Sex-specific associations of adolescent motherhood with cognitive function, behavioral problems, and autistic-like traits in offspring and the mediating roles of family conflict and altered brain structure

TL;DR

Children born to adolescent mothers show sex-specific cognitive and behavioral issues, largely influenced by family conflict rather than brain structure changes.

Contribution

This study identifies sex-specific neurodevelopmental impacts of adolescent motherhood and highlights the mediating role of family environment.

Findings

Children of adolescent mothers had lower cognitive scores and sex-specific behavioral problems.

Family conflict mediated up to 70% of internalizing problems in female offspring.

Brain structure changes did not mediate outcomes after adjusting for family environment.

Abstract

Previous studies have linked adolescent motherhood to adverse neurodevelopmental outcomes in offspring, yet the sex-specific effect and underlying mechanisms remain unclear.

This study included 6952 children aged 9–11 from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development study. The exposed group consisted of children of mothers < 20 years at the time of birth, while the unexposed group was composed of children of mothers aged 20–35 at birth. We employed a generalized linear mixed model to investigate the associations of adolescent motherhood with cognitive, behavioral, and autistic-like traits in offspring. We applied an inverse-probability-weighted marginal structural model to examine the potential mediating factors including adverse perinatal outcomes, family conflict, and brain structure alterations.

Our results revealed that children of adolescent mothers had significantly lower cognitive scores (β, − 2.11, 95% CI, − 2.90 to − 1.31), increased externalizing problems in male offspring (mean ratio, 1.28, 95% CI, 1.08 to 1.52), and elevated internalizing problems (mean ratio, 1.14, 95% CI, 0.99 to 1.33) and autistic-like traits (mean ratio, 1.22, 95% CI, 1.01 to 1.47) in female. A stressful family environment mediated ~ 70% of the association with internalizing problems in females, ~ 30% with autistic-like traits in females, and ~ 20% with externalizing problems in males. Despite observable brain morphometric changes related to adolescent motherhood, these did not act as mediating factors in our analysis, after adjusting for family environment. No elevated rate of adverse perinatal outcomes was observed in the offspring of adolescent mothers in this study.

Our results reveal distinct sex-specific neurodevelopmental outcomes impacts of being born to adolescent mothers, with a substantial mediating effect of family environment on behavioral outcomes. These findings highlight the importance of developing sex-tailored interventions and support the hypothesis that family environment significantly impacts the neurodevelopmental consequences of adolescent motherhood.

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12916-024-03442-8.

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