Despite a reported frequency of depressive symptoms
and VE among childbearing adolescents, a gap
in the literature exists describing the influence of
depressive symptoms and VE on repeated childbearing
among adolescents. Therefore, we explored the
following research questions:
1. What is the prevalence of depressive symptoms
and VE among age and ethnically/racially diverse
adolescents by gravidity and parity?
2. How much influence do depressive symptoms
and VE yield in the prediction of repeat pregnancy
(gravidity and parity) among age and ethnically/
racially diverse adolescents?
VE yielded information on child abuse, partner
violence, and past life experiences (identified as traumatic
but outside of interpersonal violence). Within
our adolescent sample, we defined repeat pregnancy
as having more than one pregnancy regardless of the
pregnancy interval.