Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Evolutionary Perspectives on Teen Motherhood: How Young Is Too Young?

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
The Arc of Life

Abstract

Teen motherhood is the prevalent childbearing pattern in most traditional societies, as it likely was the case in the ancestral past. Yet teen pregnancy is associated with negative biological and social outcomes in the developed world. This contrast illustrates a question central to evolutionary medicine. How do adaptations to ancestral environments shape contemporary human health and behavior? Teen motherhood also exemplifies the important life history trade-off of whether to invest in current or future reproduction. Should a young teen continue to grow and mature or put her time and energy into starting a family? The age at which a young woman gives birth for the first time is ecologically sensitive to both her physical and social environment. Following an overview of the medical and social risks associated with teen pregnancy, this chapter presents a case study about the Pumé, a group of South American hunter-gatherers, to evaluate the costs and benefits of teen motherhood in a preindustrial environment. Results of demographic analyses show that the youngest of teen mothers (≤14.3 years) have increased risk of infant mortality and lower lifetime fertility compared to older teens. However, young mothers gain no fitness advantage by delaying reproduction past their mid-teens. Cross-cultural comparisons suggest that childrearing practices rather than biological risks explain much of the discrepancy between traditional and developed societies in both the success of and attitudes toward teen motherhood.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 79.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 99.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 99.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

References

  • Adair L (2001) Size at birth predicts age at menarche. Pediatrics 107:59–65

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Akinbami LJ, Schoendorf KC, Kiely JL (2000) Risk of preterm birth in multiparous teenagers. Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med 154:1101–1107

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Barreto D, Rivas PJ (2007) Los Pumé (Yaruro). In: Freire G, Tillett A (eds) Salud indígena en Venezuela, vol 2. Caracas: gobierno bolivariano de Venezuela, Ministerio de Poder Popular para la Salud, Editorial Arte, p 247

    Google Scholar 

  • Belsky J, Steinbery L, Draper P (1991) Childhood experience, interpersonal development, and reproductive strategy: an evolutionary theory of socialization. Child Dev 62:647–670

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Bogaert AF (2005) Age at puberty and father absence in a national probability sample. J Adolesc 28:541–546

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Boyce WT, Ellis BJ (2005) Biological sensitivity to context: I. An evolutionary-developmental theory of the origins and functions of stress reactivity. Dev Psychopathol 17(2):271–301

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Charnov EL (1992) Life history invariants: some explanations of symmetry in evolutionary ecology. Oxford University Press, Oxford.

    Google Scholar 

  • Chen XK, Wen SW, Fleming N et al (2007a) Teenage pregnancy and congenital anomalies: which system is vulnerable? Hum Reprod 22(6):1730–1735

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Chen X, Wen SW, Fleming N, Demissie K, Rhoads GG, Walker M (2007b) Teenage pregnancy and adverse birth outcomes: a large population based retrospective cohort study. Int J Epidemiol 36:368–373

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Chen XK, Wen SW, Fleming N et al (2008) Increased risks of neonatal and postneonatal mortality associated with teenage pregnancy had different explanations. J Clin Epidemiol 61:688–694

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Chisholm JS (1999) Death, hope and sex: steps to an evolutionary ecology of mind and mortality. Cambridge University Press, New York

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Chisholm JS, Quinlivan JA, Petersen RW, Coall DA (2005) Early stress predicts age at menarche and first birth, adult attachment, and expected lifespan. Hum Nat 16(3):233–265

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Clutton-Brock TH (1988) Reproductive success. University of Chicago Press, Chicago

    Google Scholar 

  • Coall DA, Chisholm JS (2003) Evolutionary perspectives on pregnancy: maternal age at menarche and infant birth weight. Soc Sci Med 57:1771–1781

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Conde-Agudelo A, Belizán JM, Lammers C (2005) Maternal-perinatal morbidity and mortality associated with adolescent pregnancy in Latin America: Cross-sectional study. American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology 192:342–349

    Google Scholar 

  • Cooper C, Kuh D, Egger P, Wadsworth M, Barker D (1996) Childhood growth and age at menarche. Br J Obstet Gynaecol 103:814–817

