Development and Psychopathology, 11 (1999), 127–141

Copyright  1999 Cambridge University Press

Printed in the United States of America

Early conduct problems and later risk of

teenage pregnancy in girls

LIANNE J. WOODWARD AND DAVID M. FERGUSSON

Christchurch School of Medicine

Abstract
The relationship between conduct problems at age 8 years and teenage pregnancy by the age of 18 years was
analyzed in a birth cohort of 491 girls. A statistically significant association was found between early conduct
problems and later risk of teenage pregnancy, with girls in the most disturbed 10% of the cohort having a pregnancy
rate that was 5.3 times higher (p < .001) than the rate found in the least disturbed 50% of the cohort. The elevated
risk of teenage pregnancy amongst girls with early conduct problems was in part, explained by social and family
factors that were correlated with early conduct problems, and in part, by a causal chain process in which early
conduct problems were associated with increased rates of risk taking behaviors in adolescence, which in turn led to
an increased risk of teenage pregnancy. These results suggest that the higher rate of teenage pregnancy among girls
with early conduct problems reflected both their relatively disadvantaged family backgrounds and their tendencies to
risk taking behavior in adolescence.

In recent years there has been increasing con-
cern about the rising rates of teenage preg-
nancy and the consequences of early parent-
hood for young women and their children (for
reviews of this issue see Brooks–Gunn &
Chase–Lansdale, 1995; Coley & Chase–Lans-
dale, 1998; Furstenberg, Brooks–Gunn, &
Chase–Lansdale, 1989; Hechtman, 1989). Ev-
idence suggests that teenage pregnancy can
have far reaching physical, social, and emo-
tional consequences for young women, in-
cluding increased risk of antenatal complica-
tions and mortality (Black & DeBlassie, 1985;
Zuckerman et al., 1984); failure to complete
schooling (Brooks–Gunn, Guo, & Fursten-
This research was funded by grants from the Health Re-
search Council of New Zealand, the National Child
Health Research Foundation, the Canterbury Medical Re-
search Foundation and the New Zealand Lottery Grants
Board.
Address correspondence and reprint requests to:
Lianne Woodward, Christchurch Health & Development
Study, Christchurch School of Medicine, PO Box 4345,
Christchurch, New Zealand; E-mail: lwoodwrd@chmeds.
ac.nz.
berg, 1993; Card & Wise, 1981; Upchurch &
McCarthy, 1990); socioeconomic disadvan-
tage and welfare dependence (Black & De-
Blassie, 1985; Furstenberg, Brooks–Gunn, &
Morgan, 1987); increased likelihood of an
early marriage and subsequent marital break-
down (Furstenberg et al., 1987); maternal de-
pression (Colletta, 1983); and less competent
parenting (Brooks–Gunn Chase–Lansdale,
1995; Luster & Mittelstaedt, 1993; Haskett,
Johnson, & Miller, 1994; Nagin, Pogarsky &
Farrington, 1997). Children born to teenage
mothers are also at greater risk of adverse
cognitive, behavioral, and social develop-
mental outcomes (Brooks–Gunn & Chase–
Lansdale, 1995; Brooks–Gunn & Furstenberg,
1986; Furstenberg et al., 1987, 1990; Hardy
et al., 1978). Although the consequences of
teenage pregnancy and parenthood are well
established, much less is known about the risk
factors and life pathways that place young
women at increased risk of teenage pregnancy
(Zabin, 1990). An understanding of the life
processes that lead to early pregnancy and
motherhood will be important in identifying

127

https://doi.org/10.1017/S0954579499001984 Published online by Cambridge University Press

