Parenting Stress, Social Support, and Depression for Ethnic Minority Adolescent Mothers: Impact on Child Development

Abstract

Rates of teenage pregnancies are higher for African American and Latina adolescents compared to their White peers. African American and Latina adolescent mothers also experience more adversities than their White peers, such as higher rates of depression, school dropout, and economic disadvantage. Furthermore, children of adolescent mothers are at higher risk for adverse development. Parenting stress and social support can impact outcomes experienced by adolescent parents and their children. The present study examined the influence of adolescent mothers' parenting stress and perceived social support on maternal depression at baseline (six months after birth), and its impact on infant development one year later (18 months after birth). Participants were 180 adolescent mothers of African American or Latino/Hispanic descent. Results suggest that higher levels of parenting stress and less perceived social support were associated with higher levels of depression in the adolescent mothers at baseline. Higher levels of maternal depression were also associated with more developmental delays in infants one year post-baseline. Additionally, depression mediated the relationship between parenting stress and later child outcomes. These findings highlight the importance of examining parenting factors such as parenting stress, social support, and maternal depression in ethnic minority adolescent parents, and provide valuable information regarding unique risk and protective factors associated with positive maternal outcomes for ethnic minority adolescent parents and healthy development for their children.

The Development and Growth of Children Aged under 5 years in Northeastern Thailand: a Cross-Sectional Study

“…Previous studies suggested that associations between child developmental delay and maternal age could be explained by socio-economic status, parenting behavior and home environment [22,34,35], and maternal depression [7]. In our study, those maternal associated factors were not significantly different between adolescent and adult mothers.…”

“…Maternal psychological distress during pregnancy is known to affect behavioral, cognitive, socio-emotional, and psychomotor development of infants, while postpartum distress is known to contribute to cognitive and socio-emotional development [6]. In addition, depression in pregnant adolescents was also found to be associated with higher developmental delays in infants [7].…”

Medical-Legal Strategies to Improve Infant Health Care: A Randomized Trial

“…[43][44][45] DULCE accelerated access to concrete supports for newborns and their families; intervention families received greater support for their concrete needs during the infants' first 6 months of life. Previous research suggests that the early provision of concrete support may protect against child neglect and abuse and reduce parental stress, 46 and promote the formation of positive attachment relationships. 47,48 Other programs to address the concrete needs of families through improvements in primary health care have been described: WE CARE features a simplified, selfadministered needs assessment coupled with practice guidance to specific resources.…”

Factors Affecting Early School-Age Children's Subjective Happiness: Using the Actor-Partner Interdependence Model of Parental Variables

“…Parenting stress is defined as distress and uncomfortable experiences occurring in the process of carrying out the role of parenting [10]. It is the cause of emotional distress in marital life [11] and has been reported to be a predictor variable that negatively influences children's development [12]. Moreover, if parenting stress is high and for an extended period of time, the chance of experiencing depression increases, and because parental depression not only makes the relationship with children negative but also increases problem behaviors and negative emotions in children, it can be a conclusive factor that decreases the perceived happiness of children as a result [13].…”