For a summary of the risk of teenage pregnancy for the siblings of parenting teens, see report from the National Campaign To Prevent Teen Pregnancy Science Says, "Younger Siblings of Teen Parents: At Increased Risk of Teen Pregnancy?" (December, 2004).
    http://www.teenpregnancy.org/works/pdf/ScienceSaysSiblings.pdf


The following links are to recent research articles by Dr. Patricia East and her colleagues.

  • "Association between adolescent pregnancy and a family history of teenage births" by East, P.L., Reyes, B.T., & Horn, E.J. in Perspectives on Sexual and Reproductive Health, 2007, vol. 39, pages 108-115.
    Click here to view article


    • Highlights of Recent Article


    The above article reports on a girl’s likelihood of becoming pregnant as a teenager according to whether her mother, sister, or both were teenage parents. The study used a sample of 127 Latina and African American girls who were an average age of 18 to 20 years old at the time of the study and many of whom had a family history of teenage births. Results showed that girls who had only a sister who was a teenage parent were over four times more likely to become pregnant as a teenager than girls who had only a mother who was a teenage parent. Girls who had both a mother and a sister who were teenage parents were over five times more likely to become pregnant by age 18 or 19 than girls who had no family history of teenage births. Results also indicated that mothers’ strict and diligent parenting while girls were 12 and 13 years old decreased girls’ odds of early pregnancy, even when they had a family history of teenage births. Thus, setting appropriate limits on children’s behavior and closely monitoring adolescent children’s whereabouts are very important in preventing teenage pregnancy.

 

  • "Risk and protective factors predictive of adolescent pregnancy: A longitudinal, prospective study" by East, P.L., Khoo, S.T., & Reyes, B.T. in Applied Developmental Science, 2006, vol. 10, pages 188-199.
    Click here to view article

 

  • "Longitudinal pathways linking family factors and sibling relationship qualities to adolescent substance use and sexual risk behaviors" by P. L. East and S. T. Khoo in Journal of Family Psychology, 2005, vol. 19, pages 571-580.
    Click here to view article

 

  • "Youths' caretaking of their adolescent sisters' children: Its costs and benefits for youths' development" by East, P. L., Weisner, T., & Reyes, B. T. in Applied Developmental Science , 2005, vol. 10, pages 86-95.
    Click here to view article

 

  • "Positive adolescent sexuality as evident in consistent and reliable contraceptive use: A study of sexually active Latino and Non-Latino youths' contraceptive behavior" by P. East, B. Reyes, B. Contreras, R. Wu, & R. Contreras in Sexuality Research & Social Policy, 2005, vol. 2, no. 4, pages 42-53.
    Click here to view article

 

  • "An evaluation of California's Adolescent Sibling Pregnancy Prevention Program" by East, P.L., Kiernan, E.A., & Chavez, G.F. in Perspectives on Sexual and Reproductive Health, 2003, vol. 35, no. 2, pages 62-70.
    Click here to view article

 

  • "Mothers' differential treatment of their adolescent childbearing and nonchildbearing children: Contrasts between and within families" by East, P.L., & Jacobson, L.J. in Journal of Family Psychology, 2003, vol. 17, pages 384-396.
    Click here to view article

 

  • "The younger siblings of teenager mothers: A follow-up of their pregnancy risk" by Patricia East and Leanne Jacobson in Developmental Psychology, 2001, vol. 37, no. 2, pages 254-264.
    Click here to view article

 

  • "Risks among youths who have multiple sisters who were adolescent parents" by Patricia East and Elizabeth Kiernan in Family Planning Perspectives, 2001, vol. 33, no. 2, pages 75-80.
    Click here to view article

 

  • "Adolescent childbearing, poverty and siblings: Taking new direction from the new literature" by East, P.L., & Jacobson, L.J. in Family Relations, 2000, vol. 49, pages 248-255.
    Click here to view article.