 128
strategies for breaking intergenerational cy-
cles of poor mental health and social func-
tioning.
One factor that has been associated with
an increased risk of teenage pregnancy is the
presence of early conduct problems and diffi-
culties (Bardone, Moffitt, Caspi, Dickson, &
Silva, 1996; Kessler et al., 1997; Kovacs,
Krol, & Voti, 1994; Robins & Price, 1991;
Quinton, Pickles, Maughan, & Rutter, 1993).
For example, Quinton et al. (1993), in a fol-
low-up study of 81 institutionally raised girls
and a comparison sample of 41 girls from
similar social backgrounds but raised at home,
found conduct disorder to be a major risk fac-
tor for subsequent unsupported pregnancy be-
fore the age of 20 years. Similarly, Bardone
et al. (1996), in a longitudinal prospective
study of the mental health and social out-
comes of conduct disordered adolescent girls,
found that girls identified as conduct disor-
dered at the age of 15 years were 4 times more
likely than healthy control girls to have be-
come pregnant by 21 years of age.
Given women’s reproductive role and tra-
ditional responsibility for child care, the rela-
tionship between early conduct problems and
later teenage pregnancy is likely to have im-
portant gender specific consequences for the
opportunities and life pathways of girls with
early conduct problems. An early teenage
pregnancy is likely to set in motion a life
course characterized by reduced opportunities
and increased psychosocial stress from which
escape will be difficult (Harris, Brown, & Bi-
fulco, 1987). This is consistent with research
findings which suggest that teenage preg-
nancy is part of a broader constellation of
compromised psychosocial outcomes, includ-
ing lower educational achievement, socio-
economic disadvantage, single parenthood,
and cohabitation with an unsupportive and/or
physically abusive partner (Bardone et al.;
Brooks–Gunn & Chase–Lansdale, 1995; Quin-
ton et al., 1993).
While associations between early conduct
problems and teenage pregnancy have been
adequately documented, little is known about
the risk factors and life pathways that lead to
an increased risk of teenage pregnancy among
adolescent girls who show signs of early con-
https://doi.org/10.1017/S0954579499001984 Published online by Cambridge University Press
L. J. Woodward and D. M. Fergusson
duct difficulties (Kovacs et al., 1994). Two
possible models may account for this relation-
ship. First, it is possible that associations be-
tween early conduct problems and teenage
pregnancy may be noncausal and arise be-
cause many of the social and contextual fac-
tors associated with early onset conduct prob-
lems are also independently related to an
elevated risk of teenage pregnancy. There is
considerable indirect support for this explana-
tion from mental health and teenage parenting
research which suggests that substantial over-
lap exists in the risk factors associated with
these two outcomes. For example, both the in-
cidence of childhood conduct problems and
teenage pregnancy are higher among girls
from disadvantaged family backgrounds
where their own mother was a young single
parent (Furstenberg, Levine, & Brooks–Gunn,
1990; Kovacs et al., 1994; McLanahan &
Bumpass, 1988). It could therefore be plausi-
bly argued that the relationship between early
conduct problems and later teenage pregnancy
is spurious and can be accounted for by con-
founding preexisting child and family factors.
To demonstrate that childhood conduct prob-
lems lead to an increased risk of pregnancy
during adolescence, it is necessary to show
that the observed relationship persists even
after confounding factors known or suspected
to be associated with both early conduct prob-
lems and later teenage pregnancy have been
taken into account (Baron & Kenny, 1986).
On the assumption that it may be shown
that early onset conduct problems are likely
to be causally related to later teenage preg-
nancy, a further issue that arises is that of doc-
umenting the causal processes that lead girls
with early onset conduct problems to be at in-
creased risk of teenage pregnancy. This raises
the issue of the risk factors and life processes
that may intervene between early conduct
problems and subsequent teenage pregnancy.
Empirical evidence suggests that children
who show early conduct problems are at in-
creased risk, not just for teenage pregnancy
and early parenting, but also for a broad range
of adverse adolescent outcomes including:
continued mental health difficulties; substance
use and abuse; affiliations with delinquent
peers and partners; and school behavior prob-
 Conduct problems and pregnancy in girls
lems (Bardone et al., 1996; Farrington et al.,
1990; Fergusson & Lynskey, 1998; Fergus-
son, Horwood, & Lynskey, 1995; Fergusson &
Horwood, 1996; Quinton et al., 1993; Rob-
ins & Price, 1991; Storm–Mathisen & Vag-
lam, 1994). It is therefore possible that the
higher rates of teenage pregnancy among girls
with early conduct difficulties might be ex-
plained by mediating adolescent behaviors re-
flecting a tendency toward risk taking and
norm violation. These adolescent behaviors
may, in turn, serve to heighten the risk of
teenage pregnancy among girls with early
conduct problems. To demonstrate that the re-
lationship between early conduct problems
and later risk of teenage pregnancy is ex-
plained by intervening adolescent behavior, it
is necessary to show that when due allowance
is made for these behaviors, early conduct
problems are no longer related to teenage
pregnancy.
This paper reports the results of an 18-year
longitudinal study of the relationship between
early onset conduct problems and later risk of
teenage pregnancy in a birth cohort of New
Zealand born girls studied to the age of 18
years. The specific aims of the study were as
follows:
1. To document the extent to which early con-
duct problems were associated with an in-
creased risk of teenage pregnancy by the
age of 18 years.
2. To examine the extent to which associa-
tions between early conduct problems and
subsequent teenage pregnancy could be ex-
plained by a series of social and contextual
factors that may be correlated with early
conduct problems and risk of teenage preg-
nancy. These confounding factors included
measures of social background and disad-
vantage, measures of child characteristics,
and measures of early parenting and family
functioning.
3. To explore possible intervening factors that
may explain the association between early
conduct problems and later risk of teenage
pregnancy. These included early sexual de-
velopment and behavior, deviant peer affili-
ations, early substance use, and disruptive
https://doi.org/10.1017/S0954579499001984 Published online by Cambridge University Press
129
behavior such as school truancy and diffi-
culties with school authorities.
Method
The data reported here were collected during
the course of the Christchurch Health and De-
velopment Study (CHDS). The CHDS is a
longitudinal study of a birth cohort of 1,265
children born in the Christchurch (New Zea-
land) urban region during mid-1977. These
children have been studied at birth, 4 months,
at annual intervals to 16 years, and again at
18 years of age. An overview of the study
aims and design has been given previously
(Fergusson, Horwood, Shannon, & Lawton,
1989). The analysis reported here is restricted
to the 491 female members of the cohort for
whom complete data were available up to the
age of 18 years. The variables analyzed in this
report were measured in the following ways.
Conduct problems (8 years)
At age 8 years, parallel parent and teacher re-
ports of girls’ tendencies to disruptive or con-
duct disordered behaviors were obtained us-
ing instruments which combined items from
the Rutter (Rutter, Tizard, & Whitmore, 1970)
and Conners (1969, 1970) parent and teacher
questionnaires. These items spanned a range
of behaviors relating to disobedience and defi-
ance of authority, fits of temper and irritabil-
ity, aggression or cruelty towards others, de-
struction of property, lying, stealing, and
similar behaviors (Fergusson, Horwood, &
Lloyd, 1991). Each item was scored on a 3-
point scale ranging from not at all to a great
deal. A scale score representing the extent to
which the child was described as exhibiting
disruptive, oppositional, or conduct disor-
dered behavior was created by summing pa-
rental and teacher item scores for each child.
This procedure was used since it helps to min-
imize the effects of situational and rater bias.
The reliability of this scale, assessed using co-
efficient α, was .93. For the purposes of the
present analysis, cutpoints were placed on the
scale to divide the sample into four class in-
tervals ranging from those with few reports of
disruptive behavior to those with many re-
 130
ports of these behaviors. These class intervals
were: the lowest 50% of the distribution;
those whose conduct problems scores placed
them in the 51st to 70th percentiles; those
whose conduct problems scores placed them
in the 71st to 90th percentiles; and those
whose conduct problems scores placed them
in the 91st to 100th percentiles.
Teenage pregnancy (18 years)
Each year from age 15 years, female sample
members were asked whether they had be-
come pregnant since the last interview. At
age 14, parents were questioned about their
daughter’s prior pregnancy history. In total,
8.8% of the sample reported becoming preg-
nant by the age of 18 years. The median age
of first pregnancy was 16 years.
Confounding factors
To assess the extent to which the association
between early conduct problems and teenage
pregnancy outcome could be explained by the
effects of potentially confounding factors, the
following measures were selected from the
database for inclusion in the analysis.
Family social background.
Maternal age. This was assessed in whole
years at the time of the sample member’s birth.
Family type. Whether the sample member
entered a single-parent family or a two-parent
family at birth.
Maternal education. This was assessed at
the time of the sample member’s birth using
a 3-point scale that reflected the highest level
of educational attainment. This scale was 1 =
mother lacked educational qualifications, 2 =
mother had secondary (high school) qualifi-
cations, and 3 = mother had tertiary (college)
qualifications.
Socioeconomic status. Family socioeco-
nomic status at the time of the sample mem-
ber’s birth was assessed using the Elley and
Irving (1976) scale of socioeconomic status
for New Zealand. This index ranks families
into six levels on the basis of paternal occupa-
tion. For the purposes of the present analysis,
the scale was collapsed into three levels as
https://doi.org/10.1017/S0954579499001984 Published online by Cambridge University Press
L. J. Woodward and D. M. Fergusson
follows: 1 = Levels 1, 2 (professional, mana-
gerial); 2 = Levels 3, 4 (clerical, technical,
skilled); and 3 = Levels 5, 6 (semiskilled, un-
skilled, unemployed).
Ethnicity. Girls were classified as being of
either Pakeha (European) or Maori/Pacific Is-
land descent on the basis of parental definition
of the child’s ethnic identification at birth.
Family living standards (0–8 years). At
each annual assessment, the living standards
of the family were rated by survey interview-
ers on a 5-point scale that ranged from very
good to very poor. Interviewer ratings for the
period from the girl’s birth to age 8 years
were summed and then divided by 10 to give
a measure of the typical living standards of
the family over this period.
Individual characteristics.
Intelligence. At age 8 years, sample mem-
bers were administered the revised Wechsler
Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC-R;
Wechsler, 1974). The full scale score was
used in the present analysis. The reliability of
this score, assessed using split half methods,
was .93.
Attentional problems. Concurrent with the
assessment of conduct problems at age 8
years, parent and teacher reports of girls’
tendencies to inattentive, restless, or hyperac-
tive behaviors were obtained using instru-
ments which combined items from the Rutter
(Rutter et al., 1970) and Conners (1969, 1970)
parent and teacher questionnaires. These
items spanned a range of behaviors relating to
inattention, poor concentration, short attention
span, distractability, restlessness, and hyper-
activity (Fergusson et al., 1991); each item
was scored on a 3-point scale ranging from
not at all to a great deal. A scale score repre-
senting the extent to which the child was de-
scribed as exhibiting inattentive, distractible,
restless, or hyperactive behavior was created
by summing the parent and teacher item
scores for each child. The reliability of this
scale, assessed using coefficient α, was .82.
Parenting and family functioning.
Maternal emotional responsiveness. This
measure was an index of the frequency with
which the girl’s mother was observed to make
 Conduct problems and pregnancy in girls 131

