Adolescent mothers' relationship with their children's biological fathers: social support, social strain, and relationship continuity

Two-hundred and eighteen low-income, minority, adolescent mothers were interviewed during the perinatal period and 3 years later about their social networks, including their relationships with their children's fathers. Few adolescents were involved with fathers at both time points. Relationships with fathers were, in general, less supportive and less problematic over time. Moreover, although father support was not associated with adolescent mothers' psychological adjustment, father absence and father strain had negative associations with psychological adjustment. Maternal grandmother support buffered the negative effects of strain in the adolescents' relationships with biological fathers. Perceptions of less social support from maternal grandmothers and more social support from fathers during the perinatal period as well as less social support from a new male partner at 3 years postpartum predicted relationship continuity between adolescent mothers and fathers at 3 years postpartum. Implications for intervention and policy are discussed.

Infant feeding practices of low-income, African-American, adolescent mothers: an ecological, multigenerational perspective

The early introduction of non-milk foods among African-American infants has been well documented. Several studies report the addition of semi-solids as early as 1-2 weeks of age. This study investigated, through ethnographic, repeat indepth interviews with teen mothers and grandmothers of infants, the determinants of such feeding practices and the inter-generational factors involved in infant feeding decision-making. Nineteen adolescent mothers were recruited from Baltimore City WIC programs. The teen mothers were interviewed in their homes during four separate visits and the grandmothers at least twice. Ethnographic field guides focused on questions about what, why and how infants were fed and on the 'ethnotheories' of parenting and infant care in this population. All interviews were taped and transcripts were analyzed using text retrieval software. Results confirmed that it is the cultural norm to feed cereal in the bottle and to feed other semi-solid foods within the first month of life. Most grandmothers played the dominant role in deciding what the infant should eat and the timing of the introduction of solids. This pattern occurred both because grandmothers had extensive physical access to their grandchildren and because teen mothers were dependent upon grandmothers. The use of qualitative research methods, with an ecological, multi-generational focus, provides a rich description of the context within which infant feeding decisions are made.