Family Therapy and Interpersonal Violence: Targeting At-Risk Adolescent Mothers

Source: (2007) In John Hamel and Tonia L. Nicholls, Ed., Family Interventions in Domestic Violence. New York, USA: Springer Publishing Company. Pp. 477-497.

“In this chapter, we describe both parenting and relationship-oriented interventions that have been directed toward undereducated teen mothers. We have identified adolescent mothers as an important target for gender-inclusive violence interventions because they are more likely to live in poverty than adult mothers (Bissell, 2000), they tend to have lower educational and occupational attainment than older mothers (Furstenburg, 1991; Hockady, Crase, Shelley, & Stockdale, 2000; Monahan, 2002; Moore & Brooks-Gunn, 2002), and they are also more likely to be financially dependent on welfare programs (Furstenburg, 1991). Thus they demonstrate many risk factors for intimate partner violence. In fact, researchers have already documented a high rate of victimization from intimate partner violence among these women (Silverman, Raj, Mucci, & Hathaway, 2001; Sussex & Corcoran, 2005). However few investigators have considered the degree to which pregnant adolescent women or teenage mothers might be perpetrators of abuse in their intimate relationships in addition to being victims.” (excerpt)