Comparison of perceptions of infant behaviors and development by adolescent and nonadolescent mothers

This study was designed to compare maternal perceptions of infant behaviors and development in a group of adolescent and nonadoles-cent mothers. The original hypothesis was that adolescent mothers would have less realistic perceptions of their infants and less knowledge of developmental norms than nonadolescent mothers. There were 17 adolescent and 17 nonadolescent mothers who participated in the study at four to eight weeks postpartum. The mean age of the adolescents was 16.88 years while the mean age of the nonadolescents was 24.47 years. The mothers completed a questionnaire consisting of Broussard's Neonatal Perception Inventory plus questions about common developmental milestones . Demographic data and background information were also obtained. There were no significant differences between the two groups of mothers in their perceptions of their infants. Four of the adolescents and five of the nonadolescents viewed their infants as average"" of ""less than average."" There were no significant differences between the mothers in their knowledge of total child developmental norms, although the adolescents averaged closer to the correct age for the individual norm of awareness of what ""no"" meant. There were no significant correlations between the Neonatal Perception Inventory scores and marital status, education, income, race, previous child care, method of feeding, and resources used for infant questions and regular child care. There were no correlations between these same variables and the mothers' knowledge of developmental norms. There were no significant correlations between the Neonatal Perception Inventory scores and knowledge of developmental norms. Significantly fewer of the adolescent mothers were married (64.7%) when compared with the nonadolescent mothers (100.0%). The adolescents had completed fewer grades, but more of them were attending school (64.7%) than the nonadoles cents (11.8%). Income was significantly lower among the adolescent mothers. More of the adolescent mothers bottlefed their infants (64.7%) while more of the nonadolescent mothers were breastfeeding (82.4%). More adolescents used their own mothers for questions about their infants (75.0%) and regular child care (53.8%). The nonadolescents used friends, husbands, and professionals for infant questions (88.2% and regular child care (100.0%). It was concluded that every mother's parenting skills need to be assessed on an individual basis. The mother's age did not affect her perception of her infant or her knowledge of developmental norms.""