How does adolescent motherhood affect mother-infant/toddler relationship and emotional availability
Merve Cikili Uytun1, Esra Yurumez1, Didem Behice Oztop1
1Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Ankara University, Ankara, Turkey.
Insights
Adolescent mothers show higher rates of underinvolved relationship patterns with their infants compared to adult mothers. Early motherhood is a risk factor, necessitating targeted interventions and education for young mothers.
Area of Science:
- Developmental Psychology
- Maternal-Infant Health
- Adolescent Studies
Background:
- Understanding the nuances of infant-mother relationships is crucial for child development.
- Adolescent motherhood presents unique challenges compared to adult motherhood.
- This study compares maternal-infant relationship dynamics between adolescent and adult mothers.
Purpose of the Study:
- To assess the impact of adolescent motherhood on infant-mother relationships.
- To compare sociodemographic factors and relationship quality in adolescent versus adult mothers.
- To identify potential risk factors and inform targeted interventions for adolescent mothers.
Main Methods:
- Retrospective analysis of children (18-40 months) from an Infant Mental Health Department.
- Data collected included sociodemographic information, Parent-Infant Relationship Global Assessment Scale (PIR-GAS), and Emotional Availability (EA) Scales.
- Comparison between 29 adolescent mothers (<20 years at pregnancy onset) and 30 adult mothers (≥25 years).
Main Results:
- Adolescent mothers had significantly lower education levels and employment rates (p < 0.001).
- A significantly higher spousal age gap was observed in the adolescent mothers group (p < 0.001).
- Underinvolved relationship patterns were significantly more frequent in adolescent mother-infant dyads (p = 0.002).
Conclusions:
- Early motherhood is associated with a higher prevalence of underinvolved mother-infant relationships.
- Lower education, unemployment, and larger spousal age gaps are linked to adolescent motherhood.
- Intervention and education programs are recommended to support adolescent mothers in forming secure attachments.
Background:
The present study examined the different aspects of infant-mother relationships in adolescent mothers and compared them in adult mothers.
Methods:
Children aged 18-40 months who were referred to our outpatient Infant Mental Health Department were analysed retrospectively. Sociodemographic data, Parent-Infant Relationship Global Assessment Scale (PIR-GAS) scores, and Emotional Availability (EA) Scales scores were analysed. Twenty-nine adolescent mothers being younger than 20 years at the beginning of pregnancy and thirty mothers who were aged at least 25 years were enrolled the same data as adult mother group.
Results:
In the adolescent mothers group, the education years of the mothers, the ratio of mothers having professions were significantly lower (p < 0.001); the spousal age gap was significantly higher than among the adult mothers (p < 0.001). It was also found that an underinvolved relationship pattern was seen more frequently among the mother-infant dyads in the adolescent mothers' group than in the adult mothers group (p = 0.002).
Conclusions:
Although there were not found many problems in terms of the relationship of adolescent mothers with their infants/toddlers in the current study this may have been due to a small sample, we would like to emphasise that the problems should be detected and appropriate interventions should be made for adolescent mothers.Key pointsOur main aim for this study was assesment of the effect of adolescent motherhood in terms of infant\toddler-mother relationshipOur findings showed that lower education level and being unemployed were higher in adolescent mothers group.Higher age gap between spouses was found to be associated with adolescent motherhood. Underinvolved relationship was highly prevalent among adolescent mothersOur findings suggest that early motherhood is a risk factor for mother-infant\toddler-relationship and parenthood.Intervention and education programs during and after pregnancy for adolescent girls may help them to prepare for motherhood more consciously and form established relationships with their infants.
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