Parenthood is a life transition that can be especially demanding for vulnerable individuals. Young maternal age and maternal single status have been reported to increase the risk for adverse outcomes ...for both mother and child. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of young maternal age and maternal single status on maternal and child mental health and child development at age 3.
A birth-cohort of 1723 mothers and their children were followed from birth to age 3. Sixty-one mothers (3.5%) were age 20 or younger, and 65 (4.0%) reported single status at childbirth. The mothers filled out standardized instruments and medical information was retrieved from the standardized clinical assessment of the children at Child Welfare Centers, (CWC).
Young maternal age was associated with symptoms of postpartum depression whereas single status was not. Young mothers were more prone to report internalizing and externalizing problems in their children, while there was no association between single status and child behavioral problems. No differences were seen on child development (CWC scores). School drop-out was, however, a more influential factor on depressive symptoms postpartum than maternal age.
Young mothers are at increased risk for symptoms of postpartum depression which indicates the need for attention in pre- and postnatal health care programs. Single mothers and their children were not found to be at increased risk for adverse outcomes. The importance of schooling was demonstrated, indicating the need for societal support to encourage adolescents to remain in school.
Over recent decades there has been a large increase in multiple pregnancies (Newman & Luke, 2000). However, there is little research into the experiences of mothers who transition to twin motherhood, ...despite this group being identified in quantitative research as potentially vulnerable (Choi et al. 2009; Hay et al, 1990; Sheard et al, 2007; Thorpe et al, 1991; Wenze et al, 2015). Four mothers of twins ranging from 20 to 30 months were invited to narrate their experiences of the transition to motherhood and the impact on their sense of self, filling a notable gap in the research field. Narrative inquiry was the chosen methodology, embedding reflexivity throughout the research process with an awareness of ethics and power dynamics in the research relationship and wider culture which has traditionally undervalued mothers' experiences. Women's stories were analysed using The Listening Guide (Gilligan, 1982), aiming to capture the complex and multi-layered nature of the psyche, expressed through a multiplicity of voices (Brown & Gilligan, 1992) and understood within social and cultural frameworks (Gilligan & Eddy, 2017). The reader is invited to engage in depth with each participant's story, which represent a chorus of (twin mother) voices (Riessman 1993). Themes noticed across stories were: Being/feeling maternal, Fairy-tale versus reality, Silenced emotions, Overwhelm, Isolation, The critical voice, Negotiating mother/career, Dynamic of four and Voices that speak to culture. The findings support therapists to reflect on the unique complexities of becoming a twin mother, in the context of a psycho-social culture of the mother-baby dyad as norm. They also aim to ignite questions about clinical work with twin mothers as a unique subgroup in the field of perinatal mental health.
Mothers who are at risk of losing custody of their children represent a vulnerable and stigmatised population, whose voices are seldom heard. Exploring their perspectives of parenting, their child ...and the relationship with their child - their 'parenting representations' - can improve our understandings of their struggles and inform interventions seeking to interrupt cycles of transgenerational trauma. Research in this area so far has been predominantly quantitative, meaning valuable information about subjective experiences is often lost. The present study sought to address this gap by thematically analysing interviews with eight mothers with under-3-year-olds on the edge of Local Authority care, completed at the beginning of a specialist therapeutic intervention. Results are reported around five themes: 'Idealistic portrayal of the child and relationship', 'Struggling as a parent', 'Shadows of the past', 'The child and motherhood as comfort' and 'Anxiety about loss and fighting for the child'. The parenting struggles of mothers in this population are complex and multi-faceted, fuelled by ongoing relational trauma, fears of further pain, adversity, and difficulties in accessing and trusting support. Successful interventions are likely to require comprehensive, long-term approaches which holistically address mothers' unmet physical and emotional needs, and begin with building relational trust.
