The Adolescent Parenting Program: Improving outcomes through mentorship

Adolescent parents and their infants are a population at risk. Infant morta lity, low-birthweight, and child maltreatment are inordinately higher withi n this population than within slightly older cohorts, The purpose of this o ne group pretest-posttest intervention study was to analyze the efficacy of a program designed to improve infant outcomes through the enhancement of h ealth practices and parenting skills in a sample of 137 low-income, pregnan t and parenting adolescents who reside in an urban area and who screened po sitive for risk of child maltreatment. Based on theories of mentorship and social support, the program provided intensive home visitation by nursing p araprofessionals, indigenous to the community, for the 2 year study period. Program outcomes were compared to local and national data. Findings reveal ed only 4.6% of program infants were low-birthweight compared to local and national percentages of 13.5% and 9.42%. The mean length of gestation was 3 9.27 weeks (SD = 1.55). The incidence of infant mortality was zero, compari ng favorably with national data as well as the local infant mortality rate (almost twice the state average). There were only four cases of child negle ct, representing only 2.91% of the sample. This finding also compares favor ably with national data.