A comparison of adolescent and adult mothers' maternal separation anxiety

Maternal separation anxiety was compared for twenty adolescent and twenty adult mothers. The adolescent mothers were recruited from a high school. teen parent program. Adult participants were recruited from two university day care programs. The Maternal Separation Anxiety Scale was used to assess the level of anxiety experienced by employed or school enrolled mothers when separated from their children. Analysis of variance indicated a group difference for separation anxiety with the adolescent mothers being significantly more anxious when leaving their children.