Poverty and teenage pregnancy are common in low‐and‐middle‐income countries and can impede the development of healthy parent‐child relationships. This study aimed to test whether a home‐visiting ...intervention could improve early attachment relationships between adolescent mothers and their infants living in poverty in Brazil. Analyses were conducted on secondary outcomes from a randomized controlled trial (NCT0280718) testing the efficacy of a home‐visiting program, Primeiros Laços, on adolescent mothers’ health and parenting skills and their infants’ development. Pregnant youth were randomized to intervention (n = 40) or care‐as‐usual (CAU, n = 40) from the first trimester of pregnancy until infants were aged 24 months. Mother‐infant attachment was coded during a mother‐infant interaction when the infants were aged 12 months. Electrophysiological correlates of social processing (mean amplitude of the Nc component) were measured while infants viewed facial images of the mother and a stranger at age 6 months. Infants in the intervention group were more securely attached and more involved with their mothers than those receiving CAU at 12 months. Smaller Nc amplitudes to the mother's face at 6 months were associated with better social behavior at 12 months. Our findings indicate that the Primeiros Laços Program is effective in enhancing the development of mother‐infant attachment.
Research studies and popular accounts of parenting have documented the joys and strains of raising children. Much of the literature comparing parents with those without children indicates a happiness ...advantage for those without children, although recent studies have unpacked this general advantage to reveal differences by the dimension of well-being considered and important features in parents' lives and parenting experiences. We use unique data from the 2010, 2012, and 2013 American Time Use Survey to understand emotions in mothering experiences and how these vary by key demographic factors: employment and partnership status. Assessing mothers' emotions in a broad set of parenting activities while controlling for a rich set of person-and activity-level factors, we find that mothering experiences are generally associated with high levels of emotional well-being, although single parenthood is associated with differences in the emotional valence. Single mothers report less happiness and more sadness, stress, and fatigue in parenting than partnered mothers, and these reports are concentrated among those single mothers who are not employed. Employed single mothers are happier and less sad and stressed when parenting than single mothers who are not employed. Contrary to common assumptions about maternal employment, we find overall few negative associations between employment and mothers' feelings regarding time with children, with the exception that employed mothers report more fatigue in parenting than those who are not employed.
Misconceptionsargues that child welfare measures which simultaneously seek to rescue children and punish errant women will not, and cannot, succeed in alleviating child or maternal poverty.
•Interest in teen mothering remains high despite declining teen birth rates.•Innovative methodological approaches have increased over the last decade.•The strongest studies in this review controlled ...for selection into teen mothering.•Poor offspring outcomes are largely due to teen mothers’ preexisting disadvantage.
Concerns for the long-term health and social well-being of teen mothers and their children arose in the 1970s as early childbearing was depicted as a public health problem. Early researchers identified the high-risk nature of teen mothering and a host of unfavorable maternal-child outcomes. The purpose of this study is to review the research published since 2010 on the outcomes for teen mothers’ offspring ≥ 6 years of age; to examine trends in the types of studies conducted; and to identify the strengths and limitations of this research.
We conducted a systematic search of 8 databases to identify studies that examined outcomes for offspring ≥ 6 years from high-income countries. We grouped studies by offspring age (child ≥ 6 years of age, adolescents, and adults) and outcomes in the domains of mental health, physical health, education, sexual activity, delinquency/crime, and substance use. Child outcomes were examined in 16 studies, adolescent outcomes in 31, and adult outcomes in 14.
Of the 53 studies published between 2010 to November 2022, 32 originated in the U.S.; 9 in Sweden; 2 each in Canada and Taiwan; and 8 elsewhere. Since 2010, researchers have increasingly used national samples and sibling and cousin comparisons to control for selection into teen mothering. These studies have reduced, and in some cases, eliminated young maternal age as a predictor, suggesting that poor outcomes are largely due to factors related to teen mothers’ preexisting disadvantage.
The results of this scoping review echo a chorus of scholars who have long argued that the poor outcomes attributed to teen mothering disregard the systemic inequities that predispose youth to become teen parents. Because these upstream conditions are baked into the social worlds that most teen mothers and their children inherit, delaying childbearing in the absence of mitigating these conditions is unlikely to improve maternal-child outcomes. We urge researchers to adjust for selection into teen mothering; examine heterogeneity in samples; adjust for birth year when multiple birth cohorts are combined in a study; place findings in historical context; consider variables that align with the perspectives of teen mothers; and study the intergenerational effects of adverse childhood experiences. Doing so would improve our understanding not only of causal relationships but the context and temporality of maternal-child outcomes.
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