Adolescent health brief
Characterizing low-income Latina adolescent mothers: Living arrangements, psychological adjustment, and use of services

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Abstract

This study examined language, living arrangements, and various outcomes among Latina adolescent mothers. Living with mothers was associated with increased self-esteem for all adolescents, and lower depression for English-speaking and bilingual adolescents only. Spanish speakers reported higher welfare enrollment and better educational outcomes. Living with partners appeared to have negative implications.

Section snippets

Methods

The participants were 304 low-income Latina adolescent mothers participating in the Public Health Foundation Enterprises’ WIC program.

During their WIC appointment, the first 10 adolescent mothers from 55 WIC centers who came in on a specified day were asked by the staff to complete a survey regarding income, family structure, use of services (e.g., food stamps, welfare [Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF)], Medicaid, involvement in the Cal-Learn [California program assisting young

Results

Because the age of the adolescents in the sample was skewed toward older adolescents and because age was associated with study variables, multivariate analyses of covariance controlling for age were conducted to examine language group differences and interaction effects whenever the dependent variable was continuous. To control for age when the dependent variable was categoric, χ2 analyses were conducted separately for adolescents less than the median age of 18 years (range = 13–17 y) and for

Discussion

The results indicated that Spanish-speaking and bilingual adolescent mothers appeared to be experiencing more adjustment problems than English speakers, and that English speakers accessed services more, despite similar socioeconomic status and family structure. Specifically, the bilingual adolescent mothers exhibited depression scores within the clinically significant range. Spanish-speaking adolescent mothers showed lower self-esteem than their peers, and although the numeric differences in

Acknowledgments

The authors thank Eloise Jenks, M.Ed., R.D., Kiran Saluja, M.P.H., R.D., Judy Gomez, M.P.H., R.D., and the PHFE-WIC staff for their support of this work.

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