Adolescent Mothers' Experiences Over Time

• Date: 01 July 2018
• Author: Nicola Sheeran,Liz Jones,Jen Rowe,Hana McDonald
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/fare.12312
• Published date: 01 July 2018

N S  L J Grifth University

J R University of the Sunshine Coast

H MD Grifth University

Adolescent Mothers’ Experiences Over Time

Objective: To examine patterns and trajectories

for Australian adolescent mothers as they tran-

sition into adulthood.

Background: Adolescent mothers have diverse

outcomes; some experience multiple negative

outcomes for themselves and their children, and

others prosper. Little is known about the experi-

ence over time for adolescent mothers and what

factors affect their trajectories.

Method: Three exemplar women’s stories are

presented as case studies, showcasing themes

identied from in-depth interviews conducted

with 10 women who gave birth as adolescents.

Interviews were conducted at the time of infant

birth, as well as 3 months, 12 months, and

5 years later.

Results: Two themes emerged that captured the

nuanced experiences of these adolescent moth-

ers: stability to chaos and I’ve grown,but I can’t

reach the stars. Stability in the areas of family,

relationships, geography, and planning/routine

were related to whether young women had suf-

cient resources to focus on their own growth.

Conclusion: An adolescent mother’s function-

ing is related to the extent to which she experi-

ences stability across a number of key domains,

which in turn act to limit or enable growth and

development.

School of Applied Psychology, Mt GravattCampus, Grifth

University, Messines Ridge Road, Mt Gravatt, 4111, Bris-

bane, Australia (n.sheeran@grifth.edu.au).

KeyWords: adolescent mothers, longitudinal, protective fac-

tors, risk factors.

Implications: Adolescent mothers are a hetero-

geneous group. Targeted assessments and inter-

ventions are needed that address disadvantage

and promote stability.

Adolescent motherhood has received sustained

attention from researchers internationally for

30 years. Despite this, little is known about ado-

lescent mothers’ experiences of being a mother

over time or about how the interplay of factors

across a range of domains may alter an adoles-

cent mother’s stability and trajectory. Although

large-scale studies point to poorer outcomes

for adolescent women, mediated by pre-existing

disadvantage (Bradbury, 2006; Lee & Gramat-

nev, 2006), little is known about the individ-

ual life courses of adolescent mothers and how

disadvantage affects daily parenting for young

women. The aim of this article is to explore the

rst 5 years of parenting experiences for Aus-

tralian adolescent mothers.

Rates of adolescent pregnancy have been

declining worldwide since 1990 (World Health

Organization, 2014); this is also true in Aus-

tralia, where rates of adolescent pregnancy are

relatively low compared with some developed

countries (e.g., the United States, New Zealand,

and the United Kingdom) but high compared

with others (e.g., Denmark, Sweden; Sedgh,

Finer, Bankole, Eilers, & Singh, 2015; UNICEF,

2001).

Bradbury (2006) found that adolescent moth-

ers are one of the most disadvantaged groups

in Australian society, having low levels of

education and high reliance on income support

428 Family Relations 67 (July 2018): 428–443

DOI:10.1111/fare.12312

Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Mothers 429

payments. Long term, Bradbury found adoles-

cent mothers were less likely to be partnered

and less likely to own their own home, and,

if partnered, their partner was more likely to

have low income. Further,Australian adolescent

mothers are also highly mobile, with instability

in relationships, housing, and employment cre-

ating additional challenges that often interfere

with the tasks of daily living (Quinlivan, Box,

& Evans, 2003; Quinlivan, Petersen, & Gurrin,

1999). Although Lee and Gramotnev (2006)

found that adolescent mothers in Australia

experience socioeconomic disadvantages and

unhealthy lifestyles, the problems experienced

by adolescent mothers were relatively minor

after controlling for pre-existing disadvantages.

Thus, they argued that adolescent motherhood

is not the precipitator of longer-term unhealthy

lifestyles, low education, or ill health and dis-

advantage; on the contrary, they concluded that

adolescent mothers in Australia tend to cope

well emotionally and maintain good health (Lee

& Gramatnev, 2006).

The proposition that parenting may be a posi-

tive experiencefor adolescent women is less well

researched. However, Barratt, Roach, Morgan,

and Colbert (1996) found that adolescent moth-

ers reported higher well-being postpartum than

their same-aged peers without children. Adoles-

cent childbearing may be protective for drug use

and binge drinking (Fletcher, 2012), may serve

as a catalyst for lifestyle changes, and may also

be associated with higher self-esteem and sense

of identity (Breen, 2014; Hanna, 2001; Larkins

et al., 2011; Mulherin & Johnstone, 2015; Sea-

mark & Lings, 2004; Shea, Bryant, & Wendt,

2015; Sheeran, Jones, & Rowe, 2016; Smith-

Battle & Leonard, 1998). In short, compared

with alternative options, the sense of life mean-

ing and direction associated with becoming an

adolescent mother may be a protective factor for

women from disadvantaged backgrounds (Arai,

2003).

In a qualitative longitudinal work eliciting

adolescent mothers’ voices and perspectives on

motherhood, Smithbattle and Leonard (1998)

highlighted how early pregnancy outcomes are

socially embedded and argued that all mothers

(including adolescent mothers) need stability in

their lives. There is also evidence that adoles-

cent mothers’ lives often diverge from popular

negative stereotypes. For example, in the United

States, more than 70% of adolescent mothers

graduate from high school. In Australia, 27% of

adolescent mothers live in owner households,

66% privately rent, and few live in community-

or government-subsidized housing (Bradbury,

2006). These ndings suggest adolescent

mothers are a heterogeneous group whose

experiences are socially embedded, and adds to

a growing voice demanding that construction

of adolescent mothers as a problem detracts

from addressing need (Erdmans & Black, 2015;

Sheeran, Jones, Farnell, & Rowe, 2016).

To examine the divergent life courses of

adolescent mothers, Oxford et al. (2005) fol-

lowed 227 pregnant adolescents longitudinally

and identied three patterns: a problem-prone

group (15% of the sample), a psychologically

vulnerable group (42%), and a normative group

(43%). Only the problem-prone group was

found at approximately 30 years of age to have

serious problems in all domains (i.e., nancial,

relational, behavioral, health, and mental health

outcomes). The psychologically vulnerable

group reported difculties in specic domains:

health, mental health, and relational problems.

Risk factors for being problem prone or psycho-

logically vulnerable included criminal behavior,

drug and alcohol use, mental health problems,

welfare use, stressful life events, intimate

partner violence, and risky sexual behavior.

Oxford, Gilchrist, Gillmore, and Lohr (2006)

examined adolescent mothers’ trajectories based

on prepregnancy functioning (i.e., history of

delinquent behavior, drug use, mental health

problems, school problems, and history of run-

ning away, as well as cumulative risk). They

found both simple summative risk and combina-

tions of individual risk factors were highly pre-

dictive of the pattern of transition into adulthood

for adolescent mothers. However, their study

only included single adolescent mothers who

were under 17 years of age, whose experiences

may not generalize to the 25% to 50% of adoles-

cent mothers in relationships with the father of

the baby (Bunting & McAuley, 2004) and those

aged 18 or 19 (who comprise 70% of adolescent

mothers; Bradbury, 2006).

Models investigating determinants of par-

enting functioning have typically highlighted

the interactive processes among maternal

characteristics (e.g., maternal psychological

health, personality), child characteristics (e.g.,

gender, temperament), and social context (mar-

ital relationship, social support, employment;

Belsky, 1984), suggesting that an ecologi-

cal perspective that also incorporates process