positive emotional responses toward the child. without qualifications, and unemployment),
This scale was based on the HOME inventory psychological well-being, cannabis and other
(Bradley & Caldwell, 1977; Elardo, Brad- substance use, affiliation with delinquent peers,
ley, & Caldwell, 1977) and assessed when the parental physical punishment, and childhood
sample member was 3 years old. sexual abuse (Fergusson & Horwood, 1996,
Maternal avoidance of punishment. This 1997; Fergusson, Horwood, & Lynskey, 1997a,
was a measure of the frequency with which 1997b; Fergusson & Lynskey, 1997).
the girl’s mother was observed to make puni-
tive responses to her child’s behavior. This Intervening factors
scale was based on the HOME inventory
To examine the extent to which the associa-
(Bradley & Caldwell, 1977; Elardo, Brad-
tion between childhood conduct problems
ley, & Caldwell, 1977) and assessed when the
measured at age 8 years and subsequent teen-
sample member was 3 years old.
age pregnancy was influenced by mediating
Changes of parents. As part of the study,
adolescent behavior, the following measures
comprehensive data on changes of parents
were included in the analysis.
were collected at annual intervals (Fergusson,
Horwood, & Lynskey, 1992). These data were Sexual development and behavior.
used to construct a measure of the number of Early onset sexual activity. At ages 15 and
parental changes the child had experienced 16 years, young women were questioned
during the interval from birth to age 8 years. about whether they had ever engaged in con-
A change of parents was counted if a parent sensual sexual intercourse. Those responding
left the family as a result of parental separa- positively were then asked to provide an esti-
tion or death, or entered the family as a result mate of the age at which they initiated con-
of remarriage or reconciliation. sensual intercourse. A young women was
Parental conflict. Parents were questioned classified as having consensual early onset
annually on three items which described the sexual activity if she reported having sexual
quality of marital relations. These items were intercourse before the age of 16 years. On the
(a) whether the parents had engaged in pro- basis of this classification, 25.6% of the sam-
longed arguments during the last 12 months, ple were classified as reporting early onset
(b) whether the child’s mother reported being sexual activity.
assaulted by her spouse in the last 12 months, Multiple sexual partners. At ages 15 and
and (c) whether the child’s mother had re- 16, young women who reported being sexu-
ported experiencing sexual difficulties in the ally active were asked a series of further ques-
last 12 months. Parental responses to these tions including their number of sexual part-
items were averaged across the 10 assess- ners since the preceding interview. Young
ments to produce a scale measure of the ex- women who reported having more than one
tent to which a child was exposed to parental sexual partner before the age of 16 years were
conflict in the period from birth to age 8 classified as having multiple sexual partners.
years. The three items comprising the parental On the basis of this definition, 17.5% of the
conflict scale were derived from a factor anal- sample were classified as having multiple sex-
ysis of items measuring family change and ual partners.
parental discord (Fergusson et al., 1992). This
analysis showed that these items were signifi- Peer relationships.
cantly intercorrelated, r = .19 to .45, and ap- Peer affiliations. To measure the extent to
peared to load on a single factor. The reliabil- which female sample members affiliated with
ity of this scale, assessed using coefficient α, delinquent or substance using peers at age 15
was .74. In addition, subsequent analyses us- years, an index of peer affiliations was con-
ing this scale have shown that it is strongly structed. This index was based on girls’ re-
predictive of a wide range of child and family ports of the extent to which their best friend
outcomes, including reduced life opportuni- and other friends used tobacco, alcohol, and
ties (early school leaving, leaving school cannabis, truanted, or broke the law. These

https://doi.org/10.1017/S0954579499001984 Published online by Cambridge University Press

