SOCIAL SUPPORT AND OUTCOME IN TEENAGE PREGNANCY

This paper presents information on the role and significance of social support for the occurrence of health and birth problems among adolescent mothers and their babies. Pregnant teenagers (N=268) were interviewed during the course of pregnancy and again approximately 4 weeks after delivery, and hospital records were abstracted. The significance of family support, friend support, and partner support, assessed during the pregnancy, were examined in relation to infant and mother outcomes assessed at or after the birth. Family support is significantly associated with birth weight. A high percentage of teenage mothers tend to experience depressive symptomatology after the birth, although those teens living with their parents score lower depression scores than others. Social support did not appear to be significantly associated with life stress, which tends to negate the buffering hypothesis which states that social support buffers the consequences of stress, thereby facilitating health and well-being. Infant outcome was indexed by birth weight, with gestational age controlled; mother outcome in terms of psychological adaptation was indexed by depressive symptomatology among adolescent mothers. author's modified