In our model of adolescent parenting, we hypothesized that four important characteristics of adolescent mothers-immature cognitive readiness for parenting, low IQ, inadequate social supports, and socioemotional maladjustment-place their children at risk for a variety of developmental delays through their influence on parenting:

Maternal intelligence was expected to predict children’s intellectuallinguistic functioning as well as school achievement (math/reading) through direct transmission from mother to child as well as because more able mothers tend to create more stimulating environments for their children (Bouchard & McGue, 1981; Yeates, MacPhee, Campbell, & Ramey, 1983). Cognitive readiness was hypothesized to influence intelligence, language, and achievement based on the assumption that more cognitively prepared mothers will utilize this knowledge to interact with their children with greater sensitivity and responsivity (Whitman et al., 1987). In contrast, relationships were expected between the socioemotional adjustment of teen mothers and their social supports and a variety of personality-related child outcomes because of the purported roles these antecedent factors play in influencing maternal stress and parenting consistency, which in turn affect children’s social, emotional, and behavioral development (Passino et al., 1993).