An intervention to test the adolescent maternal confidence learning model

The purpose of this research was to test the adolescent maternal confidence learning model with an educational intervention. Baby Basics 1 01 © is a series of parenting classes which were taught to adolescent mothers during the last trimester of pregnancy through the first year of the infant's life. This study was a quasi-experimental intervention with a comparative pretest/posttest design. This design was structured with one treatment group and one control group. The sample included 102 participants between the ages of 13-20 years old recruited from two sites with 54.9% (n =56) from an alternative school for pregnant and parenting teens (control group) and 45.1% (n = 46) from a teen support group (intervention group). Subjects completed the Maternal Confidence Questionnaire (MCQ), the Maternal Attachment Inventory (MAl), and the Baby Basics Knowledge Survey (BBKS) for pre and posttest data. One-way ANOV A and independent t-test on gain scores was used to analyze the data. No evidence was found for a significant change in maternal confidence for the three stages of adolescence. The difference between mothers who participated in Baby Basics I 0 I© and the comparison group was not significant. Although not statistically significant, the intervention group participating in Baby Basics 101© had means gain score of2.41 as compared to the control group means gain score of 1.14. The difference on maternal attachment between the middle adolescent and the late adolescent group (t =- 2.174, 96 df, p> .005) was not significant. No significance was found between the control and intervention groups for maternal attachment. At posttest there was a positive correlation found for the intervention group for maternal attachment and maternal confidence. There was a significant difference in the level of knowledge of mothers who participated in Baby Basics 101© versus mothers who did not participate. Results of this study indicate that although adolescent mothers were confident in their ability to parent their infant, they were eager to learn more about parenting to increase their knowledge.