The First Teenage Pregnancy in the Family: Does It Affect Mothers' Parenting, Attitudes, or Mother-Adolescent Communication?

• Published in: Journal of marriage and family Vol. 61; no. 2; pp. 306 - 319
• Main Author: East, Patricia L.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Malden National Council on Family Relations 01.05.1999; Blackwell; Blackwell Publishing Ltd
• Subjects: Adolescent Mothers; Adolescents; Attitude Change; Births to Single Women; California; Child Rearing; Childrearing Practices; Children; Daughters; Early Parenthood; Family Involvement; Family Structure; Intergenerational relationships; Mother Attitudes; Mothers; Parent Child Relations; Parent Child Relationship; Parental Attitudes; Parenting; Parents; Parents & parenting; Pregnancy; Residential Patterns; Sexuality. Marriage. Family relations; Sibling Relationship; Siblings; Sisters; Sociology; Sociology of the family. Age groups; Teen pregnancy; Teenage parents; Teenage pregnancy; United States Of America; Pregnancy; Mother; Adolescent girl; Attitude; Parental Role; Motherhood; Chicano; Grandmother; Parent-Child Relationship; parent-adolescent communication; adolescent childbearing; adolescent pregnancy; Hispanics; parenting; younger siblings’ pregnancy risk
• ISSN: 0022-2445; 1741-3737
• DOI: 10.2307/353750

To understand the consequences of adolescent pregnancy and childbearing for the family, 189 mothers from three types of families were studied: families in which all teenage daughters had never been pregnant, families in which only one teenager was currently pregnant, and families in which only one teenager had delivered a baby within the previous 6 months. In the latter two family types, the current pregnancy or childbearing was the first to occur in the family. Mothers were assessed twice, 13 months apart. Results indicated that, compared with the mothers of never-pregnant teens, the mothers of parenting teens monitored their children less, expected less of their older daughters, and were more accepting of teenage childbearing. Across-time analyses showed that, in families in which the teenager was initially pregnant, mothers monitored and communicated less with their other children and were more accepting of teenage sex after the older daughter gave birth. In families in which the teenager was initially parenting, mothers perceived more difficulty for their teenage daughters and reported being less strict with their other children across time.