The primary purpose of this paper is to provide an empirical design on teen influence and its predictors in the context of family decision making. Structure equation modeling (SEM) is employed to test the proposed conceptual model on teen influence and its predictors. The SEM approach also provides for the construct validity of the key measures. Results indicate that teenage children in urban I...

OBJECTIVE This study evaluates a parent-teen skills-based therapy for attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) blended with motivational interviewing (MI) to enhance family engagement. Supporting Teens' Autonomy Daily (STAND) is an adolescent-specific treatment for ADHD that targets empirically identified adolescent (i.e., organization, time management, and planning, or OTP skills) and p...

Poor compliance and high discontinuation rates of Depot-Medroxyprogesterone Acetate (DMPA) and other contraceptive methods are major factors in the continuing problem of adolescent pregnancy. In this study we attempted to determine if providing comprehensive health care for teen mothers and their babies would improve continuation rates of DMPA. Patients who started DMPA between 1/1/96 and 1/1/9...

In the USA, as many as 1 in 6 women nationwide become adolescent mothers, making adolescent pregnancy and childbearing issues a frequently encountered occurrence by pediatricians and adolescent medicine health care providers. Both social and medical programs focus on prevention and management of adolescent pregnancies; however, caring for the adolescent-headed family is less well understood. Fo...

Adolescent parenthood is associated with a range of adverse outcomes for young mothers, including mental health problems such as depression, substance abuse, and posttraumatic stress disorder. Teen mothers are also more likely to be impoverished and reside in communities and families that are socially and economically disadvantaged. These circumstances can adversely affect maternal mental healt...

Children born to teen mothers may experience less responsive and supportive parenting and are at heightened risk for a range of social, developmental, and health issues. There is literature to support the positive impact of grandmothers on teen parents and their children. However, what if the teen's mother is also limited in her parenting capacities? How do parenting capacities across these two...

Drawing on stress and life-course perspectives and using panel data from 1,286 south Florida young adults, we assess three critical questions regarding the role of marijuana in the "gateway hypothesis." First, does teen marijuana use independently (causally) affect subsequent use of more dangerous substances? Second, if so, does that effect apply to the abuse of other illicit substances, as def...

Teen motherhood continues to be high in the US and the UK relative to most other western European countries. While recent research has clarified how effective policies to reduce teen motherhood might be (Kearney (2009)), there remains little evidence that quantifies the causal effects of teen motherhood on such mothers and their first born children. This paper provides estimates of the causal e...

KEY FINDINGS •The teen birth rate declined to another historic low for the United States in 2015, down 8% from 2014 to 22.3 births per 1,000 females aged 15-19. •The birth rates for teenagers aged 15-17 and 18-19 declined in 2015 to 9.9 and 40.7, respectively, which are record lows for both groups. •In 2015, birth rates declined to 6.9 for Asian or Pacific Islander, 16.0 for non-Hispanic white,...

BACKGROUND Adolescents giving birth represents an important public health issue with social, economic, and health-related consequences. OBJECTIVE Compare birth rates and trends in birth rates among adolescents age 15-19 years in Wisconsin and the United States by race/ethnicity. METHODS Teen birth rates from 1998-2002, and trends in birth rates from 1995-2002 for Wisconsin and the United St...