NCJ Number
216448
Journal
Journal of Youth and Adolescence Volume: 35 Issue: 5 Dated: October 2006 Pages: 827-837
Date Published
October 2006
Length
11 pages
Annotation
This study examined whether early exposure to negative life events such as parental divorce, residential instability, and deaths in the family predicted children’s socio-emotional behavior functioning at age 10.
Abstract
Negative life events, reported by 94 percent of the study sample, were associated with less favorable developmental outcomes, with social support serving as a buffer between exposure to these events and children’s anxiety, internalization, externalization, and maladaptive behaviors. The findings regarding relationships among negative life events and social support’s potential for moderating later adjustment highlight the importance of teaching adaptive coping strategies to children most at risk for exposure to stressful events. Results highlight the long-term need for social policymakers, community leaders, school boards, and parents to address factors placing children at risk for exposure to multiple stressful circumstances. Children of adolescent mothers share many of the harmful conditions that other high-risk children experience, such as poverty and neighborhood crime. These conditions place children at heightened vulnerability for exposure to multiple stressful circumstances followed by negative life experiences. This study consisted of 96 adolescent mothers and their children recruited through local hospitals and programs. The goal was to identify whether cumulative social support promoted adaptive functioning in children of adolescent mothers, allowing them to display positive adjustment despite exposure to stressful life experiences. The study contributes to the understanding of resilience in children born to adolescent mothers. Tables, figures, references