Social Factors Lead to Underdevelopment in Children of Teen Mothers: Study

Children of teenage mothers exhibit underdeveloped speaking skills by age five when compared to those born to older mothers due to various social factors, states a latest study.

According to researchers various social factors are to blame for limited development of children born to most teen mothers, including restricted opportunities for moms such as limited education, jobs with less pay and single parenting.

For the study, researchers analysed data from the Millennium Cohort Study, a long-term nationally representative study of almost 19,000 children born between 2000 and 2001 across Britain. These participants were tested for reasoning abilities and intelligence when they were five years old.

"We don't believe that having a baby in your teens is the cause of underdeveloped speaking skills," said Dr Julia Morinis, the lead author and researcher in the Centre for Research on Inner City Health of St. Michael's Hospital. "It's likely that being a teen mother is a risk factor that indicates poorer circumstance for development opportunities in some cases."

"Most differences in non-verbal and spatial abilities between these two groups of children can be attributed to significant sociodemographic inequalities in circumstance," Dr Morinis explained adding, "But for verbal ability, there seems to be more going on."

The study examined different points that were associated with overall development. They focused on involvement of parents in playing, reading, and singing with their children. The more they spent time with children, the higher was the level of development in children.

They concluded saying that more research was required to understand the differences in children with young parents.