Childhood peer sociometric status and aggression as predictors of adolescent childbearing

This prospective, longitudinal investigation examined the predictive relation among childhood sociometric status, aggression, and subsequent adolescent childbearing. Peer sociometric data were collected for 285 female participants from five schools in 1979, when the girls were in the fourth grade. In 1990, the birth certificates for the county were examined for the period 1980-1990 for 226 girls (79%) who remained in the sample. Analyses indicated significant differences in prevalence of births among peer sociometric status groups; controversial girls were most likely to become adolescent mothers (50%, in contrast to the base rate for the sample of 26%). Fifty percent of aggressive girls in the sample became adolescent mothers, in contrast to 25% of the nonaggressive girls. Controversial girls had more children than girls in other status groups; aggressive girls had more children than nonaggressive girls. Survival and hazard analyses indicated that controversial and aggressive girls gave birth earlier in adolescence than other girls. Copyright © 1996, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc.

Duke Scholars

Author John D. Coie Psychology & Neuroscience