Research on physical aggression often points to teen motherhood as being a primary contributor in the development of aggressive tendencies among young children. As a result of poor parenting practices, limited education, and a lack of emotional, physical, and financial resources, children born to young mothers often exhibit high levels of aggression across the life course. Meanwhile, unintentional pregnancy and young motherhood are likely to share many of the same risk factors and negative consequences for offspring, yet there is a dearth of research examining pregnancy intentionality and offspring aggression. Using the Fragile Families and Wellbeing Study, our study examines how mother’s age and pregnancy intention status influence aggression among their 5-year-old children. We find that young motherhood and unintended births, despite being likely to co-occur, each provide distinct mechanisms for the formation of aggressive behavior in childhood.

References

Barber, J. S., Axinn, W. G., Thornton, A. ( 1999 ). Unwanted childbearing, health and mother-child relationship . Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 40, 231 - 257 .

Google Scholar Crossref | Medline | ISI

Bendheim-Thoman Center . ( 2008 ). Center for research on child wellbeing: The fragile families wellbeing study. Retrieved from http://crcw.princeton.edu/ff.asp

Google Scholar

Burt, C. H., Simons, R. L., Simons, L. G. ( 2006 ). A longitudinal test of the effects of parenting and the stability of self-control: Negative evidence for the general theory of crime . Criminology, 44, 353 - 396 .

Google Scholar Crossref | ISI

Côté, S., Vaillancourt, T., LeBlanc, J., Nagin, D., Tremblay, R. ( 2006 ). The development of physical aggression from toddlerhood to pre-adolescence: A nation wide longitudinal study of Canadian children . Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 34, 68 - 82 .

Google Scholar Crossref | ISI

Daly, M., Wilson, M. ( 1980 ). Discriminative parental solicitude: A biological perspective . Journal of Marriage and Family, 42, 277 - 288 .

Google Scholar Crossref | ISI

Daly, M., Wilson, M. ( 1988 ). Homicide. New Brunswick, NJ : Transaction Publishers .

Google Scholar

Egeland, B., Farber, E. A. ( 1984 ). Infant-mother attachment: Factors related to its development and changes over time . Child Development, 55, 753 - 771 .

Google Scholar Crossref | Medline | ISI

Finer, L. B., Henshaw, S. K. ( 2006 ). Disparities in rates of unintended pregnancy in the United States, 1994 and 2001 . Perspectives on Sexual and Reproductive Health, 38, 90 - 96 .

Google Scholar Crossref | Medline | ISI

Geronimus, A. T., Korenman, S., Hillemeier, M. M. ( 1994 ). Does young maternal age adversely affect child development? Evidence from cousin comparisons in the United States . Population and Development Review, 20, 585 - 609 .

Google Scholar Crossref | ISI

Gottfredson, M., Hirschi, T. ( 1990 ). A general theory of crime. Palo Alto, CA : Stanford University Press .

Google Scholar

Hardy, J. B., Astone, N. M., Brooks-Gunn, J., Shapiro, S., Miller, L. T. ( 1998 ). Like mother, like child: Intergenerational patterns of age at first birth and associations with childhood and adolescent characteristics and adult outcomes in the second generation . Developmental Psychology, 34, 1220 - 1232 .

Google Scholar Crossref | Medline | ISI

Harris, J. R. ( 1995 ). Where is the child’s envrioment? A group socialization theory of development . Psychological Review, 102, 458 - 489 .

Google Scholar Crossref | ISI

Hotz, J., McElroy, S., Sanders, S. ( 2005 ). Teenage childbearing and its life cycle consequences: Exploiting a natural experiment . Journal of Human Resources, 40, 683 - 715 .

Google Scholar Crossref | ISI

Joyce, T. J., Kaestner, R., Korenman, S. ( 2000 ). The effect of pregnancy intention on child development . Demography, 37, 83 - 94 .

Google Scholar Crossref | Medline | ISI

Luster, T., Mittelstaedt, M. ( 1993 ). Adolescent mothers . In Luster, T., Okagaki, T. (Eds.), Parenting: An ecological perspective (pp. 69 - 101 ). Hillsdale, NJ : Lawrence Erlbaum .

Google Scholar

MacKenzie, M. J., Nicklas, E., Brooks-Gunn, J., Waldfogel, J. ( 2011 ). Who spanks infants and toddlers? Evidence from the fragile families and well-being study . Children and Youth Services Review, 33, 1364 - 1373 .

Google Scholar Crossref | Medline | ISI

Maynard, R. A. ( 1997 ). The study, the context, and the findings in brief . In Maynard, R. A. (Ed.), Kids having kids (pp. 1 - 23 ). Washington, DC : The Urban Institute Press .

