London, August 9 (ANI): Elder sisters who had children in their teenage years double the probability of their younger siblings to do the same, according to a new research.
The research by British and Norwegian scientists showed that although there is evidence that better education of women leads to lower teenage pregnancy rates, in families with teenage mothers the chances of a younger girl having a child in her teens doubled from one in five to two in five.
"These findings provide strong evidence that the contagious effect of teen motherhood in siblings is larger than the general effect of being better educated," the Mirror quoted University of Bristol's Professor Carol Propper, who co-authored the study, as saying .
"This suggests that more policies aimed directly at decreasing teenage pregnancy may be needed in order to reduce teen births."
Researchers analysed census data from 42,606 Norwegian women who were born after the Second World War and their families as they got older.
They chose to look at sister-to-sister relationships because sisters generally spend more time together than with schoolmates or other friends and are therefore likely to be influenced by the behaviour of their siblings. There is also scientific evidence that suggests younger children in families are influenced by the sexual activity of their older brothers and sisters.
They found that the sibling effect is larger for women from poorer backgrounds but gets smaller as the age gap between sisters increases. (ANI)
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