Linkage Between Teen Mother's Childhood Adversity and Externalizing Behaviors in Their Children at Age 11: Three Aspects of Parenting

Background: Experiences of childhood adversity are consistently associated with compromised behavioral health later in life. Less clear is the intergenerational influence of maternal childhood adversity on developmental outcome in children. Completely unknown are the mechanisms linking teen mother's childhood adversity to child developmental outcomes.

Objective: The present study tested whether aspects of parenting (parenting stress, physical discipline, and disagreement with grandparents) served as the pathways between teen mother's childhood adversity and the externalizing behaviors of their offspring at age 11, by gender.

Participants And Setting: Data were from a longitudinal panel study of teen mothers and their children, the Young Women and Child Development Study (N = 495; 57% male).

Methods: The pathways from teen mother's childhood adversity to their offspring's externalizing behavior were tested by two subscales: rule-breaking behavior and aggressive behavior. In addition, multiple-group analysis was examined for potential gender differences.

Results: Teen mother's childhood adversity was positively associated with greater use of parenting stress (β = 0.16, p < .01) and physical discipline (β=0.11, p < .05). In addition, parenting stress, physical discipline, and disagreement with grandparent were all associated with increased rule-breaking and aggressive behaviors in children. Multiple group analysis revealed that the path between physical discipline and externalizing behavior differed by gender, with the path only significant for girls.

Conclusions: These findings have implications for early intervention efforts that emphasize the need to intervene with children and parents, particularly helping teen mothers gain knowledge and skills to offset the impact of their experiences of childhood adversity on their parenting behaviors.