The Potential for Child Neglect: The Case of Adolescent Mothers and Their Children

An ecological analysis of infant neglect by adolescent mothers

“…A mother with a childhood history of maltreatment also is at elevated risk for child neglect compared to mothers who were not maltreated (Dukewich, Borkowski, & Whitman, 1996;Ertem, Leventhal, & Dobbs, 2000;Lounds et al, 2006). Childhood maltreatment may be a strong risk factor for neglect by teen mothers, compounding the challenges of early parenting .…”

“…The infant-parent relationship is a locus of both risk and resilience (Easterbrooks, Driscoll, & Bartlett, 2008), and the personal characteristics of neglectful mothers are relatively well documented. Some of the most frequently identified maternal risk factors that are associated with child neglect include characteristics such as young maternal age, low levels of education, psychosocial functioning (stress, depression), problematic parenting attitudes and behaviors (negative attitudes, belief in corporal punishment, unrealistic expectations of children), and lack of empathy and warmth Borkowski, Whitman, & Farris, 2007;Brown et al, 1998;Lounds et al, 2006;Slack et al, 2011).…”

“…Literature reviews (Ertem et al, 2000;Kaufman & Zigler, 1987) suggest complex explanations of intergenerational transmission (e.g., maladaptive models of attachment, socialization, poor psychosocial functioning). But the "cycle of abuse" is not inevitable; most parents do no repeat the cycle Lounds et al, 2006).…”

“…Some research suggests that children of adolescent mothers are at especially high risk for experiencing neglect compared to children of older mothers (Brown, Cohen, Johnson, & Salzinger, 1998;Lounds et al, 2006), and teen parents with infants have become a popular target for child abuse and neglect intervention programs. Rigorous evaluation of child maltreatment prevention programs has generated some of the most sophisticated evidence to date related to the prevention of child maltreatment (DuMont et al, 2010;Olds et al, 1997), yet little evidence on how to avert neglectful parenting.…”

“…One solution has been to collapse heterogeneous forms of maltreatment (e.g., physical abuse, sexual abuse, neglect) into the single category of "child maltreatment," but this is highly problematic given likely disparate antecedents and consequences (Manly et al, 2001). A more effective strategy is to conduct prospective research to examine the occurrence of neglect in high risk samples (Lounds, Borkowski, & Whitman, 2006). This approach has the added potential of revealing causal mechanisms among families in most need of support.…”