Written by a pediatrician/adolescent medicine specialist and a developmental psychologist, this book is a collection of informative, nonredundant yet comprehensive studies on adolescent pregnancy and parenting. More than 200 adolescent women in an ethnically diverse sample were studied prenatally and at regular 6-month intervals for 3½ years postpartum. Most of the teens were poor, unmarried, first-time mothers who resided within Southeast San Diego, a poor urban area approximately 10 miles north of the U.S.-Mexico border.
The purpose of this book was to offer researchers, practitioners, program directors, teachers, and graduate and medical students a better understanding of teenage pregnancy and parenthood within the following domains: * adolescent prenatal care and postpartum maternal and infant health outcomes, * immediate repeat pregnancy, * adolescent mothers' parenting, * the role of the adolescent's mother in teenage mothers' parenting, and * the baby's father. Contents: Preface. Introduction and Background. Prenatal Care and Maternal and Infant Health Outcomes. Short-Interval Repeat Pregnancy. Qualities of Adolescent Mothers' Parenting. The Role of Grandmothers in Adolescent Mothers' Parenting and Children's Outcomes. The Partners of Adolescent Mothers. Summary and Conclusions.