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Currie C, Ahluwalia N, Godeau E, Gabhainn S, Due P, Currie DB (2012) Is obesity at individual and national level associated with lower age at menarche? Evidence from 34 countries in the health behaviour in school-aged children study. J Adolesc Health 50:621–626

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Debiec KE, Paul KJ, Mitchell CM et al (2010) Inadequate prenatal care and risk of preterm delivery among adolescents: a retrospective study over 10 years. Am J Obstet Gynecol 203:122.e1–122.e6

    Google Scholar 

  • Early J, Headland TN (1998) Population dynamics of a Philippine rain forest people. University of Florida Press, Gainesville

    Google Scholar 

  • Early JD, Peters JF (1990) The population dynamics of the Mucajai Yanomama. Academic Press, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Eder JF (1987) On the road to tribal extinction: depopulation, deculturation and adaptive well being among the Batak of the Philippines. University of California Press, Berkeley

    Google Scholar 

  • Ellis BJ (2004) Timing of pubertal maturation in girls: an integrated life history approach. Psychol Bull 130(6):920–958

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Ellis BJ, Bates JE, Dodge KA, Fergusson DM, Horwood LJ, Pettit GS, Woodward L (2003) Does father absence place daughters at special risk for early sexual activity and teenage pregnancy? Child Dev 74(3):801–821

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Ellis BJ, Figueredo AJ, Brumbach BH, Schlomer GL (2009) Fundamental dimensions of environmental risk: the impact of harsh versus unpredictable environments on the evolution and development of life history strategies. Hum Nat 20:204–268

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Ellison PT (1981) Prediction of age at menarche from annual height increments. Am J Phys Anthropol 56:71–75

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Ellison PT (1990) Human ovarian function and reproductive ecology: new hypotheses. Am Anthropol 92(4):933–952

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ellison PT (2001) On fertile ground: a natural history of human reproduction. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA

    Google Scholar 

  • Ernande B, Dieckmann U, Heino M (2004) Adaptive changes in harvested populations: plasticity and evolution of age and size at maturation. Proc R Soc Lond B 271:415–423

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Eveleth PB, Tanner JM (1990) Worldwide variation in human growth. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge

    Google Scholar 

  • Forrest JD (1993) Timing of reproductive life stages. Obstet Gynecol 82:105–111

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Foster A, Menken J, Chowdhury AI, Trussell J (1986) Female reproductive development: a hazards model analysis. Soc Biol 33:183–198

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Fraser AM, Brockert JE, Ward RH (1995) Association of young maternal age with adverse reproductive outcomes. N Engl J Med 332(17):1113–1117

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Gadgil M, Bossert WH (1970) Life historical consequences of natural selection. Am Nat 104(935):1–24

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Garn SM (1987) The secular trend in size and maturational timing and its implications for nutritional assessments: a critical review. J Nutr 117:817–823

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Geronimus AT (1986) The effects of race, residence, and prenatal care on the relationship of maternal age to neonatal mortality. Am J Public Health 76:1416–1421

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Geronimus AT (1987) On teenage childbearing and neonatal mortality in the United States. Popul Dev Rev 13(2):245–279

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Geronimus AT (1996a) What teen mothers know. Hum Nat 7:323–352

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Geronimus AT (1996b) Black/white differences in the relationship of maternal age to birthweight: a population-based test of the weathering hypothesis. Soc Sci Med 42(4):589–597

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Geronimus AT (2003) Damned if you do: culture, identity, privilege, and teenage childbearing in the United States. Soc Sci Med 57:881–893

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Geronimus AT, Bound J, Waidmann TA (1999) Health inequality and population variation in fertility-timing. Soc Sci Med 49:1623–1636

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Gilbert W, Jandial D, Field N, Bigelow P, Danielsen B (2004) Birth outcomes in teenage pregnancies. J Matern Fetal Neonatal Med 16:265–270

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Gillett Netting R, Meloy M, Campbell BC (2004) Catch-up reproductive maturation in rural Tonga girls, Zambia? Am J Hum Biol 16:658–669

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Gluckman PD, Hanson MA (2006a) Changing times: the evolution of puberty. Mol Cell Endocrinol 254–255:26–31

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Gluckman PD, Hanson MA (2006b) Evolution, development and timing of puberty. Trends Endocrinol Metab 17:7–12

