Adolescent and older mothers: Comparison between prenatal maternal variables and newborn interaction measures

Abstract

It is commonly believed that adolescent pregnancy results in greater risk for the young mother and her infant than does pregnancy that occurs at a later age. In order to gain a better understanding of these differences, prenatal and newborn variables were compared for adolescent and nonadolescent mothers. Data are presented and compared from an on-going longitudinal study of risk and protective factors tar adolescent mothers and their infants and a study exploring risk factors for nonadolescent mothers and their infants using comparable measures. One hundred and thirty adolescent mothers and 86 married primiparous non-adolescent mothers were followed. The results indicated that measures of birth weight, gestational age, and 1- and 5-min Apgar scores did not differ between the two groups. Maternal psychosocial characteristics, however, did differ. Adolescent mothers reported being less happy about being pregnant and had less social support. Adolescent mothers also reported less support from the father of the infant. During a newborn feeding interaction, the adolescent mothers vocalized less to their infants than nonadolescent mothers. Implications of the findings for prediction of parenting practices and preventive intervention are discussed.