 132
items were summed to produce a scale mea-
sure of the extent to which the sample mem-
ber reported affiliating with delinquent or
substance using peers. The construction of
this delinquent peer scale has been described
previously (Fergusson & Horwood, 1996).
This scale was of moderate reliability, having
an α coefficient of .74.
Peer attachment. The quality of peer at-
tachments was assessed at age 15 years using
the peer attachment scale developed by Arms-
den and Greenberg (1987). The full peer at-
tachment scale was used in this analysis and
was found to have good reliability, α = .85.
Substance use.
Tobacco use (15 years). At age 15 years,
sample members were asked whether or not
they had used tobacco during the preceding
year: 37.9% of the girls reported that they had
used tobacco on at least one occasion during
the past year.
Cannabis use. At age 15 years, teenagers
and parents were questioned, in separate inter-
views, about the young persons use of canna-
bis during the preceding year. Those with self
reports or parental reports of cannabis use
were classified as having used cannabis,
whereas those with neither parental reports or
self reports of cannabis use were classified as
not having used cannabis. By the age of 15
years, 9.1% of the sample were reported to
have used cannabis.
Alcohol use. At age 15 years, sample mem-
bers were asked a series of questions concern-
ing their use of alcohol during the preceding
year. First, they were asked whether or not
they had consumed alcohol at any time during
the past year. Second, those young people
who reported having consumed alcohol were
then asked to provide an estimate of the
largest amount of alcohol consumed on a sin-
gle occasion during the previous 3-month pe-
riod. A total of 10.1% of the sample reported
having consumed the equivalent of 90 ml of
pure alcohol on a single occasion (Fergusson,
Horwood, & Lynskey, 1995).
School difficulties.
School truancy. At age 15 years, sample
members were asked whether they had tru-
anted from school over the past year and, if
https://doi.org/10.1017/S0954579499001984 Published online by Cambridge University Press
L. J. Woodward and D. M. Fergusson
so, on how many occasions; 23.4% of girls
in the sample reported having truanted from
school on at least one occasion between the
ages of 14 and 15 years.
Suspension from school. Parallel to the
measure of truancy, sample members were
also asked whether over the past year they had
been suspended from school for any reason.
A total of 1.6% of girls in the cohort had been
suspended from school between the age of 14
and 15 years.
Sample size
The sample studied in this paper consisted of
491 young women for whom complete data
were available up to the age of 18 years. This
sample consisted of 77.9% of the original
CHDS cohort of 630 young women and 87.5%
of the cohort of young women who were still
alive and resident in New Zealand at the age
of 18. Losses arose from emigration from
New Zealand (54%), refusal to participate
(37%), and mortality (9%).
To examine the effects of sample loss on
the representativeness of the sample, compari-
sons were made between the 491 subjects in-
cluded in the analysis and the remaining 139
subjects on a range of social background mea-
sures collected at birth. These analyses showed
that sample losses were not associated with
maternal age, maternal educational qualifica-
tions, ethnicity, family socioeconomic status,
or size. However, there was a small but statis-
tically detectable, p < .01, tendency for the fi-
nal sample to underrepresent girls from single
parent families. These results suggest that the
sample used in this analysis was largely repre-
sentative of the original birth cohort of girls.
Results
Associations between early conduct problems
and teenage pregnancy
Table 1 shows the sample classified into four
groups according to the extent of child con-
duct problems reported at age 8 years. These
groups ranged from those young women
whose conduct problems score placed them in
the least disturbed 50% of the sample, to
those whose conduct problems score placed
 Conduct problems and pregnancy in girls
Table 1. Rates of teenage pregnancy at age 18 by extent of
earlier conduct problems at age 8 years
Conduct Problems (8 years)
1 (Low)
Measure 1–50 a
Teen pregnancy by age
18 years (%) 3.5
n 257
a
Percentiles.
them in the most disturbed 10% of the sam-
ple. For each group, the table shows the per-
centage of young women who had experi-
enced a teenage pregnancy by the age of 18
years. This comparison was tested for signifi-
cance using the Mantel–Haenszel χ2 test of
linearity. The table shows that with increasing
levels of early conduct problems, there is a
corresponding increase in the risk of subse-
quent teenage pregnancy, p < .0001. Young
women whose conduct problems at age 8
years placed them in the most disturbed 10%
of the cohort had a 5.3 times greater risk of
falling pregnant before the age of 18 years
compared to young women whose conduct
problems score placed them in the least dis-
turbed 50% of the cohort. No evidence was
found for a nonlinear trend in the relationship
between early conduct problems and subse-
quent risk of teenage pregnancy, χ2(2) = .45;
p > .70.
Factors associated with conduct problems
The results in Table 1 suggest that increases
in the level of conduct problems reported at
age 8 years were associated with increasing
risks of later teenage pregnancy. However, it
could be suggested that this association was
due to confounding factors that may be corre-
lated with both early conduct problems and
increased risk of teenage pregnancy. Table 2
shows the relationships between the level of
reported conduct problems at age 8 years and
a series of social background (maternal age,
single parenthood, maternal education, socio-
economic status, ethnicity, and family living
standards); individual adjustment (child IQ
and early attentional problems); and family
https://doi.org/10.1017/S0954579499001984 Published online by Cambridge University Press
133
2 3 4 (High)
51–70 a 71–90a 91–100 a p
10.8 12.0 18.4 <.0001
93 92 49
functioning measures (parental emotional re-
sponsiveness, punitive parent–child interac-
tion, parental changes, and parental conflict).
For ease of display, all measures were ex-
pressed in dichotomous form. This conven-
tion makes it possible to construct a profile of
the backgrounds of children with varying lev-
els of conduct problems by scoring all vari-
ables on a common metric. Associations be-
tween each variable and the level of reported
conduct problems was tested using the Man-
tel–Haenszel χ2 test of linearity.
The table shows that increasing rates of
child conduct problems were related to a wide
range of social, individual, and family factors.
Girls with early conduct problems were more
likely to (a) come from socially disadvantaged
family backgrounds characterized by teenage
parenthood, p < .05, single parenting, p < .01,
lower maternal educational achievement, p <
.001, lower socioeconomic status, p < .01, and
below average living standards, p < .0001; (b)
report higher rates of comorbid attentional dif-
ficulties, p < .001, and have lower IQ scores
on the WISC-R, p < .001, at 8 years of age;
(c) have been exposed to greater family dys-
function, including early punitive parenting, p
< .001, parental change, p < .001, and parental
conflict, p < .001.
Association between early conduct
problems and later teenage pregnancy after
adjustment for the effects of confounding
psychosocial factors
To examine the extent to which the associa-
tion between early conduct problems and sub-
sequent teenage pregnancy could be explained
by the effects of social and contextual factors
 134 L. J. Woodward and D. M. Fergusson

Table 2. Associations between extent of conduct problems at 8 years and measures of

sociodemographic background, family functioning, and individual factors

Conduct Problems (8 years)

1 (Low) 2 3 4 (High)
Measure 1–50 a 51–70 a 71–90 a 91–100 a p

Sociodemographic background (birth)

Mother aged <19 years at birth of first child 7.8 9.7 10.7 21.4 <.01
Child born into single parent family 4.8 4.9 14.6 10.7 <.01
Mother had no formal educational qualifications 39.6 58.3 58.3 80.4 <.0001
Family of semiskilled/unskilled socioeconomic status 19.3 23.3 24.3 37.5 <.01
Child of Maori/Pacific Island ethnicity 11.1 7.8 19.4 16.1 <.10
In below average living standards 14.3 37.9 31.1 49.6 <.0001
Individual characteristics (8 years)
In lowest quartile of IQ distribution 15.7 24.1 35.7 48.8 <.0001
In highest quartile of ADD problems score 9.6 24.3 43.7 82.1 <.0001
Parenting and family functioning (birth–8 years)
In lowest quartile of maternal emotional responsiveness
(3 years) 18.9 21.8 24.0 23.2 >.10
In highest sextile of maternal punishment score
(3 years) 8.9 13.9 22.0 30.4 <.0001
Experiencing parental change (0–8 years) 18.6 28.6 34.7 50.0 <.001
In highest quintile of parental conflict score (0–8
years) 9.3 18.4 28.6 46.0 <.001
Note: Values are in percents.
a
Percentiles.

associated with early conduct problems, the
relationship between early conduct problems
and later teenage pregnancy shown in Table 1
was adjusted for the effects of the potentially
confounding social, individual, and family
factors shown in Table 2. A logistic regres-
sion model was fitted in which the log odds
of experiencing a teenage pregnancy by the
age of 18 years was modeled as a linear func-
tion of the extent of conduct difficulties at age
8 and the social, individual, and family factors
shown in Table 2. In fitting this model the
covariate factors were not treated as dichoto-
mies as shown in Table 2 but were scored in
the units described in the method section.
Model fitting was conducted using forward
and backward variable elimination to identify
the best fitting and most parsimonious model.
The sensitivity of the analysis to methods of
variable selection was examined by compar-
ing the regression estimates obtained using
different methods of covariate control, rang-
ing from a model in which all covariates were
controlled to a model in which only a core
set of significant factors were controlled. This
analysis showed that the conclusions drawn
were robust to changes in the covariates in-
cluded in the model, provided that the mini-
mum set of significant covariates shown in
Table 3 was included in the final model. The
results of this analysis are presented in Table
3, which shows the estimated dose/response
relationship between early conduct problems
and later teenage pregnancy after adjustment
for potentially confounding covariates. The
table also lists the covariate factors found to
be significant in each equation.
The results show that controlling for con-
founding factors reduced the strength of the
association between early conduct problems
and later risk of teenage pregnancy. After ad-
justment for the effects of confounding fac-
tors, the relative risk of a subsequent preg-
nancy for girls with early conduct problems
decreased from 5.3 to 2.6. Nonetheless, the
association between early conduct problems
and teenage pregnancy remained statistically
significant, p < .05. This would suggest that
some, but not all, of the relationship between
early conduct problems and later teenage

https://doi.org/10.1017/S0954579499001984 Published online by Cambridge University Press

 Conduct problems and pregnancy in girls 135

Table 3. Rates of teenage pregnancy by extent of earlier conduct

problems at age 8 years after adjustment for covariates

Conduct Problems (8 years)

1 (Low) 2 3 4 (High)
Measure 1–50 a 51–70 a 71–90 a 91–100 a p

Teenage pregnancy by
age 18 years (%) 5.3 7.4 10.1 13.6 <.05
n 257 93 92 49

Note: Covariate factors are maternal educational qualifications, β = 0.98, p < .01; num-
ber of parental changes from birth to 8 years, β = 0.26, p < .05; and maternal endorse-
ment of punishment at 3 years, β = .35; p < .10.
a
Percentiles.

