Adolescent parenting and infant development: Associations between maternal health and psychological well -being and infant sleep, feeding, and crying disturbances
This study assessed maternal reports of regulatory disturbances (i.e., sleep onset, night waking, crying, and feeding) in infants of adolescent mothers and whether their presence was related to maternal depression and parenting stress. Breastfeeding initiation and duration were also examined to bett...
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| Format: | Dissertation |
| Language: | English |
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ProQuest Dissertations & Theses
01-01-2001
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| Online Access: | Get full text |
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| Summary: | This study assessed maternal reports of regulatory disturbances (i.e., sleep onset, night waking, crying, and feeding) in infants of adolescent mothers and whether their presence was related to maternal depression and parenting stress. Breastfeeding initiation and duration were also examined to better understand the prevalence of breastfeeding in adolescent mothers and its relationship to difficulties in infant sleeping, crying, and feeding. The sample consisted of 251 adolescent mothers with infants aged five to 28 months who were participating in an intervention program. The study employed a cross-sectional design. The mothers completed four questionnaires (i.e., CES-D, Parenting Events, Baby Questionnaire, Demographics) during a monthly home visit with their case manager. It was hypothesized that high levels of depression and parenting stress would be significantly associated with the presence of infant regulatory disturbances and that adolescent mothers would report more regulatory disturbances in their infants compared to adult mothers. The comparison group consisted of adult mothers who completed the same questionnaires. Adolescent mothers reported high rates of co-sleeping (48%) but did not view their child's sleep pattern as problematic (8%). Breastfeeding initiation rates were high (62%) but on average infants were breastfed for only two months. Adolescent mothers reported high rates of moderate clinical depression on the CES-D self-report inventory (35%) compared to a sample of adult mothers who completed the BDI (12%). Analyses revealed that breastfeeding was unrelated to the presence/absence of a regulatory disturbance but was significantly associated with parenting stress. Parenting stress was the only predictor of an infant having more than one disturbance. Interestingly, adolescent mothers reported very similar rates of infant regulatory disturbances compared to adult mothers. Overall, the hypotheses were not supported by the study findings. However, the study provides evidence for the important role of intervention programs in adolescent mothers and their infants. The fact that adolescent mothers reported minimal regulatory difficulties in their infants despite high rates of depression is a positive finding. More attention should be directed at addressing the mental health needs of adolescent mothers who endorse high levels of depressive symptomatology and providing a context where breastfeeding is facilitated. |
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| ISBN: | 9780493387680 0493387684 |