Sexuality-Related Outcomes of Adolescent Children of Teen Mothers

The relationship between being an adolescent child of a teen mother and sexuality-related outcomes was investigated using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth. Adolescents whose mothers were teenagers at first birth were more likely to have had sex by age 16 than other adolescents. Gender moderated this effect, as this relationship was stronger for sons than for daughters. In addition, children of mothers with a lower level of education, adolescents who lived in poverty, and adolescents who resided with less than two biological parents at the start of the study were more likely to have had sex.     

Subsequent Fertility Among Teen Mothers: Longitudinal Analyses of Recent National Data

A sample of high school age mothers was followed from 1988 to 1994 in order to examine factors associated with having a second teen birth or a closely spaced second birth. The study incorporates a life‐course perspective. Factors associated with postponing a subsequent birth include characteristics measured prior to the first birth, at the time of the first birth, and after the first birth. Analyses suggest that a combination of young teen mothers staying in school, living at home with their parents, and (among older teen mothers) being engaged in educational or work activities might help reduce the risk of a second untimely birth. Those teenage mothers who were able to complete their high school diploma, or even their GED, were less likely to have a second teen birth.     

Developmental Outcomes for Children of Young Mothers

This study tested the association between mother’s early age at first birth and various life outcomes for her children in later adolescence and early adulthood. Data were analyzed from the Rochester Youth Development Study, an ongoing panel study of adolescents enrolled in seventh or eighth grade in Rochester Public Schools in 1988 (N =729). Boys born to mothers who began childbearing before age 19 had elevated risks of drug use, gang membership, unemployment, and early parenthood. Girls born to young mothers only had elevated risks of early parenthood. Of the mediators tested, low maternal education had the largest mediating effects. The findings suggest that the risks associated with being born to a young mother are substantial but perhaps disproportionately so for boys.     

Life Course Heterogeneity in the Transition from Adolescence to Adulthood Among Adolescent Mothers

Longitudinal data were used to examine pathways taken by 227 adolescent mothers during the transition from adolescence into adulthood. Latent profile analysis identified three sub‐groups of adolescent mothers from 6 months to 6 years postpartum: a problem‐prone profile (15%), a psychologically vulnerable profile (42%), and a normative profile (43%). Group membership was related to long‐term adult outcomes (adult status markers, health‐risk and deviant behaviors, substance use, mental health, and intimate relationships) when respondents were nearing age 30. The psychologically vulnerable group reported greater health and mental health problems, relational problems, and substance use than the normative profile group. Only the problem‐prone profile group, taken together, reported serious problems in all domains of adult outcomes examined including financial, relational, behavioral, and health and mental health problems. Results confirm the existence of different pathways through adolescent parenthood that are associated with adult functioning 12 years postpartum.     

Correlates of Self-Esteem Among College Students Offspring from Divorced Families:

This research examines whether factors found to be relevant to children's adjustment following parental divorce do indeed have a significant relationship to the self-esteem of young adult college students who have experienced parental divorce during childhood or adolescence. These factors include gender, social class, age at the time of parental divorce, remarriage of the custodial mother, the amount of contact between the non-residential father and his offspring, and feelings of closeness between the non-residential father and his offspring. The results of a multiple regression analysis indicate that contact with the non-residential father has a significant impact on the self-esteem of female offspring, whereas the age at the time of parental divorce is the most sigmticant factor contributing to the self-esteem of male offspring. Results also indicate there is no significant difference in self-esteem levels among male and female offspring from divorced families.     

Developmental Outcomes of Children of Homeless Substance-Abusing Mothers

Abstract

This study evaluated the impact ofan extended shelter-based child development/family therapy intervention, called Building Blocks, on the development of children of substance- abusing homeless mothers. The homeless children had greater than expected percentages ofdevelopmental deficits in a number of the developmental domains. Those children who participated in the extended child development/family therapy services were one fourth as likely to have a developmental deficit at 12 months compared to children who did not receive these services. Interventions must be intensive and long-term to improve the developmental outcomes of children with multiple risks ofpoverty, homelessness, and family substance abuse.     

Academic and Behavioral Outcomes Among the Children of Young Mothers

In this article, we use newly available data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth to investigate the effects of early motherhood on academic and behavioral outcomes for children born to early child bearers. We find that early motherhood's strong negative correlation with children's test scores and positive correlation with children's grade repetition is almost entirely explained by prebirth individual and family background factors of teen mothers themselves. However, early childbearing is associated indirectly with reduced children's test scores through its linkage to family size (and thus to child birth order). We find a different pattern in predicting fighting, truancy, early sexual activity, and other problem behaviors among adolescent and young adult offspring. For these behaviors, maternal age at first birth remains an important risk factor even after controlling for a wide range of background factors and maternal characteristics. These results highlight the diverse pathways through which teen parenting might influence subsequent child well‐being and social performance.     

