Objectives It is imperative that individual differences in the cultural contexts of adolescent mothers, whose parenting is often linked to poor child outcomes, be better understood, especially amongst Puerto Rican-origin mothers who experience high rates of poverty. Behaviors that mothers use to elicit compliance from their children are important to investigate, because children’s ability to engage in regulated, compliant behavior has long term consequences for their adjustment. This study tested whether mothers’ orientation to both American and Latino cultures influenced the associations between such maternal behaviors and compliant and defiant child behaviors. Method The sample included 123 young, Puerto Rican-origin mothers and their 24-month old toddlers. Behaviors coded from a toy clean-up task measured maternal guidance and control and child compliance and defiance, and acculturation and enculturation were measured with a self-report questionnaire. Results Maternal guidance predicted more child compliance, with no significant variations by cultural orientation; however, mothers who were more enculturated had children who were more compliant. As predicted, mothers’ more frequent use of control was related to more child defiance for mothers reporting high levels of acculturation, and not for less acculturated mothers. Conclusions Findings support the hypothesis that individual differences in cultural orientation influence variations in associations between certain maternal and child behaviors.

Adolescent birthrates in the United States are much higher than those in other developed countries, and the majority of adolescents who become mothers come from impoverished backgrounds. Not surprisingly, they experience significant adjustment difficulties, and both their own and their children's developmental outcomes are often compromised. In this chapter, we review the adolescent parenting literature with the goal of uncovering the unique patterns of factors that may enable young mothers to parent successfully despite their disadvantaged conditions. We start with a description of the historic trends in birthrates and the socioeconomic and demographic characteristics of adolescent mothers in the United States, to provide the context in which they are parenting their children. We then review the literature on factors related to their parenting behaviors and the developmental outcomes of their children, including individual, familial, sociodemographic and cultural risk and protective factors. Finally, we conclude and provide future directions for research in the field.

No abstract

Adolescent mothers face multiple stressors and are at risk for experiencing high levels of depressive symptoms and parenting stress. This study examined the interplay of Latino cultural orientation and perceived support from romantic partners in protecting the adjustment of young, low-income, Puerto Rican mothers (N = 103; M age = 18.0 yrs; SD = 1.2) during the second year postpartum. In multivariate analyses, perceived partner support was uniquely and negatively associated with both maternal depressive symptoms and parenting stress. However, in the case of parenting stress, this association was moderated by mothers’ Latino cultural orientation. Perceived partner support was related to less parenting stress when mothers endorsed a relatively strong Latino cultural orientation; perceived partner support was no longer protective at low levels of Latino orientation. The implications for intervention and for the understanding of the role of culture in social support processes within close relationships are discussed.

Parents use different forms of control to direct children toward their own demands and expectations; however, the literature on Latina parenting has demonstrated mixed findings on the influence of control on child outcomes (Halgunseth, Ispa, & Rudy, 2006). This study tested how maternal control relates to child dysregulated defiance within the cultural context experienced by Latina mother-child dyads. Participants included 122 adolescent mothers of Puerto Rican-origin and their toddlers. Highlighting the importance of ecologically-valid and culturally-sensitive methods of behavioral observation, mother and child behavior were observed during a clean-up task; mothers also reported on their levels of US acculturation and Puerto Rican enculturation. Using person-centered analyses, we identified groups of mothers by parenting behaviors (i.e., guidance, control, positive affect) and cultural orientation (i.e., acculturation, enculturation). Results revealed four sub-groups of mothers with distinct associations to child defiance: 1) enculturated/controlling, 2) bicultural/guiding, 3) bicultural/controlling, 4) acculturated/controlling. Toddlers of the mothers in the acculturated/controlling sub-group displayed greater defiance toward their mothers than those of mothers in the enculturated/controlling sub-group, even though the groups displayed similar levels of control behaviors and positive affect. Toddlers of the enculturated/controlling and the bicultural/guiding mothers displayed similar low levels of defiance, suggesting two different parenting approaches with favorable consequences for child behavior in adolescent mother and toddler dyads. Implications for culturally-informed research and tailored services for young Latina families are discussed.