This review of research synthesized findings from more than 100 studies published in the 1980s and 1990s about family influences on adolescent pregnancy. The research is most consistent in showing that parent/child connectedness or closeness is related to reduced risk of teen pregnancy (teens remaining sexually abstinent, postponing intercourse, having fewer sexual partners, or using contraception more consistently). Many studies also show that parental values favoring sexual abstinence, as well as parental supervision or monitoring, are related to reduced teen pregnancy risk. Research findings are mixed about the association between parent/child communication and adolescents' pregnancy-related behaviors. On the other hand, research consistently shows that teens are more likely to start having sex early, not use contraception, and to become pregnant (or cause a pregnancy) if they live in disadvantaged neighborhoods or with single parents, have older sexually active or pregnant siblings, or were sexually abused. This summary of research confirms that parents and families have multiple influences on whether teenagers are at risk of adolescent pregnancy.

This study compared the attitudes, expectations, and behaviors of early adolescent girls who had a childbearing adolescent sister to those of early adolescent girls who had only non-childbearing adolescent sisters. Results indicated that the younger sisters of childbearing adolescents were consistently different from the younger sisters of nonchildbearing adolescents on key characteristics known to be correlated with early sexual activity and adolescent childbearing -- that is, they were more accepting of nonmarital adolescent childbearing, perceived younger ages for typical life-course transitions (e.g., best age to get married, have first child), had more pessimistic school and career expectations, and were more likely to have engaged in problem behaviors (e.g., smoke cigarettes, skip school). Findings suggest the mechanisms by which the younger sisters of childbearing teens themselves become vulnerable to early parenthood.

To assess childhood family influences on adolescent sexual activity, 69 boys were studied in sixth grade and again in tenth grade. Boys' self-restraint in sixth grade was hypothesized to mediate the effects of family influences on number of sexual partners four years later. Family scores included observed family interaction patterns, sons' reports of parents' child-rearing practices (rejection, support, child-centered/indulgence), and household composition. In discriminant analyses, family scores predicted boys' status as virgins/nonvirgins four years later with greater than 70% success. Discussion focuses on the nature of the family influences and the mechanisms by which they relate to adolescent male sexuality.

Maternal disapproval of premarital sex, maternal discussions about birth control, and the quality of the parent-child relationship may have an important influence on adolescents' sexual activity and the consistency of their contraceptive use. Findings from a survey of 751 black youths showed that adolescent perceptions of maternal disapproval of premarital sex and adolescent satisfaction with the mother-child relationship were significantly related to abstinence, less-frequent sexual intercourse, and more consistent use of contraceptives among sexually active youths. Teenagers who reported a low level of satisfaction with their mother were more than twice as likely as those highly satisfied with their relationship to be having sexual intercourse. Discussions about birth control were associated with an increased likelihood that adolescents were sexually active. Such discussions were not significantly related to consistent contraceptive use for female adolescents, but were associated with increased contraceptive use for male teenagers.

The researchers hypothesized that children who were close to their parents were more likely to have attitudes and behavior consistent with their parents' values than children who were not close to their parents. Using data from a probability sample of 888 mother-child pairs of white women in the Detroit metropolitan area, they tested this hypothesis, using both mother's and child's attitudes toward premarital sexual intercourse and the child's report of whether he or she had engaged in premarital sexual intercourse. They found that the quality of the relation interacted with the mother's attitudes in its effects on the child's attitudes and behavior. Children with close relations with their mothers were more likely to hold attitudes and behave in a manner consistent with their mothers' own attitudes than children with more distant relations.

Using longitudinal data from self-reports and observer ratings of family interaction regarding 76 adolescent girls and their parents, this research investigated the effects of parental warmth and supportiveness on adolescents' depressed affect, attitudes about sexuality, peer influence, and sexual experience. The results indicated that girls with more emotionally distant parents were more likely to manifest symptoms of depression. Depressed affect, in turn, was associated with sexually permissive attitudes and having sexually active friends.

The positive association between growing up in a non-intact family and the risk of a first premarital birth has been interpreted by researchers as consistent with three hypotheses: (1) a childhood socialization hypothesis -- that women who grow up in a mother-only family during early childhood are socialized in ways that result in a high risk of a pre-marital birth; (2) a social control hypothesis -- that the supervision of adolescents is more difficult in single-parent families than in two-parent families; and (3) an instability and change hypothesis -- that a premarital birth is a response to the stresses accompanying changes in a woman's family situation. Although these hypotheses imply distinct behavioral mechanisms, adjudicating between them has proven difficult, in part because researchers have relied on static measures of family structure. This study used data from the National Survey of Families and Households and continuous-time hazard models to investigate the effects on premarital births of dynamic family measures that reflect a woman's family situation between birth and age 19. The findings were consistent with the instability and change hypothesis, but provided little support for the socialization hypothesis and the social control hypothesis.