Teenage Fatherhood and Involvement in Delinquent Behavior

Becoming a teen father can lead to negative consequences for both the young father and his offspring. It is important to understand the process that leads some young men into fatherhood while others delay it until they are more developmentally ready. One possibility is that becoming a teen father is part of a more general deviant lifestyle. This paper explores the link between teen fatherhood and other problem behaviors -- delinquency and drug use.

Data from this longitudinal study comes from the Rochester Youth Development Study, which interviewed adolescents and their primary caretaker from seventh or eight grade until their early 20's. Over a quarter (28%) of the young males in this study reported fathering a child before the age of 20. Risk factors for becoming a teen father included high levels of violent delinquency and high levels of drug use. However, once they reached adulthood, the teen fathers were no more likely than the young men who delayed fatherhood to be involved in general delinquency or violent delinquency. A number of implications for this research are explored.