Sons born to teenage fathers may become adolescent father themselves

Adolescents might want to pay heed to this piece of news. A new study from the Yale School of Public Health claimed to have discovered that sons of teenage feathers seemed to have almost twice the chance to complete the cycle of young parenthood and turn out to be teenage dads themselves.

Former studies appeared to have recorded the intergenerational round of adolescent motherhood. These studies focused as to how daughters of teenage mothers seemed to have a higher likelihood to turn into teenage mothers. But this study is thought to be the first one that apparently verifies a comparable affiliation between teenage dads and their sons.

The Yale team, headed by YSPH doctoral candidate Heather Sipsma, evaluated information from around 1,496 young males who were 19 years old or younger. They discovered that sons of adolescent fathers appeared to have 1.8 times more chances to ultimately turn into adolescent fathers as compared to sons of older men. This intergenerational consequence may stay important even after regulating several linked risk issues counting the impact of having a teenage mother.

Senior author Trace Kershaw, associate professor in the division of Chronic Disease Epidemiology, commented, “We often neglect the importance of men in reproductive and maternal-child health. We need to recognize that men play a significant role in the health and well being of families and children.”

Sipsma remarked, “The mechanism of this intergenerational cycle remains unclear. However, research suggests that parents are a major factor in shaping adolescent attitudes and often communicate their values and expectations through their behavior.”

Preceding studies have supposedly discovered that youths who appear to have more involved fathers could have fewer chances of being caught up in unsafe sexual behavior.

Adolescent parenthood may be linked to a variety of issues for both young parents as well as their children. Teenage fathers could usually have less educational attainment and poorer earning possibility as compared to their counterparts who postpone parenthood. There also seems to be proof of deprived parental attachment and less levels of parental support. The offspring of such parents may be frequently brought up in low-income homes and they could have an elevated threat for neglect and abuse.