Incongruent Teen Pregnancy Attitudes, Coparenting Conflict, and Support Among Mexican‐Origin Adolescent Mothers

• Author: Adriana J. Umaña‐Taylor,Katharine H. Zeiders,Diamond Y. Bravo,Kimberly A. Updegraff,Laudan B. Jahromi
• Published date: 01 April 2016
• Date: 01 April 2016
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/jomf.12271

D Y. B, A J. U-T, K H. Z, K A.

U,  L B. J Arizona State University

Incongruent Teen Pregnancy Attitudes, Coparenting

Conict, and Support Among Mexican-Origin

Adolescent Mothers

The current longitudinal study examined

whether differences between Mexican-origin

adolescent mothers and their mother gures

(N=204 dyads) in attitudes on the status

attained through teen pregnancy were associ-

ated with conict in their coparenting relation-

ship and whether coparenting conict was asso-

ciated with adolescent mothers’ perceptions of

social support. Findings revealedthat when ado-

lescents held more positive attitudes than their

mother gures about the status gained through

teen pregnancy, they tended to report greater

coparenting conict with their mother gures.

Furthermore, greater coparenting conict was

signicantly associated with decreases in ado-

lescents’ perceptions of social support (i.e.,

emotional, instrumental, companion support) 1

year later. Findings underscore the importance

of incongruent attitudes and the quality of

coparenting relationships between adolescent

mothers and their mother gures in relation

to support processes. Findings are discussed

with respect to understanding Mexican-origin

T. Denny Sanford School of Social and FamilyDynamics,

Arizona State University,951 S. Cady Mall, P.O. Box

873701, Tempe, AZ 85287-3701 (dybravo@asu.edu).

Laudan B. Jahromi is now at TeachersCollege, Columbia

University.

Katharine H. Zeiders is now at University of Missouri,

Department of Human Development and Family Science.

Key Words: adolescent childbearing, coparenting, social

support.

adolescent mothers’ social support in the context

of family subsystem attitudes and interactions.

In light of the challenges associated with ado-

lescent motherhood (e.g., limited resources, risk

of school dropout, low preparation for child

rearing), researchers have emphasized the criti-

cal role of social support as a protective factor

for this at-risk population (e.g., Letourneau,

Stewart, & Barnfather, 2004). Despite posi-

tive associations between social support and

adolescent mothers’ mental health (Brown,

Harris, Woods, Bauman, & Cox, 2012), their

parenting competencies (Jahromi, Guimond,

Umaña-Taylor, Updegraff, & Toomey, 2014),

and their offspring’s developmental outcomes

(Huang, Costeines, Kaufman, & Ayala, 2014),

limited work has examined processes that inform

adolescent mothers’ perceptions of social sup-

port during the early years of parenting. Social

support may be particularly important to under-

stand among Mexican-origin adolescent females

because they have the highest birthrate of all

U.S. ethnic groups (Martin, Hamilton, Oster-

man, Curtin, & Mathews, 2013). Prior work

has noted the importance of congruent beliefs

and interdependence between Latina adoles-

cent mothers and their own mothers (Cabrera,

Shannon, & Jolley-Mitchell, 2013; Contreras,

López, Rivera-Mosquera, Raymond-Smith, &

Rothstein, 1999); in addition, research has sug-

gested that attitudes toward the status benets of

Journal of Marriage and Family 78 (April 2016): 531–545 531

DOI:10.1111/jomf.12271