School-Age Parenthood in Different Ethnic Groups and Family Constellations: Effects on Infant Development

Abstract

School-age parenting is usually considered to be detrimental to teenagers and children alike but the effects of teenage parenting may vary according to cultural differences in child rearing attitudes and whether or not the teenage mother is the primary caregiver of the child. A number of studies of younger versus adult mothers show that the children of younger mothers receive less verbal stimulation 2) experience developmental delays 3) perform less well in school and 4) have lower intelligence test scores. A recent cross-cultural study by Lester et al. (1982) showed that Puerto Rican infants of teenage mothers had better outcomes than those of US blacks possibly because the Puerto Rican mothers were more likely to be married and experience less stressful pregnancies. Teenage mothers are more likely to be single parents than older mothers 27% as opposed to 18%. Most teenage mothers however remain in an extended family situation. Older siblings with children may provide role models. Grandparents may compensate for teenage mothers inadequate parenting; they may also compete for child-rearing control. The extended family may have negative effects because of sheer family size. Very little is known about differences in caregiving between teenage mothers and grandmothers. The authors study comparing 164 black and Cuban lower-income teenage mothers in Miami Florida suggests that Cuban mothers are more indulgent and provide more social stimulation for their infants; black mothers are more restrictive and punitive. However there were no differences in infant development and language production at 2 years possibly because the Cuban mothers may have been overstimulating their children. Mothers and infants in nuclear families fared better socially. Infants in their 2nd year of life had overall downward trends in developmental assessment and language production in all groups suggesting that teenage parenting may have negative effects on child rearing regardless of cultural and family contexts.