How does adolescent motherhood affect mother-infant/toddler relationship and emotional availability


Çikili Uytun M., Yürümez E., Öztop D. B., Menteşe Babayiğit T., Efendi G. Y., Kiliç B. G.

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF PSYCHIATRY IN CLINICAL PRACTICE, cilt.26, sa.1, ss.50-57, 2022 (SCI-Expanded) identifier identifier identifier

  • Yayın Türü: Makale / Tam Makale
  • Cilt numarası: 26 Sayı: 1
  • Basım Tarihi: 2022
  • Doi Numarası: 10.1080/13651501.2020.1828936
  • Dergi Adı: INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF PSYCHIATRY IN CLINICAL PRACTICE
  • Derginin Tarandığı İndeksler: Science Citation Index Expanded (SCI-EXPANDED), Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI), Scopus, Academic Search Premier, CINAHL, EMBASE, MEDLINE, Psycinfo
  • Sayfa Sayıları: ss.50-57
  • Anahtar Kelimeler: Adolescence, mother-infant interaction, mothers, MATERNAL CHARACTERISTICS, ATTACHMENT SECURITY, CHILDREN, OUTCOMES, RISK, PREGNANCY
  • Ankara Üniversitesi Adresli: Evet

Özet

Background The present study examined the different aspects of infant-mother relationships in adolescent mothers and compared them in adult mothers. Methods Children aged 18-40 months who were referred to our outpatient Infant Mental Health Department were analysed retrospectively. Sociodemographic data, Parent-Infant Relationship Global Assessment Scale (PIR-GAS) scores, and Emotional Availability (EA) Scales scores were analysed. Twenty-nine adolescent mothers being younger than 20 years at the beginning of pregnancy and thirty mothers who were aged at least 25 years were enrolled the same data as adult mother group. Results In the adolescent mothers group, the education years of the mothers, the ratio of mothers having professions were significantly lower (p < 0.001); the spousal age gap was significantly higher than among the adult mothers (p < 0.001). It was also found that an underinvolved relationship pattern was seen more frequently among the mother-infant dyads in the adolescent mothers' group than in the adult mothers group (p = 0.002). Conclusions Although there were not found many problems in terms of the relationship of adolescent mothers with their infants/toddlers in the current study this may have been due to a small sample, we would like to emphasise that the problems should be detected and appropriate interventions should be made for adolescent mothers.