"Best Bets" to Prevent Pregnancies and Births:
Reduce "Intergenerational Transmission" of Teen Sexual Behaviors

Having a mother who was a teenager at her first birth was associated with an increased likelihood that females in three cohorts of teenagers from a national survey would have a teenage birth themselves (Manlove et al., 2000). Using a panel study sample of urban males, Thornberry et al. (1997) also found that male teenagers who had parents who were younger at first birth had an increased likelihood of becoming a teenage father themselves.