ORIGINAL PAPER
Teenage motherhood and the evaluation of relationships in the family of origin in mothers in their early adulthood
1
Institute of Psychology, University of Opole, Poland
Submission date: 2019-01-10
Final revision date: 2019-03-13
Acceptance date: 2019-04-13
Online publication date: 2019-06-05
Publication date: 2019-06-04
Health Psychology Report 2019;7(2):103-112
KEYWORDS
TOPICS
ABSTRACT
Background:
The objective of this study was to evaluate the relationships in the family of origin in a sample of mothers who had their first child as teenagers (off-time motherhood). We also sought to answer the following question: are there any differences in the evaluation of relationships between mothers who gave birth to their first child in their teens and those who had their first baby during women’s best fertility age (on-time motherhood)? For women, the optimum reproductive age is anywhere between 20 and 30 years of age.
Participants and procedure:
The study looked at 60 mothers, including 30 off-time mothering and 30 on-time mothering. Two research tools were used in the study: an own survey and the SOR test by Margasiński (a Polish adaptation of the Flexibility and Cohesion Evaluation Scales).
Results:
The results of the research showed significant differences in how family life was assessed by the two groups regarding cohesion and communication. Moreover, teenage mothers’ families of origin are characterised by unbalanced cohesion which manifests itself as extreme cohesion (enmeshed relationships) and higher inter-family communication satisfaction when compared to mothers who had a baby at the optimum age of 20-29.
Conclusions:
Intergeneration issues are a vital research problem. One of those is how experiences from one’s family of origin shape the way one builds a partnership in one’s family of procreation – which later translates into rela-tionships with one’s children. The results of the present study are the first step in a research project on the psy-chological functioning of family systems of mothers who gave birth as teenagers. Later, relationships in fami-lies of origin and families of procreation of teenage mothers will be examined.
The objective of this study was to evaluate the relationships in the family of origin in a sample of mothers who had their first child as teenagers (off-time motherhood). We also sought to answer the following question: are there any differences in the evaluation of relationships between mothers who gave birth to their first child in their teens and those who had their first baby during women’s best fertility age (on-time motherhood)? For women, the optimum reproductive age is anywhere between 20 and 30 years of age.
Participants and procedure:
The study looked at 60 mothers, including 30 off-time mothering and 30 on-time mothering. Two research tools were used in the study: an own survey and the SOR test by Margasiński (a Polish adaptation of the Flexibility and Cohesion Evaluation Scales).
Results:
The results of the research showed significant differences in how family life was assessed by the two groups regarding cohesion and communication. Moreover, teenage mothers’ families of origin are characterised by unbalanced cohesion which manifests itself as extreme cohesion (enmeshed relationships) and higher inter-family communication satisfaction when compared to mothers who had a baby at the optimum age of 20-29.
Conclusions:
Intergeneration issues are a vital research problem. One of those is how experiences from one’s family of origin shape the way one builds a partnership in one’s family of procreation – which later translates into rela-tionships with one’s children. The results of the present study are the first step in a research project on the psy-chological functioning of family systems of mothers who gave birth as teenagers. Later, relationships in fami-lies of origin and families of procreation of teenage mothers will be examined.
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