Teenage pregnancy and infant care practices: risk and protective factors

• Grant number: 13/25180-1
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: February 01, 2014
• End date: December 31, 2014
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Psychology
• Principal Investigator: Marina Rezende Bazon
• Grantee: Marília Hormanez
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Filosofia, Ciências e Letras de Ribeirão Preto (FFCLRP). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Ribeirão Preto , SP, Brazil

Abstract

Teenage motherhood is a recurrent fact in our society. Although it has been conceived as something positive, nowadays, it is mainly perceived as a problem, either for the teen herself, in terms of physical, psychological and social risks, either for the baby in terms of the quality of care they can receive. Within this, this project focuses on the risk of child maltreatment present for teenage mothers, understanding that this does not depend exactly on the age of the mother, but their exposure to certain factors, which effectively increment the chances of motherhood being lived as a challenge that exceeds the resources that young mother has to take care of the baby. Thus, the research aims to characterize a sample of adolescent mothers in regards to factors highlighted in specialized literature: socioeconomic status, social support and conceptions /beliefs related to motherhood and child development. For this purpose, it will be recruited through information contained in the Child Protection Agency of the city of Ribeirão Preto - SP, 20 teenagers who have children aged between 0 and 6 months under their care, considering that in the city there is the practice of public hospitals notifying the Agency of the fact that a teenager has given birth to a baby. The teens will be invited to participate and, once accepted, they will answer to a Semi-Structured Interview to characterize the mother's Socio-Demographic and to characterize the development of the baby and the caregiver-child interaction; the Social Support Questionnaire; the Inventory of Potential Child Maltreatment. The data collected will be treated through a qualitative and quantitative approach, considering the need for data description, in order to characterize the sample in relation to exposure of adolescents to the main risk factors for child maltreatment.