Four Models of Adolescent Mother-Grandmother Relationships in Black Inner-City Families

From interviews conducted with inner-city black adolescent mothers and their mothers (or surrogate mothers), four conceptual models of familial adaptation to adolescent parenthood were discerned: (1) Parental Replacement, (2) Parental Supplement, (3) Supported Primary Parent, (4) Parental Apprentice. This conceptual framework goes beyond considerations of living arrangement and household composition to provide practitioners in medical, school, and social service settings a method to better understand the triadic relationship of mother-grandmother-grandchild, and thus to intervene more effectively.