The transition to motherhood in young at-risk women: The role of social support and mediating variables

The purpose of the present study was to investigate the role of social support during the transition to motherhood of young, at-risk women. Previous studies of such women have focused on the correlates of social support, but in large part have not considered the mechanisms involved. In this study, the stress-buffering hypothesis of social support was examined. It was predicted that social support would show both a direct and a stress-buffering relationship with psychological functioning, specifically depression and psychological distress. The role of self-esteem and psychological functioning as mediators of the relationship between social support and quality of the home environment also was examined. It was predicted that self-esteem would mediate support from a significant other, and that psychological functioning would mediate support from the family. Finally, whether the social support that young pregnant and parenting mothers receive differs by sociodemographic factors was examined. The study sample consisted of young pregnant and parenting women who were identified as being at-risk for child maltreatment, and who were receiving home visiting services. Results suggest that social support from the family and a significant other, as well as overall support across sources, have a direct, but not a stress-buffering, relationship with psychological functioning. Greater support consistently was related to less depression and psychological distress. Support from friends was not related to psychological functioning. In general, mediation could not be tested because support variables were not related to quality of the home environment. However, exploratory analyses with a sample of both primiparous and multiparous mothers revealed that psychological distress does not mediate the relationship between support from the family and quality of the home environment. Finally, examination of several sociodemographic factors revealed that amount of social support that young pregnant and parenting women received differed only by ethnicity. Caucasian women reported receiving more support from their friends than non-Caucasian women. Limitations of the present study are discussed, as well as future directions in this area of research