Teen Mothers and Welfare Reform: Challenging the Boundaries of Risk

A major component of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 (PRWORA) included policies directed to encouraging marriage while discouraging nonmarital births. Teen mothers were of particular concern as policymakers argued that there is a link between teenage childbearing and welfare receipt. This paper seeks to reframe the concept of at-risk teen mothers by looking to the socially construction of boundaries—an imagery that brings to the forefront the complex relations between young mothers and welfare reform policy. From this standpoint, we discuss how welfare reform might address the multiple issues facing teen mothers including housing, education and training, child care, transportation, health, healthy relationships and parenting skills.     

Developmental Outcomes of School Attachment Among Students of Mexican Origin

We used a longitudinal community study of 674 grade school children (Grades 5, 6, 7, and 8; 337 males, 337 females) of Mexican origin to examine outcomes of school attachment. Attachment to school is important in this population given the high level of school dropout rates of Mexican‐origin students. Results indicated that, on average, school attachment from fifth to sixth grade remains stable, but declines from sixth to eighth grade. Boys had lower levels of school attachment at fifth grade but followed similar patterns of change as girls did. Attachment to teachers, peer competence, school aspirations and expectations, and substance‐use cognitions emerged as longitudinal outcomes of level or changes in school attachment. Gender moderated associations of school attachment.     

Identity Transformation and Family Caregiving: Narratives of African American Teen Mothers

This article explores connections between informal caregiving and identity transformation as experienced by pregnant teens. Based on in‐depth interviews with 51 African American teen mothers, the article examines teens’ pregnancy narratives as an example of narrative repair, illuminating how attending to processes that connect one’s identity to the care of others can work to empower individuals to resist threats to a positive sense of self or a damaged identity. The authors suggest that family caregiving can provide an important context that supports identity transformation not only among pregnant teens as they strive to become good mothers but among those experiencing other types of disruptions to their lives.     

Appearance-Related Communication and Body Image Outcomes: Fat Talk and Old Talk Among Mothers and Daughters

The current study sought to investigate mothers’ and daughters’ appearance-related communication and its relation to body image outcomes. Participants included 199 mother-daughter dyads that completed online questionnaires containing measures of fat talk, old talk, body dissatisfaction, body surveillance, drive for thinness, and bulimic tendencies. Actor-partner interdependence models revealed that (a) mothers’ and daughters’ fat talk, but not old talk, were significantly related to one another, (b) mothers’ and daughters’ fat talk and old talk were significantly related to their own body image outcomes, (c) mothers’ fat talk was positively related to daughters’ bulimic tendencies, and (d) mothers’ old talk was positively related to daughters’ body dissatisfaction. These results suggest that engaging in appearance-related communication is problematic for the person making the comments and, to some extent, being exposed to another person’s appearance-related comments can be harmful to the individual as well—at least for the daughters in the current sample.     

Maternal Self-Efficacy of Mothers of Children with Intellectual Developmental Disabilities,Down Syndrome,and Autism in Kuwait

This study aims to identify the perception of maternal self-efficacy among 95 Kuwaiti mothers of children with Developmental Disabilities (DD) to determine the differences in perception of maternal self-efficacy variables among the mothers based on demographic variables: Child’s age, Gender, Type of disability, Leisure time, and Mother’s age. A survey was conducted using Kandari’s (2005, Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Simmons College, Boston) Arabic version of the Caregiving Self-Efficacy Scale. The mothers were selected from different special education settings in Kuwait. They had 33 children with Intellectual Developmental Disabilities (IDD), 41 with Down Syndrome, and 21 with autistic disorder. The children included both males and females, and ranged between the ages of 6 and 15. The findings showed that (1) mothers of children with DD did not differ in their beliefs about aspects of maternal self-efficacy according to the Child’s age, Child’s gender, and the Mother’s age; (2) mothers of children with IDD, when compared to other mothers, had negative beliefs of all aspects of maternal self-efficacy; (3) mothers of children who did not attend a respite facility for an afternoon had negative beliefs of all aspects of maternal selfefficacy except for the child’s behavioral management; and (4) all mothers’ groups had negative beliefs about their ability to control their child’s behavior and their own emotions. Implications are discussed to provide services for mothers to help them develop their adaptive skills and meet their children’s needs, as well as their own.     

