Supportive/Conflictual Family Relations and Depressive Symptomatology: Teenage Mother and Grandmother Perspectives

Abstract

Supportive/Conflictual Family Relations and Depressive Symptomatology: Teenage Mother and Grandmother Perspectives* Cleopatra Howard Caldwell,** Toni C. Antonucci, and James S. Jackson The influences of supportive and conf,7ictaal mother-daughter relationships on depressive symptoms expressed by African American and White teenage mothers and grandmothers were examined. Interviews were conducted with 83 grandmother-teenage mother dyads to assess their individual perspectives of the quality of their relationship and their psychological well-being. Findings indicated that grandmothers assessed the mother-daughter relationship as more favorable than young mothers. African American teenage mothers were more likely than White mothers to report childrearing conflicts with grandmothers. Gr-andinothers, regardless of race, were more likely than teenage mothers to report less conflict around raising the young mothers' babies. Although racial differences were found in the number of depressive symptoms expressed among grandmothers, this finding did not hold when controlling for socioeconomic status. Similarly, the inverse relationship found between supportive mater-rral relations and depressive symptoms at the bivariate level of analysis was no longer important for predicting depressive smi,rnptoms among teenage mothers in the presence of conflictual mother-daughter relationships. Implications of these and other findings.for future social net vork research and family interventions are discussed. Key Words: depressive symptoms, family conflict, family support, grandmothers, motherdaughter relations, teenage mothers. Teenage childbearing and parenting have emerged as major social issues for both African American and White families within this society (Osofsky, Hann, & Peebles, 1993). Numerous psychosocial problems and economic obstacles associated with early, single parenthood account for much of the concern for the future of these young women. How well young mothers adapt to their new roles will depend on a number of factors, including the availability of social support (Cooley & Unger, 1991; Furstenburg, Brooks-Gunn, & Morgan, 1987; Spieker & Bensley, 1994; Unger & Wandersman, 1988); types of support (Nath, Borkowski, Whitman, & Schellenbach, 1991), amount of support (Crawford, 1984), sources of support (Caldwell, Antonucci, Jackson, Wolford, & Osofsky, 1997; Nath et al., 1991; Unger & Wandersman, 1988), and quality of support relationships (Richardson, Barbour, & Bubenzer, 1991). Previous research has indicated that the most consistent source of support for a teenage mother is her family of origin, especially her own mother. However, the birth of an infant to a teenager represents an accelerated role transition which has consequences not only for the teenager and her infant, but for the entire family system as well (Burton & Bengtson, 1985). The teenager becomes a mother, her parents become grandparents, and her grandparents become great-grandparents. Adjustment to these role transitions is likely to be influenced by the nature of relationships that exist within families with teenage mothers who depend upon the family for their overall well-being. These accelerated role transitions may have direct implications for identified normal intergenerational and family relations. The intergenerational stake hypotheses (Giarrusso, Stallings, & Bengtson, 1995), for example, proposed that parents will overestimate the affective closeness and solidarity in the parent-child relationships when compared to their children's assessment. It is not clear whether this hypothesis will be sustained when the child is actually a teenage parent. Similarly, while theories of family development suggest that family dynamics will be significantly influenced when a new family is launched, this traditionally refers to new nuclear families being formed by adults who marry and then begin a family. …