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Greaves RD, Kramer KL (2013) Hunter-gatherer use of wild plants and domesticates: archaeological implications for mixed economies before agricultural intensification. J Archaeol Sci 41:263–271

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Guttmacker Institute (2014) http://www.guttmacher.org/pubs/USTPtrends10.pdf

  • Harrison KA (1985) Child-bearing, health and social priorities: a survey of 22,774 consecutive hospital births in Zaria, northern Nigeria. Br J Obstet Gynaecol 5:1–119

    Google Scholar 

  • Hawkes K, O’Connell J, Blurton Jones N (1997) Hadza women’s time allocation, offspring provisioning and the evolution of long postmenopausal life spans. Curr Anthropol 38(4):551–577

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hewlett B (1991) Demography and childcare in preindustrial societies. J Anthropol Res 47(1):1–37

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Hill K, Hurtado AM (1996) Ache life history. Aldine de Gruyter, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Hill K, Kaplan H (1999) Life history traits in humans: theory and empirical studies. Annu Rev Anthropol 28:397–430

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Holmes R (1995) Small is adaptive: nutritional anthropometry of native Amazonians. In: Sponsel L (ed) Indigenous peoples and the future of Amazonia: an ecological anthropology of an endangered world. University of Arizona Press, Tucson

    Google Scholar 

  • Howell N (2000 [1979]) Demography of the Dobe !Kung. Academic Press, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Hulanicka B, Gronkiewicz L, Koniarek J (2001) Effect of familial distress on growth and maturation in girls: a longitudinal study. Am J Hum Biol 13:771–776

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Hurtado AM, Hawkes K, Hill K, Kaplan H (1992) Trade-offs between female food acquisition and child care among Hiwi and Ache foragers. Hum Nat 3(3):1–28

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ibáñez L, Ferrer A, Marcos MV, Hierro FR, de Zegher F (2000) Early puberty: rapid progression and reduced final height in girls with low birth weight. Pediatrics 106(5):e72–e74

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Jasienska G, Ellison PT (2004) Energetic factors and seasonal changes in ovarian function in women from rural Poland. Am J Hum Biol 16:563–580

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Jolly MC, Sebire N, Harris J, Robinson S, Regan L (2000) Obstetric risks of pregnancy in women less than 18 years old. Obstet Gynecol 96:962–966

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Jones ME, Cockburn A, Hamede R, Hawkins C, Hesterman H, Lachish S, Mann D, McCallum H, Pemberton D (2008) Life-history change in disease-ravaged Tasmanian devil populations. Proc Natl Acad Sci 105(29):10023–10027

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Kassebaum NJ et al (2014) Global, regional and national levels and causes of maternal mortality during 1990-2013: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2013. Lancet 384:980–1004

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Kim K, Smith PK, Palermiti A (1997) Conflict in childhood and reproductive development. Evol Hum Behav 18:109–142

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • King JC (2003) The risk of maternal nutritional depletion and poor outcomes increases in early or closely spaced pregnancies. J Nutr 133(5):1732S–1736S

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Koniak-Griffin D, Turner-Pluta C (2001) Health risks and psychosocial outcomes of early childbearing: a review of the literature. J Perinat Neonatal Nurs 15:1–17

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Koziel S, Jankowska EA (2002) Effect of low versus normal birthweight on menarche in 14-year old Polish girls. J Paediatr Child Health 38(3):268–271

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Kramer KL (2005) Maya children: helpers at the farm. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA

    Google Scholar 

  • Kramer KL (2008) Early sexual maturity among Pumé foragers of Venezuela. Fitness implications of teen motherhood. Am J Phys Anthropol 136(3):338–350

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Kramer KL (2010) Cooperative breeding and its significance to the demographic success of humans. Annu Rev Anthropol 39:414–436

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kramer KL (2011) The spoken and unspoken. In: Canfield MR (ed) Field notes for scientists and naturalists. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA

    Google Scholar 

  • Kramer KL, Ellison PT (2010) Pooled energy budgets: resituating human energy allocation tradeoffs. Evol Anthropol 19:136–147

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kramer KL, Greaves RD (2007) Changing patterns of infant mortality and fertility among Pumé foragers and horticulturalists. Am Anthropol 109(4):713–726

