Decision-making behaviors for adolescent mothers enrolled in the nurse-family partnership

UNCG Author/Contributor (non-UNCG co-authors, if there are any, appear on document)
Susan H. Lane (Creator)
Institution
The University of North Carolina at Greensboro (UNCG )
Web Site: http://library.uncg.edu/
Advisor
Eileen Kohlenberg

Abstract: Adolescent pregnancy rates are particularly high in the southern states posing a critical area for nursing intervention. The effect of the nurse home visitor social support intervention on decision-making for parenting adolescents has not been documented within the healthcare literature. Lack of information on the nurse home visitor social support intervention's efficacy is a serious gap in the knowledge base. The Nurse-Family Partnership, a health promotion program utilizing nurse home visitation for first time mothers, has been described in the literature as effective in improving health outcomes and self-sufficiency of the participants in the program, but this study will assess areas that have not been addressed by previous Nurse-Family Partnership research. The purpose of this quantitative cross-sectional study was to describe the decision-making behaviors of parenting adolescents enrolled in the Nurse-Family Partnership and to explore predictive variables that may have influenced their decision-making behaviors within the context of decision-making behaviors, social support, and everyday chronic stressors. Using the Adolescent Decision Making Questionnaire, Norbeck's Social Support Questionnaire, Adolescent Demographic Questionnaire and the Everyday Stressors Index, decision-making behaviors, social support, demographic variables and everyday stressors were measured in the population of parenting adolescents enrolled in the Nurse-Family Partnership. The setting for the study was North Carolina. Using convenience sampling, a sample size of 38 adolescents was recruited. Conceptually, the study was guided by Norbeck's social support model. Results included that a large percentage (68.4%) of the adolescents in the study reported that the nurse home visitor was a source of social support. Additionally, for each grade level completed, there was a 1.009 significant increase in the predicted mean score for the self-esteem subscale on the Adolescent Decision Making Questionnaire. When comparing Hispanics/Latinos versus White participants, Hispanics/Latinos had significantly less social support aid than Whites. Conversely, Hispanics/Latinos had significantly higher levels of nurse home visitor emotional support and nurse home visitor total function scores when compared to Whites. The outcomes of this project were assessment of specific aspects of the Nurse-Family Partnership model, empirical evidence to support the establishment and funding of the Nurse-Family Partnership in new areas of the United States and additions to the body of nursing science related to adolescent decision-making.

Additional Information

Publication
Dissertation
Language: English
Date: 2012
Keywords
Adolescents, Decision-making, Nurse-Family Partnership, Parenting, Social support, Stressors
Subjects
Teenage mothers $z North Carolina $x Psychology
Public health nursing $z North Carolina
Home-based family services $z North Carolina

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