The Influence of Father Involvement and Interparental Relationship Quality on Adolescent Mothers' Maternal Identity

Although rates of teenage pregnancy have steadily declined since 2000 (Hamilton, Martin, & Ventura, 2013), there remains a need to understand the mechanisms that influence the health trajectories of this vulnerable population and their children. Early childbearing has negative psychological consequences for adolescent females, including increased parenting stress (Larson, 2004) and depression (e.g., Whitson, Martinez, Ayala, & Kaufman, 2011). These adverse consequences are associated with less effective parenting practices and greater challenges adjusting to the mothering role (Florsheim et al., 2003). Moreover, children of adolescent mothers are at greater risk of experiencing failure to thrive, abuse, neglect, and impaired cognitive development (Whitson et al., 2011). In contrast, successful adaption to the maternal role can provide a mother with the ability to nurture and support her child's physical, emotional, behavioral, and social development (Logsdon, Wisner, & Pinto-Foltz, 2006; Rubin, 1984). Establishing a positive maternal role identity may be more challenging for adolescent females, but with available support, in particular from their child's father, they can function as well as adult women (Beers & Hollo, 2009; Lesser, Koniak-Griffin, & Anderson, 1999). Although research suggests that maternal role identity affects both maternal and child well-being, research examining the predictors of positive maternal role identity among adolescent mothers is limited.Fathers can have a meaningful, albeit complex, influence on maternal functioning. Fathers' influences appear to begin even before the birth of the child, with past research suggesting that the benefits of father involvement for mothers' mental and physical health and well-being can be extended to the prenatal period (e.g., Fagan & Lee, 2010). Furthermore, research on the transition to parenthood suggests that prenatal involvement may set the stage for fathers' early involvement in the first years of their children's lives; that is, father involvement before the birth of the child is a consistent predictor of father involvement post birth (Bronte-Tinkew, Ryan, Carrano, & Moore, 2007; Cabrera, Fagan, & Farrie, 2008). These findings strongly suggest that fathers' prenatal involvement may influence maternal functioning both directly and indirectly through fathers' involvement in childrearing following the birth of their child.Past research also has examined the association between interparental relationship quality and father involvement, documenting that these are related but not redundant constructs (e.g., Hohmann-Marriott, 2011). Nonetheless, few investigations have considered the joint and interactive influences of the interparental relationship and father involvement on either child or maternal outcomes. Such an investigation seems relevant for adolescent parents, given the heterogeneity in their living arrangements, relationship status, and parenting relationship quality (e.g., Furstenberg, Brooks-Gunn, & Chase-Lansdale, 1989). Variation in the quantity and quality of interactions between mothers and fathers may affect both the stability of father involvement across the transition to parenthood and the meaningfulness of fathers' involvement to mothers' well-being; specifically, fathers may be more likely to maintain prenatal involvement following the birth of their child if they are part of a supportive partnership. Indeed, both adolescent and nonadolescent fathers are more likely to stay involved with their young children over time when they experience a supportive relationship with the child's mother (Cutrona, Hessling, Bacon, & Russell, 1998; Fagan & Palkovitz, 2007). In contrast, fathers in hostile or undermining relationships may show less stability in their prenatal to postbirth involvement.The quality of the interparental relationship may also moderate the association between father involvement post birth and maternal identity. …