Adolescent mothers experience many factors that affect their ability to securely attach to their infants and are therefore considered a high-risk population. In addition, infants of adolescent mothers are at an increased risk of developing insecure attachment. FirstPlay® Therapy Infant Storytelling-Massage is an attachment-based, parent–infant adjunctive play therapy model founded on the theoretical underpinning of attachment theory.
The current study implemented a one-time intervention with an adolescent mother population in a group home setting. A pretest/posttest design was utilized to measure the impact of FirstPlay® Therapy on the variables of an adolescent mother’s levels of maternal attachment and comfort with physical touch. Participants in this study (N = 5) were adolescent mothers ages 18–21 years old, who were recruited from four maternity group homes in two counties in South Florida. Five adolescent mothers completed the FirstPlay® Therapy for pre and posttest data. No significant differences were found in the areas of maternal attachment and predisposition to touch before and 2 weeks after the intervention. There were some significant relationships found among the demographic variables specific to an adolescent mother’s history of employment status and her child welfare history as well as the age of the mother and the age of her infant. In addition, at posttest, a significant relationship was found between the sex of the infant and the total score on the PCAQ. Although no statistically significant findings were presented, recommendations for further research include extending this intervention to a broader population of adolescent mothers across a variety of settings to focus on early infant-attachment relationships. / Includes bibliography. / Dissertation (Ph.D.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2020. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:fau.edu/oai:fau.digital.flvc.org:fau_42589 |
| Contributors | Baldwin, Karen M. (author), Thompson, Heather (Thesis advisor), Florida Atlantic University (Degree grantor), School of Social Work, College of Social Work and Criminal Justice |
| Publisher | Florida Atlantic University |
| Source Sets | Florida Atlantic University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation, Text |
| Format | 121 p., application/pdf |
| Rights | Copyright © is held by the author with permission granted to Florida Atlantic University to digitize, archive and distribute this item for non-profit research and educational purposes. Any reuse of this item in excess of fair use or other copyright exemptions requires permission of the copyright holder., http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/ |
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