Teenage childbearing, family size and birthinterval: A study in Singapore

Many studies have shown that women who begin childbearing as teenagers tend to have a larger number of children, and have them at shorter intervals than women who postpone childbearing. However, most of the reported studies were done in developed countries, while similar data from the less developed and Asian countries are limited. This paper presents data on the relationship of the age at mother's 1st birth and subsequent family size and birth interval in Singapore. The study group, comprising women who had their 1st birth below the age of 20 years, was compared with a control group, whose age at 1st birth was between 20 and 29 years. The socioeconomic status of the 2 groups were controlled and found similar. Findings reveal that the group of teenage mothers had an average of 3.18 pregnancies, while that of the control group was 2.54 pregnancies. The mean number of living children was 2.94 among the former and 2.44 in the latter group. Of the teenage mothers, 37.5% (compared with 14.6% of the older mothers) had children with average birth interval less than 24 months. The differences in the results between the 2 groups are statistically significant at the P=0.01 level. Socioeconomic characteristics of the study subjects were measured by the husband's occupation, combined income of husband and wife, and the average number of occupied rooms. Overcrowding can also be used as an indicator of socioeconomic status. People belonging to the higher socioeconomic status tend to occupy more living space per person. The ages of teenage mothers are on average 5.3 years younger than the controls. The only significant difference between the 2 groups was found in their education. The teenage mothers had better educational attainment than the older mothers.