course-Persistent Antisocial Behavior: A Developmental Taxonomy,” 100 Psychological Rev. 674–701.Google Scholar
Moore, Kristin A. (1986) Children of Teen Parents: Heterogeneity of Outcomes. Final Report to the Center for Population Research, National Institute of Child Health & Human Development, Department of Health & Human Services, grant #HD18427–02.Google Scholar
Morash, Merry, & Rucker, Lila (1989) “An Exploratory Study of the Connection of Mother's Age at Childbearing to Her Children's Delinquency in Four Data Sets,” 35 Crime & Delinquency 45–93.Google Scholar
Nagin, Daniel S., & Land, Kenneth C. (1993) “Age, Criminal Careers, and Population Heterogeneity: Specification and Estimation of a Nonparametric, Mixed Poisson Model,” 31 Criminology 327–62.Google Scholar
Passino, Ann Wurtz, Whitman, Thomas L., Borkowski, John G., Schellenbach, Cynthia J., Maxwell, Scott E., Keogh, Deborah, & Rellinger, Elizabeth (1993) “Personal Adjustment during Pregnancy and Adolescent Parenting,” 28 Adolescence 97–122.Google Scholar
Sampson, Robert J., & Laub, John H. (1994) “Urban Poverty and the Family Context of Delinquency: A New Look at Structure and Process in a Classic Study,” 65 Child Development 523–40.Google Scholar
Seitz, Victoria, & Apfel, Nancy H. (1994) “Effects of a School for Pregnant Students on the Incidence of Low-Birthweight Deliveries,” 65 Child Development 666–76.Google Scholar
Tonry, Michael, & Morris, Norval, eds. (1986) Crime and Justice: An Annual Review, Vol. 7. Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
West, D. J., & Farrington, David P. (1973) Who Becomes Delinquent? Second Report of the Cambridge Study in Delinquent Development. London: Heinemann Educational Books.Google Scholar
West, D. J., & Farrington, David P. (1977) The Delinquent Way of Life. Third Report of the Cambridge Study in Delinquent Development. London: Heinemann Educational Books.Google Scholar
Wilson, James Q., & Herrnstein, Richard (1985) Crime and Human Nature. New York: Simon & Schuster.Google Scholar