Two adolescent mothers, two bondings: What makes the difference?

Abstract

A case study of two adolescent mothers of the same age is presented (17 years old) withwhich it is intended to explore the maternal representations and mother-baby interactions, that is, the different ways of “being with” a baby. The study pretends to discuss that it is not adolescent motherhood in itself a risk factor, but other mediating variables such as support network and the reflective function with which each young mother counts. Maternal repre- sentations were assessed through a semi-structured interview about maternal representations (Traverso, 2006) and the mother-infant interactions were measured and filmed through the Mother-Infant Global Ratings for two and four months (Murray, Fiori-Cowley & Cooper,1996).