Adolescent Mothers’ Psychological Wellbeing during Pregnancy and Infant Emotional Health

ABSTRACT

Objective

Although many studies have identified risk factors for adolescent pregnancy, much less is known about factors that support pregnant adolescents’ psychological wellbeing and offspring outcomes. This study drew on strength-based frameworks to investigate family and neighborhood factors linked to social connectedness that predict psychological wellbeing during adolescent pregnancy and offspring outcomes.

Method

Participants included 135 adolescent mothers (ages 14–21; 90% Black American) assessed annually since childhood as part of a longitudinal study. During preadolescence (ages 11–13), data on contextual stressors and neighborhood support were gathered from participants’ caregivers; participants also rated their perceived trust/attachment with caregivers before and during pregnancy. To assess changes in psychological wellbeing, adolescents reported positive and depressed mood before and during pregnancy. A path analysis model tested the prospective associations between family and neighborhood factors, psychological wellbeing during pregnancy, and offspring outcomes (birth outcomes; observed infant positive/negative emotions at age 3-months).

Results

Positive mood decreased from pre-pregnancy to pregnancy, whereas depressed mood remained stable. Adjusting for pre-pregnancy mood, perceived caregiver trust/attachment during pregnancy was associated with prenatal positive mood. Prenatal positive mood, in turn, reduced risk of preterm birth and indirectly predicted positive infant emotions via birth outcomes. Neighborhood support in preadolescence predicted lower prenatal depressed mood, but depressed mood did not predict infant outcomes beyond positive mood. Contextual life stress was not associated with prenatal mood after adjusting for family and neighborhood support.

Conclusions

Findings highlight changes in positive-valence emotions during adolescent pregnancy that may have unique associations with birth outcomes and offspring emotions.

Supplemental data

Supplemental material for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/15374416.2021.1981339

Acknowledgments

Special thanks to the families of the Pittsburgh Girls Study for their participation in this research and to our dedicated research team for their continued efforts.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This research was supported by grants from the National Institute of Mental Health (MH071790, MH056630) and the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (HD067185). IT was supported by a postdoctoral training grant from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (T32AA007453) and an early career development award from the National Institute of Mental Health (MH123505).