Life Course Diversity Among Older Lesbians and Gay Men: A Study in Chicago

How much can we assume about the shared life experiences of older lesbians and gays? This article is broadly concerned with rethinking the significance of this question as it pertains to cultural images and stereotypes of “older gay and lesbian” identities in a large and diverse American city. In 1996, the authors completed a 10-month needs assessment study regarding the lives and needs (social and psychological), which must be addressed for older lesbians and gays in the city of Chicago. The authors take the approach that simply being of the same or similar age is insufficient to understand the meaning of people's sexual identities. They entered into this study aware of some stereotypes about older lesbians and gays, but like previous investigators, they were surprised at the range of diversity that they uncovered. They discovered not only the common denominators in their participants' experiences and their lives, but as some commentators have already suggested, they also discovered a great deal of variation. To address the issues, the authors describe conceptual problems that emerged in a recent needs assessment of older lesbians and gay men in Chicago.     

Assessing Family Outcomes: Psychometric Evaluation of the Beach Center Family Quality of Life Scale

There is currently a lack of reliable scales with which to assess the construct of family quality of life, particularly for families who have children with disabilities. The current work presents 2 studies, including a total of 488 families with children with disabilities, which were conducted to complete the development of a scale to assess family quality of life. The measure was refined through confirmatory factor analyses into 25 items that assess 5 domains of Family Quality of Life: Family Interaction, Parenting, Emotional Well‐Being, Physical/Material Well‐Being, and Disability‐Related Support. Each subscale was found to be unidimensional and internally consistent. An initial examination of test‐retest reliability and convergent validity is also presented. Implications for future research, scale use, and policy are discussed.     

Gender and Casual Sexual Activity From Adolescence to Emerging Adulthood: Social and Life Course Correlates

The prevalence of casual sexual activity among teens and emerging adults has led to much public attention. Yet limited research has investigated whether the number of casual sexual partners per year changes as heterosexual men and women transition from adolescence into emerging adulthood. We considered the influence of social context and life course factors on the number of casual sex partners. We examined four waves of interviews from the Toledo Adolescent Relationships Study (TARS) and used negative binomial growth curve models to investigate patterns of change in the number of casual sex partners (N = 1,196) ages 15 to 22. Men and women both reported increases in the number of casual sex partners over time and did not differ from each other in the rate of change over time. In all, 40% of respondents reported a recent casual sex partner at age 22. Number of prior dating relationships, education status, substance use, and perceptions of peer sexual behavior significantly influenced the number of casual sex partners. Emerging adults who did not complete high school, compared to those enrolled in four-year degree programs, reported significantly more partners. The findings contribute to research on intimate relationships and provide insights for programs targeting emerging adults.     

Motherhood and Employment Among Whites,Hispanics, and Blacks: A Life Course Approach

Research has shown that having children reduces women's employment; yet how this effect differs for racial minorities has received less attention. Using random effects models and data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (N = 4,526), this study investigates the association between motherhood and employment among Whites, Hispanics, and Blacks over women's entire reproductive span. Results indicate that having children reduces labor force participation primarily by deterring full‐time employment. This effect is stronger and lasts longer among Whites, smaller and shorter among Hispanics, and brief among Blacks. Motherhood reduces part‐time employment for young mothers, but temporarily increases it for older mothers. Early childbearing partly explains Black and Hispanic women's low employment rates at young ages; interestingly, the evidence indicates that their employment prospects would benefit the most from delaying childbearing. This study highlights the relevance of intersectionality and the life course perspective for investigating inequality in the labor market.     

Natural Mentoring Relationships Among Adolescent Mothers: A Study of Resilience

This study focused on natural mentoring relationships between nonparental adults and African American adolescent mothers. Data were collected from 93 adolescent mothers over 5 time points, starting in the adolescent mothers' senior year of high school and ending 5 years after high school. We found that having a natural mentor was related to fewer depressive symptoms and fewer anxiety symptoms over time. Natural mentor presence also modified the relationship between stress and mental health problems over time. Facilitating these natural mentoring relationships between adolescent mothers and nonparental adults may be a useful strategy for promoting healthy development within this population.     

Parental Strains and Rewards Among Mothers: The Role of Education

Using data from the NICHD Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development (N = 1,198), this study examines the associations between education and parental strains and rewards among mothers of young children. Findings indicate that a college degree or more is related to less parenting anxiety, but more role captivity, and less new life meaning from parenting than lower levels of education. Differences by education are partly explained by variation in levels of progressive parenting values and work commitment, but remain significant. These patterns indicate that education provides greater resources that ease parental anxiety, but also leads to greater perceived demands of having a successful career, which contribute to more role captivity and less new life meaning from parenting.