Adolescent Mothers’ Perceptions of the Coparenting Relationship With Their Child’s Father: A Function of Attachment Security and Trust

Abstract

This study used data from 75 adolescent mothers to examine relations among adolescent mothers' attachment avoidance and anxiety, their ability to trust their child's father, and their perceptions of the quality of their coparenting relationship with their child's father. Results suggest that mothers with lower avoidance had more trust for their child's father and also had coparenting relationships characterized by less conflict and a stronger parenting alliance. Moreover, trust mediated the associations between mother's avoidance and coparenting quality. In contrast, mothers' attachment anxiety was not associated with trust for their child's father or their perceptions of coparenting relationship quality. This study provides evidence that adolescent mothers' relationship histories may play an important role in the quality of the coparenting relationship they have with their child's father.

The quality of the parenting alliance during the transition to parenthood.

“…Obviously, the fact that the level of prenatal attachment insecurity predicts the quality of the postnatal parenting alliance for both parents does not preclude the possibility that, for instance, a strong parenting alliance between partners could bring about longitudinal changes to partners' attachment security (see Ippolito Morrill, Hines, Mahmood, & Córdova, 2010, for a similar view). The current results also add to the literature by revealing these relationships, not only among mothers, but also among fathers, a population that is often overlooked in studies on the development of young families (Paley et al, 2005;Sheftall et al, 2010).…”

Adolescent Motherhood, Depression, and Delinquency

“…Despite a 30 percent decrease in adolescent pregnancies since the early 1990s, teen parenting has remained a consistent social problem in the United States (Futris and Schoppe-Sullivan, 2007;Klein, 2005;Sheftall et al, 2010). For example, nearly a million teens between the ages of 15 to 19 become pregnant annually (Birkeland et al, 2005;Hotz, McElroy and Sanders, 1997;McDonell et al, 2007;Spivak and Weitzman, 1987).…”

“…The Guttmacher Institute (2006) found that adolescent girls accounted for 414,000 live births in 2003 (as noted in Sheftall et al, 2010). Prior to having a child, adolescent mothers are unlikely to be married.…”

“…Previous studies have examined the lack of involvement of teen fathers in the child rearing process, linking many challenges (i.e., poverty, unemployment, lack of education, and poor relationship skills) faced by teen fathers to their lack of involvement in their child's life (Futris and Schoppe-Sullivan 2007;Sheftall et al, 2010). Research shows that many teen fathers do not see their child regularly or provide consistent help for household expenses (Rhein et al, 1997).…”

“…Although teen pregnancy rates have declined over time, the United States is still ranked first among industrialized nations (McDonnell et al, 2007;Sheftall, Schoppe-Sullivan and Futris, 2010). There are nearly one million teens between ages of 15 to 19 who become pregnant annually, however, only half of the pregnancies result in a live birth (Boonstra, 2002;Coley and ChaseLandsdale, 1998;McDonnell et al, 2007).…”