QUALITIES OF ADOLESCENT MOTHERS PARENTING

Purpose. This study examined the interrelations among adolescent mothers' parenting attitudes, parenting confidence, and parenting stress and the potential differences in these dimensions by mothers' age, race and parity, and age and sex of child. Methods: Subjects were 119 former adolescent mothers (M age = 20.2 years) from predominantly poor, minority backgrounds (50% Hispanic, 27% African-American, 17% non-Hispanic white). All subjects completed questionnaires about their parenting qualities twice an average of 10 weeks apart. All children were at least one year of age (M age = 37.2 months; range 12-50 months). Results: Results indicated that for some mothers there exists a triple jeopardy of low parenting confidence, high parenting stress, and inappropriate parenting values. Young maternal age at delivery and young maternal age at the time of this study were associated with low child acceptance. Non-Hispanic white mothers had significantly more favorable parenting values than did African-American and Hispanic mothers, and African-American mothers reported significantly greater caretaking confidence than did Hispanic mothers. No parity or sex of child effects were found. Conclusions: These results suggest the presence of meaningful patterns of convergence and within-group variation for the psychological qualities of adolescent mothers' parenting.