School-based support for urban adolescent mothers.
BACKGROUND
The purpose of this research was to examine infant birth weights and high school completion rates for two cohorts of adolescent mothers attending an urban school-based program, the Polly T. McCabe Center.


METHODS
A retrospective record review was conducted with two convenience samples of 47 adolescent mothers (study I) aged 16.1 +/- 1.4 years and 60 adolescent mothers (study II) aged 15.9 +/- 1.4 years who were enrolled in the McCabe Center during the 1992-1993 and 1996-1997 academic years.


RESULTS
The incidence of low birth weight infants born to students was 4% in study I and 13.6% in study II. High school continuation/completion rates for study I were 79% at 3 years after leaving the program and 80% for study II at 1 year after leaving the program.


CONCLUSIONS
The young mothers and infants appear to have benefitted from the McCabe Center's intervention. Findings of the study suggest that continued implementation of supportive school-based programs similar to the McCabe Center may help prevent lower birth weight infants born to adolescent mothers and may help decrease the high school drop-out rate among this population.
Meadows
M
M
Pediatric Primary Care Center, Yale New Haven Hospital, Yale University School of Nursing, New Haven, Conn., USA.
Sadler
L S
LS
Reitmeyer
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GD
D000124:Achievement; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001724:Birth Weight; D003237:Connecticut; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007230:Infant, Low Birth Weight; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D011247:Pregnancy; D011253:Pregnancy in Adolescence; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012574:Schools; D012944:Social Support; D014505:Urban Population