Longitudinal Patterns of Caregiving Sensitivity in a Sample of Adolescent Mothers

Mothers showed similar increases in their parenting sensitivity across time. It may have been that patterns of sensitivity were largely homologous because mothers came from comparable backgrounds and therefore navigated the transition into parenthood and childrearing in similar ways. Findings from this study also bring focus to adolescent mothers' improvement in parenting sensitivity across time. Such results aid in further reducing stigma associated with adolescent motherhood by highlighting their similarity to adult parent samples.