Table 4. Rates of early adolescent sexual activity, substance use, delinquent

peer affiliations, and behavior by extent of conduct problems at age 8 years

Conduct Problems (8 years)

1 (Low) 2 3 4 (High)
Measure 1–50 a 51–70 a 71–90 a 91–100 a p

Sexual development and behavior

First sexual intercourse before age 16 15.6 23.7 38.0 49.0 <.0001
More than one sexual partner by 16 years 14.1 16.5 20.2 29.4 <.01
Peer relationships (15 years)
Affiliation with delinquent peers 27.5 29.7 30.7 41.7 <.10
Upper quartile of peer attachment 35.6 29.7 27.3 12.5 <.01
Early substance use (15 years)
Smoking cigarettes (at least once/week) 10.9 13.2 23.9 22.9 <.01
Early cannabis use 8.1 4.4 11.4 18.8 <.05
Early alcohol use 7.7 9.9 17.0 10.4 <.10
School difficulties (15 years)
Truanted from school in past 12 months 16.6 20.7 33.0 45.1 <.0001
Suspended from school 0.8 2.2 2.2 3.9 <.10

Note: Values are in percents.

a
Percentiles.

pregnancy was explained by the social and
family backgrounds of these girls. The signifi-
cant confounding factors included maternal
educational qualifications, parental changes,
and punitive early mother child interaction.
Factors mediating between early conduct
problems and teenage pregnancy
Results, thus far, suggest a possible causal re-
lationship between the extent of conduct prob-
lems in middle childhood and later risk of
teenage pregnancy. This conclusion raises the
issue of the life processes and pathways that
lead to higher risk in girls with early conduct
problems. This issue is examined in Table 4,
which shows the relationship between the ex-
tent of early conduct problems and a series of
adolescent behaviors, including sexual activ-
ity (early onset sexual intercourse and multi-
ple sexual partnerships), delinquent peer affil-
iations, substance use (cigarettes, cannabis,
and alcohol), and school difficulties (truancy
and school suspension). The table shows the
presence of a pervasive relationship between
early conduct problems and rates of risk tak-
ing and norm violating behaviors in adoles-
cence. Girls with high rates of early conduct
problems at age 8 years were in adolescence
more likely to have experienced early sexual
intercourse, p < .0001, and had multiple sex-
ual partners, p < .01, when compared to girls

https://doi.org/10.1017/S0954579499001984 Published online by Cambridge University Press

 136 L. J. Woodward and D. M. Fergusson

Table 5. Rates of teenage pregnancy by extent of earlier conduct problems

at age 8 years after adjustment for confounding covariates and intervening factors

Conduct Problems (8 years)

1 (Low) 2 3 4 (High) Factors In

1–50 a 51–70 a 71–90 a 91–100 a p Equation

Model 1
Excludes adolescent sexual behaviors as
intervening variable 5.8 7.3 9.0 11.1 >.10 1–3, 6
Model 2
Includes adolescent sexual behavior as
intervening variable 6.1 7.4 8.9 10.5 >.15 1–5

Covariate factors are 1 = maternal educational qualifications, 2 = number of parental changes from birth to 8
years, and 3 = maternal endorsement of punishment at 3 years. Intervening factors are 4 = first sexual
intercourse before age 16 years, 5 = number of sexual partners, and 6 = cigarette smoking.
a
Percentiles.

with low rates of early conduct problems. In
addition, girls with high rates of early conduct
problems also reported that they smoked ciga-
rettes, p < .05, used cannabis, p < .05, had
lower peer attachments, p < .01, and more of-
ten truanted from school, p < .0001, compared
to girls with low rates of early conduct prob-
lems.
To examine the extent to which associa-
tions between early conduct problems and
later teenage pregnancy could be explained by
intervening adolescent behaviors, the data
were analyzed using a logistic regression
model in which the log odds of teenage preg-
nancy was modelled as a linear function of
early conduct problems, the confounding fac-
tors shown in Table 3, and the measures of
adolescent behavior shown in Table 4. Two
models were fitted. The first model included
measures of peer relations, early substance
use, and school difficulties but did not in-
clude measures of adolescent sexual behavior.
The second model considered all of the fac-
tors listed in Table 4. Model fitting was con-
ducted using methods of forward and back-
ward variable elimination to identify the best
fitting and most parsimonious model. In both
cases, control for confounding and interven-
ing factors reduced the association between
early conduct problems and later teenage
pregnancy to statistical nonsignificance. These
results are presented in Table 5, which shows
the dose/response relationship between early
conduct problems and later teenage pregnancy
after adjustment for the effects of confound-
ing and intervening factors. The table also
lists the covariate and intervening factors
found to be significant in each equation.
These results indicate that after adjustment
for the effects of both covariate and interven-
ing factors, early conduct problems were no
longer significantly associated with teenage
pregnancy risk. The first model, which ex-
cluded early sexual behavior, identified ciga-
rette smoking in adolescence as a possible
mediating factor, whereas the second model,
which included early sexual behavior, identi-
fied early onset of sexual intercourse and the
number of sexual partnerships reported by age
16 years as possible mediating factors. When
taken in conjunction with the findings in Ta-
ble 4, these results clearly suggest that early
conduct problems are linked to later teenage
pregnancy by a causal chain process in which
early conduct problems are associated with an
increased risk of a range of adolescent risk
taking behaviors, including sexual activity,
substance use, peer relations, and school diffi-
culties. In turn, these risk taking behaviors,
and particularly early sexual risk taking, suc-
cessfully account for the higher rates of teen-
age pregnancy found among girls with early
conduct problems.
Collectively, these results suggest that the
statistical linkages between early conduct
problems and teenage pregnancy shown in
Table 1 were explained by two processes:
1. A substantial component of the relationship
was explained by preexisting family factors

https://doi.org/10.1017/S0954579499001984 Published online by Cambridge University Press

