Parental Behavior of Adolescent Mothers
1 From the Department of Pediatrics, University of Utah College of Medicine and Primary Children's Hospital, Salt Lake City; Department of Pediatrics, University of Rochester School of Medicine, Rochester, New York; and Department of Pediatrics, University of Utah Medical Center, Salt Lake City
The results of the studies reviewed lead to the conclusion that some adolescent parents are faced with excessive stress, have an inadequate social support network, lack adequate knowledge of child development, are developmentally immature, and possess inappropriate child-rearing attitudes. The lack of rigorous, well-controlled studies, however, makes these conclusions tentative at best. Each of the socioeconomic and psychological factors listed above, in addition to innate infant characteristics, affects parental behavior. Too few studies have been done to state conclusively which of these factors have major effects on adolescent parenting. Preliminary results would suggest, however, that adolescent and adult mothers interact differently with their children. The reasons why this occurs and the significance of this difference are not presently known. Although there are conflicting results, it appears as though children of adolescent parents are at a slightly increased risk for child abuse, but not suboptimal intellectual development, when compared to children of adult mothers.
Key Words: adolescent pregnancy • young mothers • parenting
Submitted on November 30, 1981
Accepted on August 26, 1982
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