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kramer KL, Greaves RD (2011) Juvenile subsistence effort, activity levels and growth patterns: middle childhood among Pumé foragers. Hum Nat 22:303–326

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Kramer M, Demissie K, Yang H, Platt R, Sauve R, Liston R (2000) The contribution of mild and moderate preterm birth to infant mortality. JAMA 284(7):843–849

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Kramer KL, Greaves RD, Ellison PT (2009) Early reproductive maturity among Pumé foragers. Implications of a pooled energy model to fast life histories. Am J Hum Biol 21(4):430–437

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Kramer KL, Lancaster JB (2010) Teen motherhood in cross-cultural perspective. Annals of Human Biology 37(5):613–628

    Google Scholar 

  • Kuzawa CW (2005) Fetal origins of developmental plasticity: are fetal cues reliable predictors of future nutritional environments? Am J Hum Biol 17:5–21

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Kuzawa CW, Sweet E (2009) Epigenetics and the embodiment of race: developmental origins of US racial disparities in cardiovascular health. Am J Hum Biol 21:2–15

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Lancaster JB, Hamburg BA (eds) (2008 [1986]) School-age pregnancy and parenthood. Aldine de Gruyter and Transaction Publishers, New York and Piscataway, NJ

    Google Scholar 

  • Lancaster JB, Kaplan H, Hill K, Hurtado AM (2000) The evolution of life history, intelligence and diet among chimpanzees and human foragers. In: Tonneau F, Thompson NS (eds) Perspectives in ethology: evolution, culture and behavior. Kluwer, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Lee KS, Ferguson RM, Corpuz M, Gartner LM (1988) Maternal age and incidence of low birth weight at term: a population study. Am J Obstet Gynecol 158(1):84–89

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Mahavarkar SH, Madhu CK, Mule VD (2008) A comparative study of teenage pregnancy. J Obstet Gynaecol 28(6):604–607

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Makinson C (1985) The health consequences of teenage fertility. Fam Plann Perspect 17(3):132–139

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Meade CS, Kershaw TS, Ickovics JR (2008) The intergenerational cycle of teenage motherhood: an ecological approach. Health Psychol 27(4):419–429

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Migliano AB, Vinicius L, Lahr MM (2007) Life history trade-offs explain the evolution of human pygmies. Proc Natl Acad Sci 104(51):20216–20219

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Morris DH, Jones ME, Schoemaker MJ, Ashworth A, Swerdlow AJ (2011) Secular trends in age at menarche in women in the UK born 1908–93: results from the Breakthrough Generations Study. Paediatr Perinat Epidemiol 25:394–400

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Nichols HB, Trentham-Dietz A, Hampton JM, Titus-Ernstoff L, Egan KM, Willett WC et al (2006) From menarche to menopause: trends among US women born from 1912 to 1969. Am J Epidemiol 164:1003–1011

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Olausson PO, Cnattingius S, Haglund B (1999) Teenage pregnancies and risk of late fetal death and infant mortality. Br J Obstet Gynaecol 106(2):116–121

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Olsen EM, Heino M, Lilly GR, Morgan MJ, Brattey J, Ernande B, Dieckmann U (2004) Maturation trends indicative of rapid evolution preceded the collapse of northern cod. Nature 428(29):932–935

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Parent AS, Teilmann G, Juul A, Skakkebaek NE, Toppari J, Bourguignon JP (2003) The timing of normal puberty and the age limits of sexual precocity: variations around the world, secular trends, and changes after migration. Endocr Rev 24:668–693

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Pennington R (2001) Hunter-gatherer demography. In: Panter-Brick C, Layton RH, Rowley-Conwy P (eds) Hunter-gatherers: an interdisciplinary approach. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge

    Google Scholar 

  • Perry JRB, Day F, Elks CE et al (2014) Parent-of-origin-specific allelic associations among 106 genomic loci for age at menarche. Nature 514:92–97

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Phipps MG, Sowers M (2002) Defining early adolescent childbearing. Am J Public Health 92(1):125–128

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Phipps MG, Blume JD, DeMonner SM (2002) Young maternal age associated with increased risk of postneonatal death. Obstet Gynecol 100:481–486

