Although adolescent childbearing has received a great deal of attention from social work professionals and researchers, adolescent parenting is, at present, not well understood, especially in relation to child maltreatment risks. This paper uses a nationally representative sample to extend our understanding of adolescent parenting risk for physical child abuse and to compare the parenting of adolescent mothers with that of adult mothers, particularly in relation to risks for physical child abuse.

This paper will present findings from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing (FFCW) Study, which is an ongoing, national longitudinal survey being jointly conducted by Princeton University and Columbia University. Mothers who were under the age of 20 at birth were selected (n=927), along with adult mothers (n=2,428) as a comparison group. These two groups of mothers who participated in baseline and three year follow-up surveys were examined for physical child abuse risks. Physical child abuse risks were measured using the Parent to Child version of the Conflict Tactics Scales (CTS-PC) and self-reports of maternal spanking. Key demographic and psychosocial variables were examined on mothers in relation to their parenting and abuse risk.

Descriptive analyses showed that 34.3% of adolescent mothers were under the age of 18 when they gave a birth (Mean=18.8; Minimum=14 years). The mean age of adult mothers was 27.6 years and it ranged from 21 to 50. The majority of both mothers were African-American (55.7% for adolescent mother; 45.5% for adult mother). Over 77% of births were paid by Medicaid for adolescent mothers while about 57% of births were paid by Medicaid for adult mothers. More adolescent mothers considered abortion during pregnancy than adult mothers (32.0% vs. 25.9%). OLS regression with robust standard errors indicated some differing predictors of physical abuse risk across two groups. For instance, adolescent mothers who used drugs and who perceived less support from fathers were more likely to abuse their children psychologically while these factors did not affect adult mothers' psychological abuse toward the children. For both groups of mothers, greater parenting stress and less support were related to greater risk for physical abuse toward the children. Interestingly, the presence of domestic violence was related to more frequent spanking for adolescent mothers only.

It is critical to examine what factors differentially affect parenting behaviors of adolescent mothers in comparison with adult mothers, since there has been argument about whether mother's age is a risk factor for child abuse. Additional research is indicated as the findings here point out that different factors might influence potential risks for maternal child abuse depending on the mother's age.