title: Predicting adolescent mothers' transition to adulthood.
abstract: This study investigates the relation among prenatal maternal resources (including intellectual ability, cognitive readiness for parenting, personal adjustment and social support), maternal perceptions about parenting and children's temperament when children were 6 months of age, and individual differences in the adaptation of 90 adolescent mothers 3 years after the birth of their first child.  It was hypothesized that adolescent mothers¿ pre-existing resources and emerging perceptions about parenting determine not only their children's but also their own later adaptation to critical life events.  Maternal resources uniquely predicted later maternal cognitive functioning, personal adjustment, and child abuse potential, whereas maternal perceptions uniquely predicted maternal demographic status 3 years after childbirth.  Moreover, maternal perceptions were found to mediate the influence of maternal resources on parent-child interactional styles.  The unique roles that maternal resources and perceptions played in determining later maternal functioning are discussed.
authors.forename: D E
authors.initials: DE
authors.lastname: Mylod
authors.forename: T L
authors.initials: TL
authors.lastname: Whitman
authors.forename: J G
authors.initials: JG
authors.lastname: Borkowski
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000367:Age Factors; D000569:Americas; D001519:Behavior; D003710:Demography; D019049:Developed Countries; D005191:Family Characteristics; D005195:Family Relations; D007196:Indiana; D009035:Mothers; D009656:North America; D010290:Parents; D010465:Perception; D011153:Population; D011154:Population Characteristics; D011247:Pregnancy; D011584:Psychology; D012917:Social Adjustment; D012919:Social Behavior; D014481:United States
keywords: Adolescents; Adolescents, Female; Age Factors; Americas; Behavior; Demographic Factors; Developed Countries; Family And Household; Family Characteristics; Family Relationships; Indiana; Mothers; North America; Northern America; Parents; Perception; Population; Population Characteristics; Pregnant Women; Psychological Factors; Research Report; Social Adjustment; Social Behavior; United States; Youth