The relation between adolescent pregnancy and neonatal behavioral state

Abstract

Disproportionately large numbers of infants showing atypical growth patterns are reportedly born to young mothers. Infants with these atypical growth patterns consistently show differences in measures of infant state. The purpose of this study was to examine the relation between maternal age and infant state. The behavioral state of 61 newborn infants was rated at 30-sec. intervals using Thoman's (1975) state scale during a one-hour observational session. The total number of epochs in quiet sleep, active sleep, alert, transitions from quiet sleep to active sleep, transitions from active sleep to quiet sleep, and the range of states for each infant were regressed on maternal age in an attempt to demonstrate a quadratic relation between infant state and maternal age. The regression analysis showed that maternal age could not predict any of the state measures. However, in this study, maternal age and poverty were confounded. An overrepresentation of biomedical risk factors may have concealed differences in infant behavioral state. Exploratory regression analysis did not provide a meaningful interpretation of the relation between the biomedical risk factors and infant state measures. However, this study provides indirect support for the hypothesis that atypical patterns of fetal growth in infants born to adolescent mothers may be explained, in part, by a decreased net availability of nutrients resulting from the mothers growth needs and the growth needs of her fetus.