Kathryn Roberts

Background Globally, adolescent mothers and their children have poorer health outcomes. However, little is known regarding having multiple children as an adolescent. Analyses explore associations between having multiple versus single children on young mothers’ mental health and having a sibling and child development outcomes for their children. Furthermore, maternal age when having a second child (eg, multipara adolescent or multipara adolescent–adult pregnancy) is examined in relation to maternal and child outcomes.Methods Data are drawn from a cohort of young mothers (n=1017; 10–24 years) and their children (0–68 months) residing in the Eastern Cape Province, South Africa. Effects of having multiple versus single children on maternal mental health and child cognitive outcomes (assessed using the Mullen Scales of Early Learning) were explored using hierarchical regression models. We examined associations among primipara adolescent motherhood, multipara adolescent motherhood and multipara adolescent