| There continues to be a high prevalence of adolescent pregnancies within the USA. Children of adolescent mothers are often at a disproportionate risk for: cognitive impairment, social-emotional deficits, and school failure. Preventative interventions have been designed to help adolescent mothers prepare for parenting.; First time adolescent mothers (N = 34) of 4--7 month olds were assigned to either a treatment or control group. Participants had not received their GED or graduated from high school. The treatment group participated in an 8-month intervention, which focused on appropriate child development expectations, infant massage, and language development. The mothers' parenting attitudes and beliefs, knowledge of infant development and self-efficacy were assessed, while the infants' cognitive development and language ability was tested at preassessment and postassessment. The results indicated that the children in the intervention group tended to use more expressive language than the children in the control group at posttest (controlling for pretest). |