 Conduct problems and pregnancy in girls
associated with both increased risks of
childhood conduct problems and teenage
pregnancy. These factors included maternal
educational qualifications, number of pa-
rental changes, and early punitive mother–
child interaction.
2. The remaining association was explained
by a causal chain process in which early
conduct problems were associated with in-
creased risk taking and particularly sexual
risk taking during adolescence, which in
turn accounted for the elevated risk of teen-
age pregnancy among girls with high rates
of early conduct problems compared to girls
with low rates of early conduct problems.
Discussion
In this study we have examined the relation-
ship between early conduct problems at 8
years of age and the risk of experiencing a
teenage pregnancy in a birth cohort of New
Zealand girls studied to the age of 18 years.
The major findings of this study and their im-
plications are reviewed below.
Relationship between early conduct problems
and teenage pregnancy
In agreement with previous research (Bardone
et al., 1996; Kessler et al., 1997; Kovacs et
al., 1994; Quinton et al., 1993), findings sug-
gest that girls with early conduct problems are
an at-risk group for later teenage pregnancy.
Girls in the most disturbed 10% of the cohort
had rates of teenage pregnancy that were over
5 times higher than the rate of teenage preg-
nancy for girls in the least disturbed 50% of
the cohort. This estimate is similar to that re-
ported by Bardone et al. (1996) in a study of
another New Zealand birth cohort. They
found that girls meeting criteria for conduct
disorder at age 15 years had rates of teenage
pregnancy that were 4 times higher than girls
who did not meet criteria for conduct disor-
der. The weight of the evidence clearly favors
the view that teenage pregnancy represents a
significant life course outcome for girls with
early onset conduct problems. This conclu-
sion is of considerable concern given the
long-term effects that teenage pregnancy may
https://doi.org/10.1017/S0954579499001984 Published online by Cambridge University Press
137
have on the future life opportunities and
choices available to these young women
(Brooks–Gunn & Chase–Lansdale, 1995;
Furstenberg et al., 1987, 1989; Horwitz, Kler-
man, Kuo, & Jekel, 1991). Finally, while it is
clear from these findings that girls with early
conduct problems are at increased risk of fall-
ing pregnant during their teenage years, it is
important to acknowledge that a substantial
proportion of girls with early conduct prob-
lems avoid this outcome.
The role of confounding psychosocial factors
While early conduct problems were related to
increased risks of teenage pregnancy, subse-
quent analyses also showed that these prob-
lems were related to a broad range of adverse
individual, family, and social factors. Girls
with early onset conduct problems more often
came from socially disadvantaged family
backgrounds characterized by low socioeco-
nomic status, lower levels of maternal educa-
tion, young and single parenthood, and below-
average family living standards. As children,
they were themselves more susceptible to co-
morbid attentional difficulties and lower intel-
ligence. Finally, their early parenting and
family experiences were characterized by
early punitive parenting, parental conflict, and
family instability. Given this exposure to a
wide range of psychosocial adversities, it
could therefore be plausibly argued that the
higher rate of teenage pregnancy found
among girls with early conduct problems may
not reflect the direct effect of early conduct
problems. Rather, it may be that the individ-
ual and family characteristics associated with
early conduct problems also place these girls
at increased risk of teenage pregnancy. This
hypothesis was partially supported in the pres-
ent analysis, because it was found that after
controlling for the effects of pre-existing con-
textual factors (maternal education, family
change, and early exposure to punitive child
rearing practices), the association between
early conduct problems and teenage preg-
nancy was reduced substantially. After adjust-
ment for the confounding effects of family
factors, girls in the most disturbed 10% of the
cohort were 2.6 times more likely to become
pregnant by the age of 18 years, compared to
 138
girls in the least disturbed 50% of the cohort.
However, even after extensive efforts to con-
trol for the effects of confounding factors,
childhood conduct problems remained a sig-
nificant predictor of subsequent teenage preg-
nancy. This result suggests the presence of a
possible cause and effect relationship between
the extent of early conduct problems and later
risk of teenage pregnancy.
Adolescent adjustment as a
mediating process
Given the suggestion of a cause and effect
relationship between early adjustment and
teenage pregnancy, we explored possible
mechanisms that might mediate between early
adjustment and later risk. This analysis sug-
gested that the observed association between
early conduct problems and later pregnancy
was mediated by a generalized pattern of risk
taking and norm violating behavior in adoles-
cence. Specifically, girls with higher rates of
early conduct problems reported initiating
sexual intercourse at an earlier age and were
more likely to have had multiple sexual part-
ners by the age of 16 years, compared to girls
with lower rates of conduct problems. They
also reported lower peer attachments and
higher rates of early cigarette smoking and
cannabis use. Finally, girls with early conduct
problems were more prone to problems with
school authorities such as school truancy,
compared to girls with low rates of early con-
duct problems. In turn, these risk taking be-
haviors, and particularly sexual risk taking,
appeared to explain the higher rates of teen-
age pregnancy found among girls with early
conduct problems.
These findings are generally consistent
with previous research and theory in the area
of teenage pregnancy and parenthood which
suggest that risks of teenage pregnancy are el-
evated among adolescents who engage in a
series of risk taking behavior including the
early onset of sexual intercourse, multiple
sexual partners, adolescent substance use, and
affiliation with deviant peer groups or part-
ners (Harvey & Spigner, 1995; Holden, Nel-
son, Velasquez, & Ritchie, 1993; Morgan,
Chapar, & Fisher, 1995; Quinton et al., 1993;
https://doi.org/10.1017/S0954579499001984 Published online by Cambridge University Press
L. J. Woodward and D. M. Fergusson
Yamaguchi & Kandel, 1987; Zabin, 1984,
1990). Given this convergence of findings, it
appears that the relationship between early
conduct problems and subsequent teenage
pregnancy may be mediated by a pattern of
risk taking behavior in adolescence.
These findings can also be interpreted
within the context of problem behavior theory
(Donovan & Jessor, 1985) which maintains
that associations between adolescent external-
izing behavior problems reflect a more gen-
eral predisposition to problem behavior, and
that deviant activities such as cigarette smok-
ing, illicit drug use, drinking, precocious sex-
ual activity, and delinquent behavior are func-
tionally equivalent for the adolescent. The
present results suggest that for girls, early
pregnancy may be one manifestation of this
tendency to problem behavior, and that early
conduct difficulties predispose children to
problem behavior in adolescence.
More generally, the results of this study
suggest that the association between early
conduct problems and later teenage pregnan-
