Maternal-infant bonding in homeless adolescents and their infants.

Adolescent pregnancy is a major problem in our society today. A special subset of adolescents who are becoming mothers are those who are homeless--those who have no dependable, on-going place to live. These homeless teen mothers are a special at-risk group in terms of mothering. The focus of this study is to study maternal-infant bonding in a subset of homeless adolescents who are becoming mothers. This is a longitudinal, descriptive study for which the overall research questions are: What is the process of maternal-infant bonding in homeless teens during the first year of the infant's life? What are the mother-infant interactions around the feeding experience during this first year of life? Mother-infant pairs (N = 19), who are clients in a residential home, are videotaped (videotaped segments, N = 30) during the feeding situation. Time/event periods for data gathering according to the infant's age are: 1-3 weeks; 6-8 weeks; 4 months; 6 months; 8 months; 10 months; 12 months. Content analysis of the tapes used Barnard's Nursing Child Assessment Feeding Scale (NCAFS), a 73-item binary scale divided into 6 subscales. A descriptive profile of the clients on admission to the program includes measures of empathy, self-esteem, depression, social support, and social network. The findings are compared with the NCAFS norms for homeless teen mothers.