Mother’s Friendship Quality, Parental Support, Quality of Life, and Family Health Work in Families Led by Adolescent Mothers with Preschool Children

Abstract

Based on the developmental model of health and nursing, hypothesized relationships between mothers’ friendship quality, parental support, quality of life (QOL), and family health work (health-related problem solving) were tested in a community sample of 58 families led by adolescent mothers during structured interviews in which measures of the study variables were administered. Contrary to theoretical expectations, no relationship was found between mothers’ friendship quality and health work. However, moderate positive relationships were found between parental support and health work and between health work and mothers’ QOL. Using path analysis, mothers’ friendship quality, parental support, and family health work predicted 49% of the variance in mothers’ QOL. Although the initial theory was not supported by the data, the addition of a path between parental support and QOL resulted in a model that was an excellent fit with the data. Parental support had the strongest direct effect on mothers’ QOL.