Parenting for the First Time:

A Multi-Site Research Project Examining the
Earliest Predictors of Child Neglect
Among Adolescent Mothers

Goal of the Project:

    This project will document the influence of neglect in children of teen mothers during the first three years of life and identify the earliest predictors of neglectful parenting.

    The project is a collaboration of investigators from the University of Notre Dame, University of Kansas, and Georgetown University.  Each of the four sites is recruiting a representative sample of 100 adolescent mothers and two contrast groups of 40 adult mothers that differ on educational level.  All mothers will be recruited during the last trimester of their pregnancy and followed until their child is 36 months.

Our objectives are to:

1. Clarify the meaning of neglect by evaluating and refining a series of assessment tools using multiple methods;
2. Predict neglect through the use of prenatal risk factors;
3. Document the well-being and development of both mothers and their children over the first 3 year of life to determine whether different developmental patterns are systematically associated with early maternal neglect;
4. Assess the importance of community-based programs in preventing or reducing neglect behavior;
5. Test the generality and usefulness of a conceptual model of adolescent parenting that will relate neglect to prenatal antecedent variables and to child outcomes.

Population/Setting:

     Teen and adult mothers will be recruited from local medical centers and clinics that provide prenatal care.  Assessments of children and parents will take place in homes as well as in community centers.  A unique methodological feature in this project is the use of Multi-Method, Multi-Informant approach to study neglect as a construct.

Measures that will be gathered during a 3 year period include:

• prenatal maternal predictors (e.g., depression, substance abuse,
  cognitive readiness to parent etc.),

• parenting (interactions within daily routines, child abuse potential,
  others) demographic information (e.g., education, jobs, marital
  status, etc.) maternal socioemotional characteristics

     Assessments of children's intellectual, linguistic and socio-emotional development will occur at 1, 2 and 3 years.

      The use of cellular telephones, one of 5 measurement approaches, allows us to maintain frequent contact with participants and gather data on mother-child interactions that occur within daily routines, the absence of which defines neglect.

Other measures of neglect include:

• mother child interaction
• self-reports
• professional evaluations
• monitoring nighttime patterns of parenting

Potential for impact on practice:

    A refined model of neglect will inform future intervention efforts.