Intervention Strengthens American Indian Teen Mothers’ Parenting
Teen mothers on three American Indian reservations improved on several measures of parenting capability after participating in Family Spirit, a home-visiting intervention developed with NIDA support. At 12 months postpartum, the women’s children exhibited reduced rates of emotional difficulties that predict later drug abuse and other serious behavioral problems. The infants at highest risk—those whose mothers had histories of drug abuse—benefited the most. Study leaders Allison Barlow, M.P.H., Ph.D., associate director of Johns Hopkins Center for American Indian Health, and John T. Walkup, M.D