Psychosocial predictors of maternal and infant health among adolescent mothers
W. T. Boyce, E. A. Chesterman and M. A. Winkleby
Division of Behavioral and Developmental Pediatrics, University of California, San Francisco 94143.
Past work suggests that stressful life events and social support are
significantly associated with a broad range of child health outcomes. Such
associations have remained, however, generally modest in magnitude,
suggesting that stress and support may be only proxy measures for a deeper,
more central aspect of childhood psychosocial experience. One aspect of
young people's lives that could plausibly mediate the effects of stress and
social support on health is the sense of stability and "permanence" in
ongoing life experience. We developed a standardized psychometric
instrument for measuring a "sense of permanence" and employed the measure
in a prospective 1-year study of health outcomes among 89 adolescent
mothers and their infants. Psychosocial and demographic factors were
significantly predictive of maternal, but not infant, health outcomes, and
the sense of permanence appeared to operate as a "final common pathway" in
the influence of psychosocial variables on health and illness end points.
Results of the study underscore the importance of continuity and stability
in childhood and suggest that changes in an individual's sense of
permanence may underlie the previously documented health effects of
stressful life events and social support.
