Young Unmarried Mothers' Relationships and Their Effects on Parenting Self-Efficacy. Poster Preseted at 2010 Conference for the National Council on Family Relations (NCFR).

2. Mothers spoke of the tension between trying to live in a house where they were both a daughter to a mother as well as a mother--where the power structure was pre-determined. For mothers lower in self-efficacy, conflict centered on issues of authority and autonomy, and mothers perceived these issues as demeaning their role as a parent, affecting the mother's confidence in her parenting role.

5. In contrast, parental self-efficacy scores were significantly different for mothers by co-parenting situation at the time of the interview, F (2, 36) = 6.01, p = .006. Post hoc analyses showed that mothers who identified intergenerational co-parenting arrangements were more likely to have significantly lower parental self-efficacy scores.

6. Because of the wide variability among mothers in the number of years since first birth (range = 2 months to17 years), ANCOVAs were conducted using time since first birth as a covariate (see Table 1). The addition of the covariate resulted in a significant F value for the relationship between parental self-efficacy and both co-residential and co-parenting status at first birth.

8. Over and above the significant effect of years since first birth (β = .37, p < .05), dyadic symmetry significantly contributed to the variance in parental self-efficacy (β = .37, p < .05).

10. Mothers spoke mainly about two general types of support: instrumental (i.e. child care, transportation, financial) and emotional support. Eighteen (or 44 %) of the mothers spoke during the interview of some kind of conflict with their co-parent or with different support figures. Some spoke of isolated while others spoke of a bitterness or conflict that was still resonating. Several of the mothers spoke about how it was especially hard to have authority over their child while they might have disagreements with their own parents, particularly if they are living with their parents (the child’s grandparents).

11. Differences were also discerned in the way that high and low self-efficacy mothers spoke about conflict. Mothers with higher self-efficacy confirmed their struggles with co-parents but seemed able to step back and take a broader perspective on the conflict.

14. Is the quality of mothers’ co-parenting relationship (amount of symmetry) consequential for their parental self-efficacy?

16. Mothers’ average age at the time of the interview = 24.1 yrs (range = 14 to 42 yrs )

17. Mothers’ average age at the time of the birth of their first child = 17.8 yrs (range = 11 to 26 yrs)

19. Co-parenting – defined in terms of who the mother identified as her primary co-parenting partner

20. Intragenerational arrangements -- living or parenting with someone of the mother's same generational age (e.g., husband, boyfriend, or a relative/friend about her same age)

21. Intergenerational arrangements -- living or parenting with someone of an older generation than that of the mother (e.g., a parent, grandparent, or a relative/friend of the same generation as the mother's parent)

24. A grounded theory method was used, with open, axial and selective coding (LaRossa, 2005).

25. Five reliable categories were established into which 257 statements were coded: (1)Who supports the mother. (2) How the mother is supported. (3)Conflict/ disagreement. (4) Where mother learned to parent. (5) Showing/teaching. Inter-rater reliabilities ranged from .68 to .84.References Bandura, A. (1982). Self-efficacy mechanism in human agency. American Psychologist, 37, 122-147. Coleman, P. K., & Karraker, K. H. (1997). Self- efficacy and parenting quality: Findings and future applications. Developmental Review, 18, 47-85. Cooley, M. L., & Unger, D. G. (1991). The role of family support in determining developmental outcomes in children of teen mothers. Child Psychiatry and Human Development, 21, 217-234. Dumka, L. E., Stoerzinger, H. D., Jackson, K. M., & Roosa, M. W. (1996). Examining of the cross-cultural and cross-language equivalence of the parenting self-agency measure. Family Relations, 45, 216- 222. Hunsley, J., Best, M., Lefebvre, M., & Vito, D. (2001). The seven-item short form of the dyadic adjustment scale: Further evidence for construct validity. The American Journal of Family Therapy, 29, 325-335. Jones, T., & Prinz, R. (2005). Potential roles of parental self-efficacy in parent and child adjustment: A review. Clinical Psychology Review, 25(3), 341-363. LaRossa (2005). Grounded Theory Methods and Qualitative Family Research. Journal of Marriage and Family, 67, 837-857. Wakschlag, L. S., Chase-Lansdale, P. L., & Brooks-Gunn, J. (1996). Not just "Ghosts in the nursery": Contemporaneous intergenerational relationships and parenting in young relationships and parenting in young African- American families. Child Development, 67, 2131- 2147 Weaver, C., Shaw, D., Dishion, T., & Wilson, M. (2008). Parenting self-efficacy and problem behavior in children at high risk for early conduct problems: The mediating role of maternal depression. Infant Behavior & Development, 31(4), 594-6