摘要：We examined the impact of a home visiting intervention on 227 adolescent mothers’ parenting attitudes. At enrollment, half of mothers were at risk for child maltreatment. Mothers assigned to intervention (n = 161) received home visits and case management. Intervention and comparison mothers (n = 66) participated in monthly peer group meetings. Regression analyses controlling for enrollment differences indicated that intervention group mothers had significant improvements in 3 of 5 subscales and in total Adult-Adolescent Parenting Inventory-2 scores relative to the comparison group. It is estimated that 10 of every 1000 children are victims of maltreatment in the United States. 1 Adolescent mothers are at greater risk for perpetrating child maltreatment than are adult mothers. 2–4 Adolescents mothers tend to have multiple characteristics found to be related to an increased likelihood of maltreatment, including lower educational attainment and income, 5,6 less knowledge about child development, unrealistic expectations for children’s behavior, and a reliance on physical forms of discipline. 7,8 Home visiting programs derived from the Healthy Families America (HFA) intervention paradigm appear to be especially helpful for reducing these risks among adolescent mothers. Studies conducted in the northeastern United States demonstrated HFA program impacts on parenting beliefs related to child maltreatment, including inappropriate expectations for behavior, a lack of empathy for the child, and beliefs about the use of corporal punishment. 9 HFA has also been shown to affect the behaviors of first-time adolescent mothers, including reducing harsh parenting behaviors and minor physical aggression against their child. 10 We investigated the influence of the Thrive Program, a home visiting project derived from the HFA model, on the parenting beliefs of adolescent mothers in the southern United States, where attitudes toward physical punishments are highly favorable. 11
