Antecedents and concomitants of parenting stress in adolescent mothers in foster care.

Objective: This study's aim was to examine variables associated with different short-term trajectories in multiply disadvantaged adolescent mothers by investigating antecedents and concomitants of parenting stress.

Method: We followed 49 adolescent mothers (ages 14-18 at study outset) who were wards in Illinois foster care using a longitudinal correlational design. We examined whether parenting variables (childrearing beliefs, quality of parent-child interactions, and child abuse risk) and personal adjustment variables (emotional distress and social support) at initial assessment predicted parenting stress measured at follow-up (a mean of 22.