BELIEFS ABOUT SUBSTANCE USE AMONG PREGNANT AND PARENTING ADOLESCENTS

Substance use among pregnant and parenting adolescents has health impl ications for both mother and baby. Utilizing the Theory of Reasoned Ac tion, a social psychological model, this research investigates the cog nitive structure underlying substance use, based on longitudinal analy ses of data from 3 waves of interviews with a cohort of young mothers who were 17 years old or younger during pregnancy. Use of cigarettes, alcohol, and marijuana were lowest during pregnancy, increased sharply at 6 months postpartum, and remained level at 12 months postpartum. C hanges in intentions, attitudes, perceived social norms, outcome belie fs, and normative beliefs followed the same pattern. The content of ch anging beliefs about substance use is examined and implications for su bstance use interventions among postpartum adolescent mothers is discu ssed.