Google Scholar

Mercer, J. ( 2006 ). Understanding attachment: Parenting, child care, and emotional development. Westport, CT : Praeger .

Google Scholar

Moore, K. A., Morrison, D. R., Greene, A. D. ( 1997 ). Effects on the children born to adolescent mothers . In Maynard, R. A. (Ed.), Kids having kids: Economic costs and social consequences of teen pregnancy (pp. 145 - 180 ). Washington, DC : The Urban Institute Press .

Google Scholar

Nagin, D. S., Farrington, D. P., Pogarski, G. ( 1997 ). Adolescent mothers and the criminal behavior of their children . Law & Society Review, 31, 137 - 162 .

Google Scholar Crossref | ISI

Nofziger, S. ( 2008 ). The “cause” of low self-control: The influence of maternal self control . Journal of Research in Crime & Delinquency, 45, 191 - 224 .

Google Scholar SAGE Journals | ISI

Perreira, K. M., Cortes, K. E. ( 2006 ). Race/ethnicity and nativity differences in alcohol and tobacco use during pregnancy . American Journal of Public Health, 96, 1629 - 1635 .

Google Scholar Crossref | Medline | ISI

Preacher, K. J., Hayes, A. F. ( 2008a ). Asymptotic and resampling strategies for assessing and comparing indirect effects in multiple mediator models . Behavior Research Methods, 40, 879 - 891 .

Google Scholar Crossref | Medline | ISI

Preacher, K. L., Hayes, A. F. ( 2008b ). SPSS macro for multiple mediation (Written by Andrew F. Hayes). The Ohio State University . Available from http://afhays.com

Google Scholar

Rowe, D. C. ( 1994 ). The limits of family influence: Genes, expereince, and behavior. New York, NY : Guilford Press .

Google Scholar

Rubin, K. H., Hastings, P., Chen, X., Stewart, S., McNichol, K. ( 1998 ). Intrapersonal and maternal correlates of aggression, conflict, and externalizing problems in toddlers . Child Development, 69, 1614 - 1629 .

Google Scholar Crossref | Medline | ISI

Santelli, J., Rochat, R., Hatfield-Timajchy, K., Gilbert, B., Curtis, K., Cabral, R., . . . Unintneded Pregnancy Working Group . ( 2003 ). The measurement and meaning of unintended pregnancy . Perspectives on Sexual and Reproductive Health, 35, 94 - 101 .

Google Scholar Crossref | Medline | ISI

Slade, E. P., Wissow, L. S. ( 2004 ). Spanking in early childhood and later behavior problems: A prospective study of infants and young toddlers . Pediatrics, 113, 1321 - 1329 .

Google Scholar Crossref | Medline | ISI

Taylor, C. A., Manganello, J. A., Lee, S. J., Rice, J. C. ( 2010 ). Mothers spanking of 3-year-old children and subsequent risk of children’s aggressive behavior . Pediatrics, 125, e1057 - e1065 .

Google Scholar Crossref | Medline | ISI

Tremblay, R. E. ( 2004 ). Decade of behavior distinguished lecture: Development of physical aggression during infancy . Infant Mental Health Journal, 25, 399 - 407 .

Google Scholar Crossref | ISI

Tremblay, R. E. ( 2006 ). Prevention of youth violence: Why not start at the beginning . Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 34, 481 - 487 .

Google Scholar Crossref | Medline | ISI

Tremblay, R. E., Boivin, M., Zoccolillo, M., Japel, C., Perusse, D., Mcduff, P., Montplaisir, J. ( 1999 ). The search for the age of “onset” of physical aggression: Rousseau and Bandura revisited . Criminal Behavior and Mental Health, 9, 8 - 23 .

Google Scholar Crossref

Tremblay, R. E., Nagin, D. S., Séguin, J. R., Zoccolillo, M., Zelazo, P. D., Boivin, M., . . .Japel, C. ( 2004 ). Physical aggression during early childhood: Trajectories and predictors . Pediatrics, 114, e43 - e50 .

Google Scholar Crossref | Medline | ISI

Tremblay, R. E., Vitaro, F., Nagin, D., Pagani, L., Séguin, J. R. ( 2003 ). The Montreal longitudinal and experimental study: Rediscovering the power of descriptions . In Thornberry, T. P., Krohn, D. (Eds.), Taking stock of delinquency: An overview of findings from contemporary longitudinal studies (pp. 205 - 241 ). New York, NY : Kluwer Academic .

Google Scholar Crossref

Waldfogel, J., Craigie, T., Brooks-Gunn, J. ( 2010 ). Fragile families and child wellbeing . The Future of Children, 20(2), 87 - 112 .

Google Scholar Crossref | Medline | ISI