This study will explore the transition to motherhood in urban adolescent mothers attending a large urban high school with a parent support program and a school-based child care center. The first study aim is to examine the relationships among maternal variables including personal resources of the student-mothers, perceived environmental sources of stress and support, and outcome variables, including student-mothers' parental competence and child health and developmental outcomes. The second study aim is to compare maternal outcomes (student-mothers' school attendance, grades, patterns of continued enrollment or graduation from high school, and repeat childbearing) between a group of student-mothers with children enrolled in the school- based child care center and a group of student-mothers with children receiving other forms of child care. A volunteer paid convenience sample of 25-30 student mothers with children enrolled in the center and 25-30 student mothers with children not enrolled in the center will be recruited to join the study. Infants' maternal grandmothers will also be enrolled in the study. Associations will be tested, using a multi-variate transition to motherhood model similar to that proposed by Belsky (1984) between maternal independent variables including personal resources (Beck Depression Inventory and Rosenberg Self Esteem Scale), environmental variables (Norbeck Social Support Questionnaire and Life Event Questionnaire, involvement and use of the school-based child care center or child care provided by other sources, and involvement and self esteem [Rosenberg Self Esteem Scale] of the infant's maternal grandmother), and outcome variables including parental competence (Maternal Self Report Inventory, Parenting Daily Hassles Scale, Ages and Stages Questionnaire, Nursing and Child Assessment Teaching Scale) and child developmental and health outcomes (Bayley Scales of Infant Development and pediatric health record review). The two groups will be compared with respect to school attendance, grades, school continuation or completion, repeat child bearing patterns, and health status of the children. This preliminary study will allow for determination of effects and calculation of effect size in variables in the model, and may also begin to demonstrate the effectiveness of school-based child care centers in providing child care, and in enhancing parental competence and school success of adolescents who become mothers during their high school years.
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