COGNITIVE READINESS TO PARENT AND INTELLECTUAL-EMOTIONAL DEVELOPMENT IN CHILDREN OF ADOLESCENT MOTHERS

Seventy adolescent mother-child dyads were assessed longitudinally to determine relationships among prenatal maternal knowledge and attitude s about parenting, evaluated in the 3rd trimester; postnatal maternal perceptions of parenting stress and child temperament as well as mater nal interactional style, evaluated when children were 6 months of age; and intellectual, linguistic, and behavioral development at 3 years o f age. Mothers who were more cognitively prepared for parenting had ch ildren who displayed better intellectual development and fewer interna lizing and externalizing behavioral difficulties. Mothers who were les s cognitively prepared for parenting prenatally perceived their parent ing role as more stressful and their children as more difficult. Altho ugh maternal interactional style did not act as a mediator, perception s at 6 months were found to mediate the relationship between prenatal cognitive readiness and child intelligence and internalizing behaviors .