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Adolescent mothers: caregiving, approval, and family functioning
1Intercollegiate Center for Nursing Education, Spokane, WA.
Objective:
This study tested the Adolescent Family Assessment Model, which describes the relationships between caregiving behaviors, caregiving knowledge, peer and family approval, and family functioning.
Design:
A descriptive correlational design was used along with causal modeling procedures to test the model.
Setting:
Subjects were recruited from teen parent programs and an obstetrician's office.
Subjects:
A convenience sample of 134 adolescent mothers participated in the study. Each subject had not completed her high school education and was living in the same household as her child.
Main Outcome Measures:
Subjects completed a demographic questionnaire, the Infant Caregiving Inventory (caregiving knowledge), the Peer and Family Approval Instruments (social approval), and Smilkstein's Family APGAR (family functioning). Instruments were completed twice by each subject, with a 2-week period between administration.
Results:
Fifteen percent of the variance of caregiving behaviors was explained by ethnicity (beta = -.30) and age of the first child (beta = -.26). Ten percent of the variance of family functioning was explained by age of the first child (beta = -.24) and ethnicity (beta = -.20).
Conclusions:
It appears that family functioning declines for the first 2 years after the birth of the adolescent's child.