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Is what young mothers do more important than how they feel? An exploration of relationships among maternal depressive symptoms, maternal-child emotional availability and child persistence
Joan Riley Driscoll
Paperback. ProQuest, UMI Dissertation Publishing 2011-09-02.
ISBN 9781243463418
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Publisher description
Despite recent recognition that there is heterogeneity in the developmental trajectories of young mothers and their children, we do not fully understand the correlates of these differences nor do we understand the processes by which these divergent outcomes occur. This study examined the relations among parenting behavior (emotional availability), maternal psychosocial factors (current depressive symptoms, cognitive maturity, childhood history of abuse, and parenting attitudes) and child functioning (emotional availability and task persistence). In this study, 120 young mothers and their toddlers were observed at home in both a free play and teaching context. Maternal behavior was coded for emotional availability and child behavior was coded for emotional availability and persistence with a challenging task. Mothers reported on aspects of their childhood history, current personal functioning, parenting attitudes and parenting experiences. Results demonstrated that despite the risks associated with adolescent parenting, the young mothers in this sample, as a group, demonstrated positive and adaptive parenting behavior. Similarly, their toddlers, on average, demonstrated optimal levels of emotional availability, as well as moderate levels of persistence with a challenging task. These findings suggest that many young mothers and their toddlers possess strengths that may function to support future positive mother-child relations. At the same, however, a number of young mother-child dyads demonstrated problematic functioning as evidenced by low levels of emotional availability and low child persistence. There was also a high incidence of maternal depressive symptomatology. Mothers' depressive symptoms and parenting attitudes were related to aspects of their emotional availability. However, only mothers' emotional availability was related to child functioning. Both methodological and theoretical considerations are discussed
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Is what young mothers do more important than how they feel? An exploration of relationships among maternal depressive symptoms, maternal-child emotional availability and child persistence
Book reviews » Is what young mothers do more important than how they feel? An exploration of relationships among maternal depressive symptoms, maternal-child emotional availability and child persistence
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