This study proposes to investigate the effects of maternal social well-being on the development of the child, as represented by three adolescent outcomes-school dropout, early initiation of sexual intercourse, and early childbearing-in a longitudinal sample of 1756 urban mother-child dyads. Maternal influence on the developing child is of central importance, but the degree to which a mother's own psychosocial characteristics affect that interaction is rarely addressed--nor is the manner in which other family and neighborhood attributes moderate these relationships. It is also unclear how particular maternal characteristics affect teen outcomes, and at which points in the child's development they exert the most influence. For each of the three adolescent outcomes we will use a series of multivariate logistic regressions modeling maternal social well-being as either single-item indicators at the child's birth or as multiple newly-created indices at the child's age 12. We hope to determine the utility of these social well-being indices, as well as to assess the importance of maternal social well-being measured both at birth and at a point more proximate to the outcomes. The teen outcomes were chosen because we believe them to be influenced by maternal social well-being, and because these outcomes have life-long impacts on economic, educational, social and health consequences. By identifying specific maternal well-being characteristics that could be strengthened by community-based programs during the childraising years, findings have potentially significant implications for public health and social policy.
