Adolescent mothers differ markedly in terms of the quality of care they provide for their children. The purpose of this study was to identify factors related to individual differences in the quality of care adolescent mothers provided for their 54-month-old children. Belsky's model of the determinants of parenting was used to select the predictor variables that were used in the analysis [Belsky, J. (1984).
Child Development, 55,
83-96.]. Data on parenting practices were collected for 104 adolescent mothers from the family advocates who worked with these families during a 5-year, family support program. Characteristics of the young mothers (e.g. depression, childrearing beliefs), characteristics of the child (e.g. irritability) and contextual sources of stress and support (e.g. neighborhood environment) were correlated with advocates' assessments of parenting.