Strengthening Self-Care and Child Care of Adolescent Mothers Through an Event History Calendar

Abstract

Purpose: To identify events and experiences of adolescent mothers relevant to their own care and the care of their children so as to support the elaboration of a future Event History Calendar (EHC) tool.

Design and methods: Qualitative study was conducted based on the Grounded Theory, from the constructivist perspective. Data were collected through in-depth interviews with 11 Brazilian adolescent mothers. Initial and focused coding was applied in the data analysis.

Results: The results present events that demarcate the adolescent mothers' perspectives of child care. Self-care and child care are related to everyday learning, ways of coping, strengthening of various support sources, mastery of gaps in health care, and sensory events.

Conclusions: The different events for adolescents are related to the transience of life, strategies of the moment, and the process of support for pregnancy-motherhood, which is dependent on a network of people and institutions that provide cooperation and participation in the reengagement of the adolescents while encouraging quality of life and development. The events identified can contribute to a list of relevant elements to structure a tool using EHC to guide the clinical practice of nurses so as to strengthen the adolescent's self-care and child care.

Practice implications: In the context of fragility in the communicative process between adolescent mothers and nurses, the strategy of an EHC can contribute to the expansion of nursing care, aid in developing new coping strategies addressing vulnerabilities, recognize multidimensional needs, strengthen the potentialities and confidence of mothers, and encourage involvement, advocacy and empowerment.

Keywords: Adolescent health; Child health; Nursing.