Adolescent Pregnancy and Parenting

The numbers of teenage pregnancy have decreased in the United States, but this is not the case for everyone. Being a mother in itself represents hormonal imbalances, that contribute to mood swings, depression in addition to the exhaustion of the first weeks of becoming a new mom. The joy of having a child does not prevent any of the hormonal changes or postpartum depression often times experienced by new mothers. The psychological impact of being an adolescent mother can affect the future of children of teenage parents.

High levels of parenting stress and a lack of social support are associated with negative mental health status for ethnic minority adolescent mothers, which in turn negatively impacts the development of their children. It is important to explore unique risks and protective factors associated with positive maternal outcomes for ethnic minority adolescent parents to ensure healthy development for their children.

According to Mollborn and Morningstar, 2009, teenage childbearing has been a public health and social problem in America since the 1970s and has been a point of concern for the healthcare sector to date.

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Among all industrialized countries in the world, United States has constantly had the highest rate of teen birth with an estimation of 27 of 1000 women experiencing teen birth aged 15 to 19 years (Mollborn & Morningstar, 2009). Teen birth rates are higher among adolescents who come from poor backgrounds and also higher among Black and Hispanic teenagers than White teenagers. Stephanie and Elizabeth highlight that research has been done on the social and economic consequences of teenage parenthood as well as the mental health status of teenage mothers.

Longitudinal surveys have been carried out by the U.S National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health and Early Childhood Birth and have been helpful in accessing and understanding psychological distress brought about by teen birth.

According to Whitworth article, 2017, longitudinal surveys shows that adolescent mothers have high depression levels compared to their teenage peers and adult mothers who seemed to have been distressed even before getting pregnant. Therefore, childbearing would not have been the core reason behind their depression since their depression levels were higher than that of their peers even before pregnancy and seems to intensify after pregnancy. Ideally, psychologically distressed teenage girls face more risk of experiencing teen birth compared to their peers who are not distressed thus having conversations with teenagers about responsible behaviors and their sexuality helps prevent teen pregnancies (Whitworth, 2017). Since most teen mothers come from financial unstable families, teenage childbearing seems to be an adaptive mechanism to cope up with hostile environment. From an evolutionary perspective, the optimal reproductive strategy is early reproduction that maximizes chances of leaving descendants in uncertain and risky environments.

More so, attitudes by adolescents during pregnancy through psychological mechanisms shape the effects of depression after childbirth (Whitworth, 2017). The expected ability to socially and economically provide and care for a child determined the depressive symptoms during teen pregnancy thus the incapability to have enough resources results to damage in mental health. Ultimately, adolescent childbearing results to adult depression as it makes desired educational attainment and expected income unattainable due to unplanned for responsibilities. Therefore, for better mental health adjustment to unexpected life events, individuals need the right attitudes and less depression results to attainment of desired social and economic status and drives away mental health and physical problems.

Fletcher, 2012, argues that adolescent motherhood affects the mothers’ short and long-term health conditions as well as their economic and educational capabilities since adolescent motherhood has been linked to lower income and low educational attainments. Teenage motherhood reduces the opportunities mothers have in their lives while increasing their limitations and change of priorities making them indulge in behaviors that may be risky. Tobacco consumption is one of the coping mechanisms by the mothers to reduce distress during parenting and they more likely become obese and are less likely to quit smoking. Moreover, teenage parenthood affects mothers in their relationships and marriages since they end up with low quality choices in partners (Fletcher, 2012). Miscarriages in teen pregnancies are common since they may be as a result of trauma brought about by high depression levels while 25% of teen pregnancies end in abortion, 16% end in miscarriages and 298 in 1000 of teen pregnancies become live births.

According to Dowd, 2018, hyperthermia has been the cause of averagely 38 children in the United States yearly after being left in vehicles. The cases seem to have constantly increased after the National Highway Transportation Service Administration (NHTSA) indicated that the safest places for children were in the backseats. Due to children’s immature physical developments, they get prone to acquiring heat injuries and illnesses (Dowd, 2018). Motor vehicles have greenhouse properties in hot conditions thus they get to trap heat in cold temperatures which eventually alters the compartment heating process of a car. Dowd, 2018, suggests that through educational programs which create awareness on vehicular hyperthermia dangers the frequent child deaths could be prevented. Emphasis is created on never leaving children in motor vehicles alone as well as looking before locking vehicles which can help in preventing car interiors getting accessed by children who could get trapped inside.

According to Grundstein, Dowd and Meentemeyer (2010), leaving children unattended to in motor vehicles could be risky as it could result to vehicle-related hyperthermia deaths. Since more than 2000 children die every year out of unintentional deaths awareness on vehicular hyperthermia could prevent some of the deaths since a small percentage of the death are caused by vehicle-related hyperthermia. In addition, 75% of the recorded deaths happen during the months of summer and 70% of the deaths happened when temperatures outside were more than 31 degrees (Grundstein, Dowd, & Meentemeyer, 2010). Regardless, warnings and educational programs are helpful in creation of awareness on dangers related to heat illnesses. Therefore, through the use vehicle temperatures table, guardians can know when it would be hazardous to leave children in vehicles thus preventing such deaths.

Further evidence indicates the relationship between adolescent parenting and accidental death of children. In a study using linked birth and death records from North Carolina and Washington State for 1968 through 1980. Wicklund et al. (1984) found a strong inverse relationship between maternal age and mortality rates from accidents for children under one, net of parity and educational level of mother (a proxy for SES). In the article, “The children of teen childbearers”, Hofferth states, “The actual mortality rate from accidents during the first year of life is actually quite low—in 1980 in North Carolina about 3 out of 10,000 live births died from accidents in the first year in Washington state the rate was 1.47 per 10,000 live births”. They differ in race, age of the mother, and level of education.

Children of mothers under 20 who had 9 or more years of schooling were substantially more likely to die from accidents in the first year of life than children of mothers 20 and over with the same amount of schooling. Among children of mothers with very low levels of schooling, those with mothers 24 and younger were more likely to die than those with mothers 25 and older. Education was also strongly inversely related to infant mortality from accidents and parity was directly related. That is, mortality rates were lower for children with a more educated mother and one with fewer children. Black children had almost twice the rate of deaths from accidents in the first year as white children. The main causes of accidental deaths in North Carolina were suffocation by inhalation and/or ingestion of food, and suffocation by mechanical means, transport accidents coming third.

In terms of accidental deaths, the correlation appears to be education level rather than the age of the mother, parental care is crucial for the safety of children; which appears to be less trustworthy in families in which the mother is young, black, less well-educated and has more children. Preparation for parenting, includes knowledge and attitudes about children's development, it is effects were also partially mediated by the mother's psychological predisposition for aggressive coping. Similarly, the effects of child temperament on abuse potential were mediated by the mother's psychological predisposition for aggressive coping. Implications for designing intervention programs, and identifying at-risk adolescents. These psychological and hormonal changes can definitely affect the state of mind of a young mother causing their worst nightmare, accidental death of a child. The ‘forgotten baby syndrome”, while this can seem unthinkable to forget your child for a number of hours without realizing the child is missing. Young mothers are at increased risk for mistreating their children. 1–5 An ideal strategy for protecting children from maltreatment would be early identification of young women who may be at risk for perpetrating abusive or neglectful behavior so that these problems can be addressed before they begin raising children.