Final answer:
The greatest risk to a child of adolescent parents comes from increased family stressors that may lead to physical and emotional abuse. Young parents are less able to handle stress and may not have adequate social support, leading to a higher incidence of child abuse and neglect, with long-term detrimental effects on the child's wellbeing. So, the correct answer is option 1.
Step-by-step explanation:
The greatest risk to a child of adolescent parents is often associated with numerous challenges, including increased family stressors and a lack of resilience to these stresses that can result in a higher statistical likelihood of physical and emotional abuse.
Adolescents who become parents are typically less capable of coping with stresses, particularly the stress of becoming a new parent. This, combined with factors such as financial stress, social isolation, and a history of being mistreated as a child, increases the risk of abuse or neglect.
Teenage mothers are statistically more likely to abuse their children than older parents. Children born to mothers who are fifteen years old or younger are twice as likely to be abused or neglected by age five compared to children born to mothers ages twenty to twenty-one.
Additionally, children raised by substance abusers have a risk of physical abuse three times greater than other children, and neglect is four times as prevalent. Moreover, the long-term effects of child abuse are devastating, impacting the physical, mental, and emotional well-being of a child.
These include a high incidence of psychiatric disorders, cognitive and social difficulties, poor academic performance, teen pregnancy, drug abuse, and engaging in risky sexual acts. Thus, the issues arising from adolescent parenting do not only affect the individual family but extend to society at large.