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Teenage Childbearing, Marital Status, and Depressive Symptoms in Later Life
Author(s) -
Kalil Ariel,
Kunz James
Publication year - 2002
Publication title -
child development
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.103
H-Index - 257
eISSN - 1467-8624
pISSN - 0009-3920
DOI - 10.1111/1467-8624.00503
Subject(s) - psychology , national longitudinal surveys , marital status , depressive symptoms , young adult , longitudinal study , life course approach , developmental psychology , early adulthood , demography , population , psychiatry , cognition , medicine , pathology , sociology , economics , demographic economics
This study examined the role of prechildbearing characteristics in later–life depressive symptomatology among 990 married and unmarried teenage childbearers. Data from teenagers in the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY79) were used to test the relative contribution of age and marital status at first birth to depressive symptomatology measured during young adulthood (ages 27–29). Unmarried teenage childbearers displayed higher levels of depressive symptoms in young adulthood than did women who first give birth as married adults. However, the psychological health of married teenage mothers in later life was as good as that of married adult mothers, whereas unmarried adult mothers and unmarried teenage mothers had similarly poor outcomes. The findings of this study suggest that marital status, rather than age at first birth, may be more relevant for later–life psychological health.