SUPPORT NETWORKS OF ADOLESCENT MOTHERS - EFFECTS ON PARENTING EXPERIENCE AND BEHAVIOR

The relation between social support and lower-income African-American adolescent mothers' parenting experience, parenting behavior, and psyc hological symptoms was studied. Larger support networks were associate d with better maternal adjustment unless individuals providing support were also providers of conflict. The young women's own mothers were t heir most prominent providers of support, and the number of different types of support the grandmother provided was related positively to qu ality of the adolescent's parenting behavior, but negatively to her ex perience of parenting. Having more friends in the network was related to better parenting behavior, but having more siblings in the network was related to poorer parenting behavior as well as more psychological symptoms. Although most of the young women relied on male partners fo r support, no variables related to provision of support by male partne rs were correlated with maternal adjustment.