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Population Reference Bureau (2007) http://www.prb.org/datafind/prjprbdata. Accessed 15 July 2007

  • Preston SH, Heuveline P, Guillot M (2001) Demography: measuring and modeling population processes. Blackwell, Oxford

    Google Scholar 

  • Quinlan RJ (2003) Father absence, parental care and female reproductive development. Evol Hum Behav 24:376–390

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Riley AP, Samuelson JL, Huffman SL (1993) The relationship of age at menarche and fertility in undernourished adolescents. In: Gray RH, Leridon H, Spira A (eds) Biomedical and demographic determinants of reproduction. Clarendon, Oxford

    Google Scholar 

  • Salzano FM, Callegari-Jacques SM (1988) South American Indians: a case study in evolution. Clarendon, Oxford

    Google Scholar 

  • Satin AJ, Leveno KJ, Sherman ML, Reedy NJ, Lowe TW, McIntire DD (1994) Maternal young and pregnancy outcomes: middle school versus high school age groups compared to women beyond their teen years. Am J Obstet Gynecol 171:184–187

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Sellen D (2000) Seasonal ecology and nutritional status of women and children in a Tanzania pastoral community. Am J Hum Biol 12:758–781

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Sellen D (2006) Lactation, complementary feeding, and human life history. In: Hawkes K, Paine RR (eds) The evolution of human life history. School of American Research Press, Santa Fe

    Google Scholar 

  • Stearns SC (1989) Trade-offs in life-history evolution. Funct Ecol 3:259–268

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Stevens-Simon C, McAnarney ER (1995) Further evidence of reproductive immaturity among gynecologically young pregnant adolescents. Fertil Steril 64:1109–1112

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Stevens-Simon C, Beach RK, McGregor JA (2002) Does incomplete growth and development predispose teenagers to preterm delivery: a template for research. J Perinatol 22(4):315–323

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Towne B, Czerwinski SA, Demerath EW, Blangero J, Roche AF, Siervogel RM (2005) Heritability of age at menarche in girls from the Fels longitudinal study. Am J Phys Anthropol 128:210–219

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (2015) Office of Adolescent Health. http://www.hhs.gov/ash/oah/adolescent-health-topics/reproductive-health/teen-pregnancy/trends.html. Accessed 23 Jan 2015

  • Ulijaszek S (1995) Human energetics in biological anthropology. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge

    Google Scholar 

  • United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (2007) www.unece.org. Accessed 15 July 2007

  • Valeggia CR, Ellison PT (2004) Lactational amenorrhea in well nourished Toba women of Argentina. J Biosoc Sci 36:573–595

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Walker R, Gurven M, Hill K, Migliano A, Chagnon N, De Souza R, Djurovic G, Hames R, Hurtado AM, Kaplan H et al (2006) Growth rates and life histories in twenty-two small-scale societies. Am J Hum Biol 18:295–311

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Wood JW (1992) Fertility and reproductive biology in Papua New Guinea. In: Attenborough R, Alpers M (eds) Human biology in Papua New Guinea: the small cosmos. Clarendon, Oxford

    Google Scholar 

  • Worthman CM (1993) Biocultural interactions in human development. In: Pereira ME, Fairbanks LA (eds) Juvenile primates. Oxford University Press, Oxford

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Anthropology, University of Utah, 270 S 1400 E, Room 102, Salt Lake City, UT, 84112, USA

    Karen L. Kramer

Authors
  1. Karen L. Kramer
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Karen L. Kramer .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Environmental Health, Jagiellonian University Medical College, Krakow, Poland

    Grazyna Jasienska

  2. School of Communication, Institute of Liberal Arts and Interdisciplinary Studies, Emerson College, Boston, Massachusetts, USA

    Diana S. Sherry

  3. Department of Biological Sciences and WWAMI Medical Education Program, University of Idaho, Moscow, Idaho, USA

    Donna J. Holmes

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2017 Springer Science+Business Media New York

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Kramer, K.L. (2017). Evolutionary Perspectives on Teen Motherhood: How Young Is Too Young?. In: Jasienska, G., Sherry, D., Holmes, D. (eds) The Arc of Life. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-4038-7_5

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation