Stability of Resilience in Children of Adolescent Mothers

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Stability of Resilience in Children of Adolescent
Mothers

• Keri Weed
• University of South Carolina Aiken
• Deborah Keogh, and John Borkowski
• University of Notre Dame

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Abstract

• The current study examined the stability of
  resilience in a longitudinal sample of children
  born to adolescent mothers. 104 children were
  classified as resilient or vulnerable at age five
  based on competence in intellectual, adaptive
  behavior, and psychosocial domains. Three years
  later these same children were reassessed. 71
  retained their resiliency status from age five.
  Resiliency status at age eight was dependent upon
  childrens intelligence scores at age five and
  changes in maternal adversity between the ages of
  five and eight. Children who moved from
  vulnerable at age five to resilience at age eight
  had higher intelligence scores at age five and
  mothers with improved adjustment. The only
  predictor of loss of resilience was intelligence
  at age five. Results suggest the importance of
  early development for establishing pathways
  toward resilience.

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Introduction

• The purpose of the current research was to
  investigate the stability of resilience from age
  five to eight in a sample of children born to
  adolescent mothers. We believe that early
  challenging experiences compete, accumulate, and
  initiate a pathway toward resilience or
  vulnerability (Waddington, 1975). With age,
  developmental trajectories become more firmly
  entrenched, making deviations more difficult. It
  is unclear to what extent these developmental
  pathways have become entrenched by age five.
  Changes in the level of adversity between the
  ages of five and eight may be directly related to
  childrens adaptation and outcomes at age eight.
  Alternatively, early experiences may have
  initiated a trajectory toward positive or
  negative adaptation that resists diversion by
  intervening environmental events.

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Participants

• 135 primiparous adolescent mothers from the Notre
  Dame Parenting Project and their children
• 66.7 African-American, 26.7 Caucasian, 6.7
  Hispanic
• Majority from lower socioeconomic backgrounds (M
  55.3, with a range from 15 to 73 on
  Hollingsworth 2-factor index).
• 58 of the sample was in 11th or 12th grade at
  the time of childbirth (range from 7th grade to
  first year of college)
• average age of 17.1 with a range from 14 to 19.6
  
• 23 lived with both parents, 55.8 lived with a
  single mother, and 3 with a single father at the
  time of childbirth
• Complete eight-year data is available for 104 of
  the 135 dyads (77). Attrition was unrelated to
  maternal risk or to child status at age five.
  However, African Americans and Hispanics were
  retained at a somewhat higher rate (78 and 100)
  than Caucasians (69)

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Procedure

• Adolescent mothers in the current sample were
  participants in the Notre Dame Parenting Project,
  an ongoing longitudinal study (cf. Whitman et
  al., 2001). Participants were initially
  interviewed during the last trimester of their
  pregnancy or within one-week postpartum. All
  participants were seen in a university laboratory
  setting when the children were five and eight
  years of age. Mothers and children participated
  in several joint activities, and were
  subsequently interviewed separately. Mothers
  completed a life history questionnaire, a measure
  of social support, and several measures of
  psychosocial adjustment. Children completed a
  variety of cognitive and achievement tests. The
  session lasted about three hours. Mothers were
  paid up to 100 for their participation, and
  children received a small gift.

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Maternal Resiliency Index

• Maternal resilience was based on an index which
  was comprised of seven social and socioemotional
  outcomes at five years postpartum (Weed, Keogh,
  Borkowski, 2000) high school graduation,
  current educational endeavors, current job
  status, employment history, self-esteem,
  depression, and anxiety. Table 1 describes the
  specific criteria used to define each outcome.
  Young mothers received one point for reaching
  each outcome criterion. Those achieving at least
  five out of seven possible points were considered
  resilient whereas those with less than five
  points were considered vulnerable.

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Table 1Maternal Resiliency Index
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Child Resiliency Index

• Three criteria were considered in the
  classification of the five-year-old children as
  resilient intelligence, adaptive behavior, and
  behavior problems. Children who scored within
  one standard deviation of the mean of 100 (i.e.,
  over 84) on both intelligence and adaptive
  behavior and below the borderline clinical cutoff
  on behavior problems were considered resilient,
  whereas children who failed to meet any one of
  these three criterion were considered vulnerable.
  Reading was added as a fourth criteria at age
  eight. Adequate performance in all areas implies
  children are within the normal range of cognitive
  and behavioral functioning for their age levels.

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Results

• A logistic regression model was used to test
  the resistance of the trajectories established at
  age five to the degree of changes in maternal
  adversity after age five. Resilience status at
  age five was indexed by childrens intelligence,
  adaptive behavior, and psychosocial adjustment
  scores. Scores in each of these domains were
  entered into the regression model to represent
  the initial trajectory toward resilience or
  vulnerability. Changes in the adversity of the
  caregiving environment was based on the
  difference in maternal status at age five and
  eight.

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Table 2Intercorrelations and descriptive
statistics
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Table 3Stability of resilience from age five to
age eight
?2 (1, N104) 11.10, p 12
Table 4Stability of resilience from age five to
age eight by gender
?2 (1, n57) 6.67, p ?2 (1, n47) 4.97, p 13
Table 5Stability of resilience from age five to
age eight by race
?2 (1, n25) 9.56, p ?2 (1, n70) 3.90, p 14
Table 6Stability of resilience from age five to
age eight by maternal adversity
?2 (1, n40) 9.61, p ?2 (1, n24) .01, n/s
?2 (1, n40) 4.61, p 15
Table 7Logistic regression analysis of
resiliency status at age eight
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Summary and conclusions

• Of those children considered vulnerable at age
  five, less than 15 were reclassified as
  resilient at eight.
• Close to 55 of resilient children were
  considered vulnerable by age eight.
• Intelligence at age five was the strongest
  predictor of eight-year resilience.
• Sandler (2001) conceived of adversity as threats
  to childrens basic needs and goals and barriers
  to achieving competence, and suggested that
  resilience operates through changing the quality
  and ecology of adverse conditions. From this
  perspective, children with higher levels of
  intelligence may be better able to overcome the
  threats and barriers and manage to fulfill their
  needs and achieve competence.

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• Changes in level of maternal adversity
  differentiated vulnerable five-year-old children
  who became resilient from the majority of those
  who maintained their vulnerable status.
• Positive changes to maternal social and
  psychosocial adjustment during middle childhood
  may contribute to improved child competence.