Adolescent mothers and their infants.

It is unclear why children of adolescent mothers experience more developmental problems than children of adult mothers. There has been minimal systematic investigation of whether there is a relationship between the young age of the mother and her mothering behaviors. Our data fail to demonstrate any relationship between adolescent maternal age and the counts of maternal behaviors three days following birth. Seventy-five normal primiparous mothers less than 20 years old were videotaped with their normal infants for ten minutes in a standardized laboratory setting during the three days following birth. The frequency of maternal behaviors was counted from the videotapes by trained observers. Future studies of primiparous adolescent mothers should consider the effects of maternal race/culture and socioeconomic status on their mothering behaviors. The relationship between adolescent maternal age and the vocalizations expressed by the mother to her infant should also be explored further.