cy may arise by two general pathways. First,
girls with early conduct problems tended to
come from family backgrounds characterized
by higher rates of social disadvantage, family
change, and punitive childrearing practices. In
part their elevated risk of teenage pregnancy
reflects these background factors. However,
independently of these social and contextual
factors, girls with early onset conduct prob-
lems also reported higher rates of adolescent
risk taking behavior, including sexual risk
taking, substance use, and problems with
school authorities. Together these two pro-
cesses accounted for the observed association
between early conduct problems and later
teenage pregnancy in this cohort.
Some striking similarities exist between
the present findings and those obtained from a
previous study, in which the linkages between
early onset conduct problems and later life
opportunities, including school dropout and
unemployment, were examined (Fergusson &
Horwood, 1998). Both analyses led to very
similar conclusions. First, to a considerable
extent the elevated rates of school dropout,
unemployment, and teenage pregnancy found
among children with early conduct problems
 Conduct problems and pregnancy in girls
appear to reflect the effects of psychosocial
disadvantage associated with early conduct
problems. However, even after controlling for
the confounding effects of these factors it was
evident that early conduct problems continued
to have a significant association with all three
social outcomes. In all cases, the subsequent
social adjustment of these children during ad-
olescence was also found to significantly con-
tribute to their increased social risk in later
life. As noted above, children with early con-
duct problems showed clearly elevated rates
of risk-taking and norm-violating behaviors in
adolescence. In turn, these behavior problems
were found to be associated with increased
rates of teenage pregnancy, school dropout,
and unemployment.
The convergence of these findings sug-
gests that the elevated social risks of children
with early conduct problems may reflect the
cumulative effects of two factors that conspire
to place these children at greater future risk.
First, the general linkages between conduct
problems and psychosocial disadvantage mean
that children with early conduct problems are
an at-risk population for later teenage preg-
nancy and other adverse social outcomes,
such as school dropout and unemployment,
independent of their tendencies to conduct
disorder. Secondly, these pre-existing risks
appear to be further increased by the develop-
ment of patterns of risk taking and norm vio-
lating behaviors in adolescence. Together
these two processes of early psychosocial dis-
advantage and predisposition to risk taking
during adolescence appear to account for the
greater vulnerability of children with early
conduct problems to later adverse social out-
comes such as teenage pregnancy.
It should be borne in mind that the data
analyzed in this study were collected in the
context of a survey based investigation in
References
Armsden, G. C., & Greenberg, M. T. (1987). The inven-
tory of parent and peer attachment: Individual differ-
ences and their relationship to psychological well-
being in adolescence. Journal of Youth and
Adolescence, 16, 427–454.
Baron, R. M., & Kenny, D. A. (1986). The moderator–
mediator variable distinction in social psychological
research: Conceptual, strategic, and statistical consid-
https://doi.org/10.1017/S0954579499001984 Published online by Cambridge University Press
139
which measures of all outcomes were assessed
from questionnaire responses. It is likely that
such data will contain measurement errors and
imperfections that may threaten the validity of
the conclusions drawn. Given the nature of
the analyses reported, statistical adjustment
for possible measurement error was not possi-
ble and the extent to which the results are ad-
versely affected by measurement error cannot
be assessed. Nonetheless, to the extent that
the analysis appears to provide a coherent and
theoretically plausible account of the risk fac-
tors and life processes linking early conduct
problems to later teenage pregnancy, there is
good reason to believe that this analysis has
captured the essential features of the pro-
cesses that link these variables.
Finally, because many of these pregnant
teenagers are likely to become young moth-
ers, these findings clearly have important im-
plications not just for the women themselves,
but also for their offspring. Substantial evi-
dence now exists to show that while individ-
ual variability exists, in general, teenage par-
enthood has adverse effects not only on the
life chances of young parents but also on the
future health and development of their off-
spring (Brooks–Gunn & Chase–Lansdale,
1995; Coley & Chase–Lansdale, 1998; Furs-
tenberg et al., 1987). In light of the present
finding that girls with early conduct problems
are at increased risk of teenage pregnancy, it
is likely that the mental health and social
functioning of these women during childhood
and adolescence may well account for some
of the parenting and child developmental dif-
ficulties encountered in their own families of
procreation. Future studies of this cohort may
provide opportunities to examine the linkages
between the prospectively assessed early ex-
periences and life histories of teenage mothers
and their later behavior as parents.
erations. Journal of Personality and Social Psychol-
ogy, 51, 1173–1182.
Bardone, A. M., Moffitt, T. E., Caspi, A., Dickson, N., &
Silva, P. A. (1996). Adult mental health and social
outcomes of adolescent girls with depression and con-
duct disorder. Development and Psychopathology, 8,
811–829.
Black, C., & DeBlassie, E. R. (1985). Adolescent preg-
 140
nancy: Contributing factors: consequences, treatment
and plausible solutions. Adolescence, 20, 281–290.
Bradley, R. H., & Caldwell, B. M. (1977). Home obser-
vation for measurement of the environment: A valida-
tion study of screen efficiency. American Journal of
Mental Deficiency, 81, 417–424.
Brooks–Gunn, J., & Chase–Lansdale, P. L. (1995). Ado-
lescent parenthood. In M. Bornstein (Ed.), Handbook
on parenting: Vol. 3. Who is the parent? (pp 113–
149). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.
Brooks–Gunn, J., & Furstenberg, F. F., Jr. (1986). The
children of adolescent mothers: Physical, academic
and psychological outcomes. Developmental Review,
6, 224–251.
Brooks–Gunn, J., Guo, G., & Furstenberg, F. F., Jr.
(1993). Who drops out and who continues beyond
high school? A 20-year follow-up Black urban youth.
Journal of Research on Adolescence, 3, 271–294.
Card, J. J., & Wise, L. L. (1981). Teenage mothers and
teenage fathers: The impact of early childbearing
on the parents’ personal and professional lives. In
F. F. Furstenberg, Jr., R. Lincoln, & J. Menken (Eds.),
Teenage sexuality, pregnancy and childbearing
(pp. 211–222). Philadelphia: University of Pennsyl-
vania.
Coley, R. L., & Chase–Lansdale, P. L. (1998). Adoles-
cent pregnancy and parenthood. American Psycholo-
gist, 53, 152–166.
Colletta, N. D. (1983). At risk for depression: A study of
young mothers. Journal of Genetic Psychology, 142,
301–310.
Conners, C. K. (1969). A teacher rating scale for use in
drug studies with children. American Journal of Psy-
chiatry, 126, 884–888.
Conners, C. K. (1970). Symptom patterns in hyperkinetic,
neurotic and normal children. Child Development, 41,
667–682.
Donovan, J. E., & Jessor, R. (1985). Structure of problem
