Parenting experiences and outcomes among former adolescent mothers: A mixed methods study

Serena Cherry Flaherty; M Tish Knobf; Margaret L Holland; Arietta Slade; LaRon Nelson; Lois S Sadler

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0303119

Parenting experiences and outcomes among former adolescent mothers: A mixed methods study

PLoS One. 2024 May 15;19(5):e0303119. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0303119. eCollection 2024.

Authors

Serena Cherry Flaherty¹, M Tish Knobf¹, Margaret L Holland¹, Arietta Slade², LaRon Nelson¹, Lois S Sadler^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ Yale University School of Nursing, Orange, CT, United States of America.
² Yale Child Study Center, New Haven, CT, United States of America.

Abstract

The purpose of this explanatory sequential mixed methods study was to examine parenting outcomes and experiences over time among marginalized adolescent mothers enrolled in randomized clinical trials (RCT) between 2002 and 2016 testing Minding the Baby® (MTB), an early home visiting program. The quantitative phase examined associations between measures of maternal experiences and parenting outcomes from 71 participants 2-8 years since RCT completion. MTB mothers reported less hostile parenting and fewer child behavior problems. The sequential qualitative phase involved interviews with a subsample (n = 31) and revealed six themes about their personal and parenting maturation. Through integration of quantitative and qualitative data, we generated metainferences, revealing a nuanced understanding of participants' experiences. Integrated findings revealed the complex personal and parenting experiences among former adolescent mothers during their developmental phases of emerging and early adulthood. Findings inform clinical and research approaches to promote personal growth and positive parenting outcomes over time among women who began childbearing in adolescence.

Copyright: © 2024 Flaherty et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

MeSH terms

Adolescent
Adult
Female
Humans
Mothers* / psychology
Parenting* / psychology
Pregnancy
Pregnancy in Adolescence* / psychology
Young Adult

Grants and funding

S.F. received two awards to support this work. This publication was made possible CTSA Grant Number TL1 TR001864 from the National Center for Advancing Translational Science (NCATS), components of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and NIH roadmap for Medical Research. Its contents are solely the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official view of NIH. This publication was also made possible by the Sheila Packard Memorial Award, Connecticut Nurses Foundation. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. This publication was also supported by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) as part of an award totaling $430,733.00 with 0 percentage financed with non-governmental sources. The contents are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent the official views of, nor an endorsement, by HRSA, HHS, or the U.S. Government. This research was supported in part by HRSA T32HP42021-Safford.