PEDIATRICS Vol. 85 No. 6 June 1990, pp. 1108-1109
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Earlier Rather Than Later

ELIZABETH R. MCANARNEY MD1

1 Division of General Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry, Rochester, NY 14642

Clinicians caring for pregnant adolescents recognize their patients' risk for having behavioral problems.1 Not all pregnant adolescents, however, experience such problems. In their article in this issue, Elster and colleagues2 reports that young urban mothers who engaged in three or more problem behaviors were more likely than were urban women who reported no problem behaviors to have had a child before they were 19 years of age.

The interrelationship of adolescent problem behaviors was originally described approximately 20 years ago by Jessor et al.3,4 High-risk behaviors did cluster and young persons involved in one problem behavior were likely to engage in others (sexual intercourse, marijuana use, and problem drinking).4