behavior in adolescence and young adulthood. Jour-
nal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 53, 890–
904.
Elardo, R., Bradley, R. M., & Caldwell, B. M. (1977).
A longitudinal study of the relation of infant home
environments to language development at age three.
Child Development, 48, 595–603.
Elley, W. B., & Irving, J. C. (1976). Revised socio-eco-
nomic index for New Zealand. New Zealand Journal
of Educational Studies, 11, 25–36.
Farrington, D. P., Loeber, R., Elliott, D. S., Hawkins,
J. D., Kandel, D. B., Klein, M. W., McCord, J., Rowe,
D. C., & Tremblay, R. E. (1990). Advancing knowl-
edge about the onset of delinquency and crime. In B.
B. Lahey & A. E. Kazdin (Eds.), Advances in clinical
child psychology (Vol. 13, pp. 383–442). New York:
Plenum.
Fergusson, D. M., & Horwood, L. J. (1996). The role of
adolescent peer affiliations in the continuity between
childhood behavioral adjustment and juvenile offend-
ing. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 24, 205–
221.
Fergusson, D. M., & Horwood, L. J. (1997). Early onset
cannabis use and psychosocial adjustment in young
adults. Addiction, 92, 279–296.
Ferguson, D. M., & Horwood, L. J. (1998). Early conduct
problems and later life opportunities. Journal of Child
Psychology and Psychiatry, 39, 1097–1108.
Fergusson, D. M., Horwood, L. J., & Lloyd, M. (1991).
Confirmatory factor models of attention deficit and
https://doi.org/10.1017/S0954579499001984 Published online by Cambridge University Press
L. J. Woodward and D. M. Fergusson
conduct disorder. Journal of Child Psychology and
Psychiatry, 32, 257–274.
Fergusson, D. M., Horwood, L. J., & Lynskey, M. T.
(1992). Family change, parental discord and early of-
fending. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry,
33, 1059–1075.
Fergusson, D. M., Horwood, L. J., & Lynskey, M. T.
(1995). The prevalence and risk factors associated
with abusive or hazardous alcohol consumption in 16
year olds. Addiction, 90, 935–946.
Fergusson, D. M., Horwood, L. J., & Lynskey, M. T.
(1997a). The effects of unemployment on psychiatric
illness during young adulthood. Psychological Medi-
cine, 27, 371–381.
Fergusson, D. M., Horwood, L. J., & Lynskey, M. T.
(1997b). Childhood sexual abuse, adolescent sexual
behaviors and sexual revictimization. Child Abuse &
Neglect, 21, 789–803.
Fergusson, D. M., Horwood, L. J., Shannon, F. T.,
& Lawton J. M. (1989). The Christchurch Child De-
velopment Study: A review of epidemiological
findings. Paediatric and Perinatal Epidemiology, 3,
278–301.
Fergusson, D. M., & Lynskey, M. T. (1997). Physical
punishment/maltreatment during childhood and ad-
justment in young adulthood. Child Abuse & Neglect,
21, 617–630.
Fergusson, D. M., & Lynskey, M. T. (1998). Conduct
problems in childhood and psychosocial outcomes in
young adulthood: A prospective study. Journal of
Emotional and Behavioral Disorders, 6, 2–18.
Fergusson, D. M., Lynskey, M. T., & Horwood, L. J.
(1995). Truancy in adolescence. New Zealand Jour-
nal of Educational Studies, 30, 25–38.
Furstenberg, F. F., Jr., Brooks–Gunn, J., & Chase–Lans-
dale, L. (1989). Teenaged pregnancy and childbear-
ing. American Psychologist, 44, 313–320.
Furstenberg, F. F., Jr., Brooks–Gunn, J., & Morgan, S. P.
(1987). Adolescent mothers in later life. New York:
Cambridge University Press.
Furstenberg, F. F., Jr., Levine, J. A., & Brooks–Gunn, J.
(1990). The daughters of teenage mothers: Patterns of
early childbearing in two generations. Family Plan-
ning Perspectives, 22, 54–61.
Hardy, J. B., Welcher, D. W., Standley, J., & Dallasm,
T. R. (1978). Long range outcome of adolescent preg-
nancy. Clinical Obstetrics and Gynaecology, 21,
1215–1232.
Harris, T., Brown, G., & Bifulco, A. (1987). Loss of par-
ent in childhood and adult psychiatric disorder: The
role of social class position and premarital pregnancy.
Psychological Medicine, 17, 163–183.
Harvey, S. M., & Spigner, C. (1995). Factors associated
with sexual behavior among adolescents: A multivari-
ate analysis. Adolescence, 30, 253–262.
Haskett, M., Johnson, C., & Miller, J. (1994). Individual
differences in risk of child abuse by adolescent moth-
ers: Assessment in the perinatal period. Journal of
Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 35, 461–476.
Hechtman, L. (1989). Teenage mothers and their chil-
dren: Risks and problems: A review. Canadian Jour-
nal of Psychiatry, 34, 569–575.
Holden, G. W., Nelson, P. B., Velasquez, J., & Ritchie,
K. L. (1993). Cognitive, psychosocial, and reported
sexual behavior differences between pregnant and
nonpregnant adolescents. Adolescence, 28, 557–572.
Horwitz, S. M., Klerman, L. V., Kuo, H. S., & Jekel, J. F.
(1991). School-age mothers: Predictors of long-term
 Conduct problems and pregnancy in girls
educational and economic outcomes. Pediatrics, 87,
862–867.
Kessler, R. C., Berglund, P. A., Foster, C. L., Saunders,
W. B., Stang, P. E., & Walters, E. (1997). Social con-
sequences of Psychiatric Disorders, II: Teenage par-
enthood. American Journal of Psychiatry, 154, 1405–
1411.
Kovacs, M., Krol, R., & Voti, L. (1994). Early onset psy-
chopathology and the risk for teenage pregnancy
among clinically referred girls. Journal of the Ameri-
can Academy of Child Adolescent Psychiatry, 33,
106–113.
Luster, T., & Mittelstaedt, M. (1993). Adolescent moth-
ers. In T. Luster & L. Okagaki (Eds.), Parenting: An
ecological perspective. Hillsdale, NJ: Elbaum.
McLanahan, S., & Bumpass, L. (1988). Intergenerational
consequences of family disruption. American Journal
of Sociology, 94, 130–152.
Morgan, C., Chapar, G. N., & Fisher, M. (1995). Psycho-
social variables associated with teenage pregnancy.
Adolescence, 30, 277–287.
Nagin, D. S., Pogarsky, G., & Farrington, D. P. (1997).
Adolescent mothers and the criminal behavior of their
children. Law & Society Review, 31, 137–162.
Quinton, D., Pickles, A., Maughan, B., & Rutter, M.
(1993). Partners, peers and pathways: Assortative
pairing and continuities in conduct disorder. Develop-
ment and Psychopathology, 5, 763–783.
Robins, L. N., & Price, R. K. (1991). Adult disorders
predicted by childhood conduct problems: Results
https://doi.org/10.1017/S0954579499001984 Published online by Cambridge University Press
141
from the NIMH epidemiological catchment area proj-
ect. Psychiatry, 54, 116–132.
Rutter, M., Tizard, J., & Whitmore, K. (1970). Education,
health and behavior. London: Longmans.
Storm–Mathisen, A., & Vaglum, P. (1994). Conduct dis-
order patients 20 years later: A personal follow-up
study. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica, 89, 416–420.
Upchurch, D. M., & McCarthy, J. (1990). The timing of
first birth and high school completion. American So-
ciological Review, 55, 224–234.
Wechsler, D. (1974). WISC-R Wechsler Intelligence Scale
for Children-Revised. New York: The Psychological
Corporation.
Yamaguchi, K., & Kandel, D. (1987). Drug use and other
determinants of premarital pregnancy and its out-
come: A dynamic analysis of competing life events.
Journal of Marriage and the Family, 49, 257–270.
Zabin, L. S. (1984). The association between smoking
and sexual behavior among teens in U.S. contracep-
tive clinics. American Journal of Public Health, 74,
261–263.
Zabin, L. S. (1990). Adolescent pregnancy and early sex-
ual onset. In B. B. Lahey & A. E. Kazdin (Eds.), Ad-
vances in Clinical Child Psychology (Vol. 13, pp.
247–278). New York: Plenum.
Zuckerman, B. S., Walker, D. K., Frank, D. A., Chase,
C., & Hamburg, B. (1984). Adolescent pregnancy
biobehavioral determinants of outcome. Journal of
Pediatrics, 105, 857–863.