Psychosocial health of the adolescent mother in the relationship with her child and its development

Abstract

This study relates adolescent mothers' psychosocial health to the development of their child and to the mother-child relationship, in a sample of 99 mothers. The results show that 39.4% of mothers presented risk for mental health problems; 40.4% of children presented alterations in the language, and 7.1% in their socio-emotional development. We observed a direct association between the risk of developing mental health problems and the potential for abuse and neglect, and between psychosocial well-being and the quality of the relationship; also, we observed an inverse association between psychosocial well-being and potential abuse. It was confirmed that maternal mental health and the potential abuse predict the socioemotional development of the child, while the quality of the relationship predicts the development of language. These results may contribute to future generation of public policies.