Family and community support for urban adolescent mothers

The family and community support of adolescent mothers who returned to school was described. One hundred and nine African American, unmarried, primiparous, postpartum students, enrolled in 20 public high schools of a large midwestern city from 1986 to 1989, completed the questionnaire. The Cronbach alpha for internal consistency was .90 for the Resource Size Scale. Results showed that (a) the support from professionals in community agencies was less frequently mentioned by the postpartum students than support from the family, (b) more than 20% of the students had no one available to provide positive feedback and assist with household tasks, (c) the student's mother and the baby's father were most involved in providing support, but differed by support functions, and (d) the baby's father's family was involved in providing support. The school nurses and other professionals need to assist adolescent mothers in seeking support from both the family and the community systems.