Adolescent and older mothers' interaction patterns with their six-month-old infants

Children of adolescent mothers suffer more physical, intellectual, and emotional difficulties than do other children. In order to gain a better understanding of the differences, the interaction patterns of adolescent mothers and non-adolescent mothers interacting with their young infants were compared. One hundred adolescent mothers and 29 married primiparous non-adolescent mothers were observed interacting with their six-month-old infants during a feeding episode and a play episode. All of the mothers had a high school education or less. During feeding, the adolescent mothers demonstrated less expressiveness, less positive attitude, less delight, less positive regard, fewer vocalizations, and a lower quality of vocalizations than non-adolescent mothers. During play, the adolescent mothers demonstrated less inventiveness, less patience, and less positive attitude than the non-adolescent mothers. These results extend and strengthen what is known about adolescent mothers patterns of interaction with their young infants.