title: Change and continuity in family caregiving practices with young mothers and their children.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To examine how young mothers who gave birth during adolescence extended and developed caregiving practices within the context of family relationships, caregiving traditions, and life events.
  
  
  METHODS
  Longitudinal, interpretive-phenomenological. A community-based sample in 1993 consisted of 13 of the 16 young mothers and 11 of the 18 grandparents who had participated in a 1988 study. Three male partners of the young mothers also participated in this 1993 study. Families resided in a Western metropolitan area in the United States.
  
  
  METHODS
  Life history accounts of the intervening years, stories of family routines, and recent coping episodes of parenting were elicited through in-depth interviews with the young mothers and their male partners; one interview was conducted with grandparents. Data were analyzed using the interpretive approach.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Adversarial caregiving practices develop or change in the context of transformed family relationships.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Life-course and parenting experiences of young mothers are not private and located in the self, but are developed in interaction with others. Family-centered interventions are needed that support the efforts of young mothers and grandparents to become responsive caregivers.
authors.affiliation: School of Nursing, Saint Louis University, MO, USA.
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: SmithBattle
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005190:Family / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D016901:Intergenerational Relations; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D009035:Mothers / Q000523:psychology*; D016487:Parenting; D012944:Social Support; D014481:United States