Department of General and Community Pediatrics, Children's National Hospital, 111 Michigan Ave, Washington, DC, 20010, USA.
Department of Biostatistics and Study Methodology, Children's National Hospital, Washington, DC, USA.
BMC Public Health. 2023 Jul 3;23(1):1278. doi: 10.1186/s12889-023-16185-7.
Adolescent parents experience worse health and socioeconomic outcomes compared to older parents. Little is known about the factors that can lead to better health and well-being among teen-headed families. A city-wide collaborative conducted a comprehensive well-being assessment of expectant and parenting teens in Washington, DC.
An online, anonymous survey was conducted with adolescent parents in Washington, DC, using convenience sampling. The survey consisted of 66 questions adapted from validated scales of quality of life and well-being. Descriptive statistics were used to describe the data overall, by subgroups of mother and father, and by subgroups of parent age. Spearman's correlations were utilized to demonstrate associations of social supports with well-being metrics.
A total of 107 adolescent and young adult parents from Washington, DC, completed the survey; 80% of respondents identified as mothers and 20% as fathers. Younger adolescent parents rated their physical health better compared to older adolescent and young adult parents. Adolescent parents reported accessing various governmental and community-based resources in the preceding 6 months. The most used resources were supplemental food programs, with 35% receiving Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits and 24% receiving support from the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children. There was no significant difference in health-related well-being metrics among those who did and did not receive resources. Having higher self-reported social support was positively correlated with higher self-rated physical health, mental health, and well-being, as well as experiencing positive emotions, and was negatively correlated with experiencing negative emotions.
This snapshot of the well-being of expectant and parenting teens in Washington, DC, showed overall positive physical, mental, and emotional health. Greater social support was correlated with better outcomes in these areas. Future work will leverage the multidisciplinary collaborative to translate these findings into policies and programs that meet the needs of this population.
与年长的父母相比，青少年父母的健康和社会经济状况更差。鲜为人知的是，哪些因素可以导致青少年为家长的家庭拥有更好的健康和幸福感。一个全市范围的合作组织对华盛顿特区的孕妇和育儿青少年进行了全面的幸福感评估。
我们采用便利抽样法，对华盛顿特区的青少年父母进行了在线匿名调查。该调查包括 66 个问题，这些问题改编自生活质量和幸福感的有效量表。采用描述性统计方法对整体数据、母亲和父亲亚组数据以及父母年龄亚组数据进行描述。利用 Spearman 相关分析来展示社会支持与幸福感指标之间的关联。
共有 107 名来自华盛顿特区的青少年和年轻成年父母完成了调查；80%的受访者为母亲，20%为父亲。较年轻的青少年父母对自己的身体健康状况评价较好，而较年长的青少年和年轻成年父母则不然。青少年父母报告称，在过去的 6 个月中，他们使用了各种政府和社区资源。使用最多的资源是补充食品计划，其中 35%的人获得了补充营养援助计划的福利，24%的人获得了妇女、婴儿和儿童特别补充营养计划的支持。在那些获得和未获得资源的人群中，健康相关的幸福感指标没有显著差异。自我报告的社会支持越高，与更高的自评身体健康、心理健康和幸福感呈正相关，与体验积极情绪呈正相关，与体验消极情绪呈负相关。
本研究 snapshot 展示了华盛顿特区的孕妇和育儿青少年的整体健康状况，他们的身体、心理和情绪健康状况总体上都比较积极。更多的社会支持与这些领域的更好结果相关。未来的工作将利用多学科合作组织，将这些发现转化为满足这一人群需求的政策和计划。
