Stressors, coping, and social supports of adolescent mothers.

This report describes the perceived stressors, coping strategies, and social supports of a group of adolescent mothers during their first month at home after delivery. In addition to concerns about the baby and the limitations imposed by motherhood, many of the young mothers considered their interpersonal relationships as problematic. Findings suggest that the puerperium was not a time of major distress for most of these young women. Factors contributing to a relatively smooth transition to motherhood were the adolescent's use of anticipatory coping prior to the birth, their extensive reliance on family support once at home, and their past experience with childcare. Sharing childcare with the family was an important component of the support received by these adolescents, and it is suggested that the adolescent's mobilization of social supports may be essential to ther adaptation to motherhood. Professionals were infrequently mentioned as sources of support even though a majority of the sample participated in special adolescent maternity programs. Finally, findings also suggest that problem-focused coping was used more often when dealing with concrete stressors, while emotion-focused coping was used more in response to interpersonal problems.