The relation between young mothers' childhood histories and emotional availability in mother-child interaction

The purpose of this study was to investigate how a history of maltreatment affects emotional availability in adolescent mothers. Based on past research, it was hypothesized that mothers who reported maltreatment histories would score lower on emotional availability in interactions with their infants than would mothers without such histories. It was hypothesized that mothers enrolled in home visiting services, even with histories of maltreatment, would score higher on emotional availability than mothers who were not enrolled in this program. Thirty nine mothers from Massachusetts Healthy Families Evaluation were examined. Results showed that mothers with maltreatment histories scored higher on parental sensitivity than did mothers who did not report childhood maltreatment. There were no differences in emotional availability of mothers according to enrollment status in the home visiting program. Results showed that adolescent mothers may be able to engage in sensitive parenting even with maltreatment histories, but underscore the need for more research.