AUTHOR=Salerno Alessandra , Tosto Monica , Raciti Iolanda , Merenda Aluette 

TITLE=Self-differentiation and parenting stress in adolescent mothers. An exploratory study

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Developmental Psychology

VOLUME=2

YEAR=2024

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/developmental-psychology/articles/10.3389/fdpys.2024.1306427

DOI=10.3389/fdpys.2024.1306427

ISSN=2813-7779

ABSTRACT=<sec><title>Introduction</title><p>Adolescent motherhood, a phenomenon that has a strong social impact, is explored, focusing particularly on the mother's psychosocial development, parental role, skill, and parenting-related stress.</p></sec><sec><title>Methods</title><p>This study aims to analyze the connection between maternal self-differentiation in first-time mothers (aged between 15 and 20 years old) and parenting stress levels, including some moderating variables, such as dyadic adjustment, maternal self-esteem, and perceived social support.</p></sec><sec><title>Results</title><p>The analyses highlighted the following significant results: emotional cutoff and fusion with others are predictors of parenting stress (β = −0.38, <italic>p</italic> &lt; 0.05, and β = 0.36, <italic>p</italic> = 0.05, respectively); emotional cutoff is also found to be a significant predictor of parent–child dysfunctional interaction (β = −0.42, <italic>p</italic> &lt; 0.05), while fusion with others predicts a mother's perception of her child as difficult (β = 0.39, <italic>p</italic> &lt; 0.05); a predictive effect of the positive self-worth on a mother's perception of having a difficult child is found (β = −0.37, <italic>p</italic> &lt; 0.05); and a predictive effect of dyadic cohesion on a mother's perception of having a difficult child (β = −0.40, <italic>p</italic> &lt; 0.05) is found.</p></sec><sec><title>Discussion</title><p>The results are discussed from a sociocultural perspective, and their implications on early motherhood, especially in Italy, are considered.</p></sec>