Child maltreatment and teenage first births: A relationship mediated by chronic sociodemographic stress?

Abstract

Data were obtained from low-income, single-parent mothers for a test of the "life course" hypothesis that chronic stress mediates the relationship between teenage motherhood and both physical abuse and neglect of children. Large numbers of live births, a life history of unemployment, and low educational achievement were the measured stressors. Findings support the hypothesis, showing the number of live births as the most important mediator for both types of maltreatment.

The correlates of child physical abuse and neglect by adolescent mothers

“…Consequently, current theoretical and empirical knowledge about child maltreatment by adolescent mothers is in an early stage of development (Klerman, 1993). Studies (Klerman, 1990;Massat, 1995;Stier et aL, 1993;Zuravin, 1988a) that have focused on determining whether young mothers are more likely to maltreat than older mothers have produced contradictory findings. Few studies (Bolton and Laner, 1981;DePanfilis et aL, 1991;Miller, 1984) have examined whether the type, severity, and perpetrators of maltreatment differ depending on mothers' age.…”

Social consequences of psychiatric disorders, II: Teenage parenthood

“…Children are also adversely affected by having teenage parents. Teenage mothers are less responsive to their infants; have less positive child-rearing attitudes, expectations, and styles; and are more likely to abuse their children than are older mothers (10,14,15). Furthermore, children of teenage parents are at increased risk of low birth weight, delay in cognitive development, school problems, behavioral disorders, and becoming teenage parents themselves (16).…”

Parenting quality: Confirmation of a higher-order latent construct with mothers of Head Start children

“…Even increasing from one to two children in the family affects the quality of parenting offered to preschool children (Benigno & Ellis, 2004). More children are linked to less supportive home environments (Luster & Dubow, 1990) and greater abuse and neglect (Zuravin, 1988).…”

“…Even increasing from one to two children in the family affects the quality of parenting offered to preschool children (Benigno & Ellis, 2004). More children are linked to less supportive home environments (Luster & Dubow, 1990) and greater abuse and neglect (Zuravin, 1988).Parenting quality also differs as a function of the mothers' birth age, particularly whether she was an adult or an adolescent mother when her first child was born. For example, adolescent mothers' perceptions of infant emotions are less accurate and positive than the perceptions of adult mothers and non-pregnant adolescents (Osofsky & Culp, 1993).…”