Child-Neglecting Adolescent Mothers

Abstract

This exploratory study focused on filling some knowledge gaps about the relationship between adolescent motherhood and child neglect. Objectives included identifying predictors of neglect. The 102 subjects were low-income, single parents who gave birth to their first child before 18 years of age. The 22 neglectful mothers had been identified as maltreating by an urban, public child protection program before their 20th birthday. The remaining 80 mothers had never received any of the child welfare services provided by the same agency. Information was collected during in-home interviews. Logistic regression findings (a) revealed that 5 of 11 characteristics were associated with neglect independent of race; (b) identified a model that included two characteristics, educational achievement and number of children born during the teen years, and was modestly successful for predicting neglect; and (c) supported two of the three hypotheses. Discussion focuses on theory development and recommendations for future research.