Citation

Meyers SA, Battistoni J. J. Appl. Dev. Psychol. 2003; 24(1): 33-49.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2003, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/S0193-3973(03)00023-6

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

We used an ecological approach to examine the correlates of 535 adolescent mothers' parenting attitudes. Participants' attitudes towards parenting were related to their current self-esteem, social support, domestic violence victimization, substance abuse, as well as their childhood history of physical and sexual abuse. Many adolescent mothers experienced a range of past and present stressors that often cooccurred and suggest that risk factors seldom operate in isolation. Importantly, both proximal and distal factors were associated with adolescent mothers' empathy, role reversal, and attitudes towards corporal punishment. These variables not only had significant bivariate correlations with parenting attitudes, but many historical and current factors were also significantly related to the outcome measures when other predictor variables were controlled.