Qualitative accounts of teenage and emerging adult women adjusting to motherhood

Objective: The aim of this study was to better understand how young women in their early 20s transition and adjust to motherhood in the first year postpartum, compared to teenage mothers. Background: A body of research suggests that teen mothers have unique challenges and experiences adjusting to motherhood. However, less research has focussed on mothers in their early 20s, who have increasingly become a minority in Western countries, and are supposedly adjusting to motherhood in a new developmental period characterised by self-focussed identity exploration and individual freedom. Method: Using a semi-structured interview format, 12 Australian women (mean age 20.5 years; mean baby age 6.5 months) were interviewed, and verbatim transcriptions analysed with thematic analysis. Results: Two broad themes identified were Change within the self and Involvement of others. Some of the early 20s women reported more difficulties with identity adjustment compared to that of teen women, and this appeared primarily related to women’s background and circumstance. Social support was important for all women, while experiences of stigma were common and negatively impacted on women’s adjustment to motherhood. Conclusions: The extent to which first-time mothers in their early 20s experience conflict between responsibilities of motherhood and self-focussed identity exploration appeared to be largely dependent on background and prior circumstances, suggesting that emerging adulthood norms do not consistently apply to these women.