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The Risk of Teen Mothers Having Low Birth Weight Babies: Implications of Recent Medical Research for School Health Personnel
Author(s) -
Roth Jeffrey,
Hendrickson Jo,
Schilling Max,
Stowell Daniel W.
Publication year - 1998
Publication title -
journal of school health
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.851
H-Index - 86
eISSN - 1746-1561
pISSN - 0022-4391
DOI - 10.1111/j.1746-1561.1998.tb00581.x
Subject(s) - low birth weight , medicine , psychology , family medicine , pregnancy , biology , genetics
This article reviews recent medical research on the relationship between young maternal age and the incidence of low birth weight infants. One line of research, “nature,” emphasizes biological factors in early adolescence such as immaturity of the female reproductive system and inadequate prenatal weight gain. “Nurture,” another research focus, stresses sociocultural attributes of teen mothers such as poverty and minority status. Young maternal age alone does not explain the higher rates of low birth weight infants born to adolescent females. Both biological and sociocultural factors, plus lifestyle choices made by adolescents, combine to raise or lower the risk of delivering a low birth weight infant. School health personnel need to link their health promotion efforts to those of other community organizations serving adolescents and their families.