“I've Devoted My Entire Life to My Daughter—and She Knows It”: Exploration of Identity Development Among Now-Adult Navajo Native American Adolescent Mothers

Enhanced life distress inventory: Development and validation in two African countries

OBJECTIVE

Poverty is linked to poor mental health, and stress is a key pathway. Most existing stress scales were developed in high-income settings. We use primary data collected from three large population-based studies in Ghana and Tanzania to examine the performance and psychometric properties of a new measure of self-perceived stress, the Enhanced Life Distress Inventory (ELDI).

METHODS

Development of the ELDI was informed by an exploratory qualitative study implemented among youth and adolescents in Ghana, Malawi, and Tanzania and structured following the Life Distress Inventory (LDI). We implemented the ELDI in three ongoing longitudinal impact evaluations involving quantitative household surveys in two studies in Tanzania and in one in Ghana to evaluate its performance and psychometric properties.

FINDINGS

Sample sizes ranged from N = 608 to N = 2,458, with variation in gender, age, and geographic location. Exploratory factor analysis uncovered three underlying factors of the ELDI, which justified the use of three sub-scales: economic and health-related well-being, risk/security, and social relations. Further analysis demonstrated that the ELDI has adequate psychometric properties, including internal consistency, and construct validity.

CONCLUSION

A major contribution of the ELDI is its development in and for LMIC settings and its ability to assess different areas (life domains) of distress. This multi-sectoral lens gives the scale the potential to examine not only programmes targeting stress, but also those targeting sources of stress, and to examine whether they improve stress and mental health via those pathways. More testing of the ELDI's performance and psychometric properties is needed in additional settings.

Teenage mothers in later life: Time for a second look

IntroductionTeenage motherhood is understood as a social problem by governments and in the public imagination. This is underpinned by studies linking teenage motherhood to a range of poor outcomes. This paper brings together key issues with measuring outcomes of teenage motherhood. It argues that to account for long-term change as well as an understanding of what drives, facilitates and impedes development, longitudinal qualitative methodology is needed. MethodsA narrative review of qualitative longitudinal studies of teenage motherhood was conducted with six studies meeting the inclusion criteria; (a) data collection at more than one point; (b) at least two points occurring after childbirth ResultsThe search demonstrated the insights that these methods can bring to the field. Such studies demonstrate the ways in which pre and post pregnancy contexts impact on attainment and experiences. They are able to present a complex and nuanced picture to contextualise the claims made in the quantitative literature. Furthermore, they provide voice to young mothers so they can narrate their own lives and make clear what is important to them. ConclusionThe paper argues that we need to work towards telling a more nuanced story of teenage motherhood by sensitising statistical work with qualitative studies. Moreover, research with teenage parents needs to take a longitudinal approach which accounts for change across the lifespan. Combining these approaches would enhance our understanding of outcomes as well as provide us with the means by which to better support young parents in the long-term.