A comparison of adolescent and adult mothers' maternal separation anxiety

Maternal separation anxiety was compared for twenty adolescent and twenty a dult mothers. The adolescent mothers were recruited from a high school. tee n parent program. Adult participants were recruited from two university day care programs. The Maternal Separation Anxiety Scale was used to assess th e level of anxiety experienced by employed or school enrolled mothers when separated from their children. Analysis of variance indicated a group diffe rence for separation anxiety with the adolescent mothers being significantl y more anxious when leaving their children.