Social Support, Knowledge of Infant Development, and Maternal Confidence Among Adolescent and Adult Mothers

Objective: To explore the influence of social support and knowledge of infant development on maternal confidence in performing infant care tasks among adolescents and adults.

Design: Descriptive, exploratory.

Setting: A large urban teaching hospital in the midwestern United States.

Participants: 116 adolescent mothers (ages 13 to 19 years); 101 adult mothers (ages 20 to 41 years).

Main Outcome Measures: Adult mothers reported higher levels of knowledge about infant development than did adolescent mothers. For both adolescent and adult mothers, social support and knowledge of infant development were significantly correlated with confidence in providing infant care. For adolescents, knowledge of infant development explained 15% of the variance in maternal confidence scores, and the number of people in the adolescent's household explained an additional 5%. For adults, parity explained 10%, social support explained 9%, and knowledge of infant development explained 4% of the variance in maternal confidence scores.

Conclusions: An adolescent's knowledge of infant development significantly affects her confidence in providing infant care. Given the learning needs of new mothers and the time constraints for in-hospital postpartum teaching, nurses may need to adjust content and teaching methods for all new mothers, but especially to meet the needs of adolescent mothers.