MEANING MAKING AND MINDSET IN YOUNG MOTHERHOOD i “I Think Different Now”: Adolescent Mothers’ Meaning Making and Mindset in the Transition to Parenthood Dissertation submitted by Anne Bentley Waddoups, M.A. In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Child Study and Human Development Eliot-Pearson Department of Child Study and Human Development Tufts University August 2015 Dissertation Committee members: M. Ann Easterbrooks, Ph.D. (Chair) Jayanthi Mistry, Ph.D. Natalie Rusk, Ph.D. Gilda A. Morelli, Ph.D. MEANING MAKING AND MINDSET IN YOUNG MOTHERHOOD i Abstract Using a meaning making lens and a qualitative methodology, this dissertation study sought to explore transformative meaning making and implicit beliefs of parenting among a sample of 40 adolescent mothers participating in a home visiting program during their transition to parenthood. Given the high attrition rate for interventions serving adolescent moms, the study also explored the alignments between meaning making and home visiting program participation. Through iterative coding and theme analysis, this investigation revealed that participants’ beliefs about parenting evolve as they transition from pregnancy to parenting. They engage in meaning making throughout the process, which leads to scripts of change in three areas: improvements in relationships, changes in life outlook, and changes to self. Two groups emerged on either end of the spectrum of meaning making. High meaning-making transformers tended to remain actively enrolled in the intervention while the low meaning-making remainers all dropped out by the second year. An analysis of implicit beliefs about parenting, or meta-parenting mindset, identified three groups of participants: fixed theorists, incremental theorists, and mixed theorists. Fixed theorists, who believed parenting ability was natural or instinctual, had a lower retention rate in the program (14%) than the overall rate of the sample (42%) even after controlling for participants who moved away. Incremental theorists, who attributed their parenting abilities to gradual growth and learning, had a 50% retention rate and also represented just 6.6% of those receiving a low number of visits and 66.6% of those who had high rates of home visits. MEANING MAKING AND MINDSET IN YOUNG MOTHERHOOD ii Acknowledgements I completed this dissertation with generous doses of assistance and encouragement from my community. I could not have reached this point in my academic career without their unyielding support and would like to take this opportunity to extend my gratitude. First, I would like to thank and acknowledge my primary advisor, Dr. Ann Easterbrooks, who provided insightful guidance and shepherded me through both my masters and doctoral programs, encouraging my development as a scholar and connecting me with ideas and opportunities throughout my years at Tufts. Thank you, too, to Dr. Jayanthi Mistry. Her insights on methodology and meaning making have shaped this dissertation study—and my own understanding—for the better. Thank you to Dr. Natalie Rusk, who joined my committee after the untimely death of my advisor and mentor Fred Rothbaum. She is a thoughtful colleague, friend, and mentor of the highest caliber and I have been inspired and bettered through our association. Thank you to Dr. Gilda Morelli for generously giving her time and extensive expertise on parenting research. Her feedback and participation on this committee is greatly appreciated. I would like to thank the faculty and staff at Eliot Pearson Department of Child Study and Human Development. In particular, I would like to thank Dr. Martha Pott—my first professor in the program as well as a mentor from whom I had the privilege of learning as her teaching assistant for several semesters. She is a model mentor and thoughtful teacher whose example I take with me and hope to emulate. I would also like to thank Dr. Francine Jacobs, who served on my qualifying committee and whose contributions helped shape the ideas that can be found within this dissertation. Finally, I owe a debt of gratitude to Dr. Martha Julia Sellers, who encouraged and championed me early in my doctoral career. I acknowledge the team of doctoral colleagues who navigated this process alongside me. Our discussions informed my evolving understanding of the world and your brightness and dedication to excellence continue to inspire me. Jessica Dym Bartlett, Jessica Greenstone, Melissa Orkin, Mallary Swartz—you are dear friends who made this experience more meaningful and enjoyable. Thanks for MEANING MAKING AND MINDSET IN YOUNG MOTHERHOOD iii your great humor, encouragement, and supportive friendship both within and outside of our academic programs. Thank you to my colleagues at Jumpstart, the Australian Research Alliance for Children and Youth and other projects who helped me to draw important connections between research and practice and who inspire me in the way they are making a difference for children and families. A special thank you to Zero to Three for providing me the opportunity, support, and funding to connect with fantastic thinkers and doers around the country through their Leaders of the 21st Century Fellowship Program. A big thank you to my family for their unwavering confidence and support. Thank you to my parents, Marion and Carolyn Bentley, who provided a loving and magical base for my own young development and whose encouragement of following questions where they lead sparked my first curiosities in figuring out how people develop. Thank you to my children— Lauren Madeleine, and Sam—who went through a good portion of their youth studying alongside me at the kitchen table and who supported my pursuit of this degree with pride and enthusiasm. Finally, to Greg, the truest partner, friend, and champion a person could ever have. I could not have done this without your support and encouragement. Your faith in me has been a rock upon which the rest has been built. Finally, I would like to dedicate this work to Dr. Fred Rothbaum, my advisor, mentor, and teacher who passed away just as my ideas for this study were coming together. Fred was a thinker and teacher beyond compare; many of my questions about implicit theories and parenting evolved from intense conversations in his office where he urged me to think more deeply and connect the dots across theories and disciplines. Here’s to you, Fred. MEANING MAKING AND MINDSET IN YOUNG MOTHERHOOD iv Table of Contents Abstract .................................................................................................................... i Acknowledgements ................................................................................................. ii Table of Contents ................................................................................................... iv List of Tables ...........................................................................................................v Chapter 1: Introduction ............................................................................................1 The Present Study ................................................................................................2 Using a Meaning Making Lens ............................................................................4 Research Questions ..............................................................................................7 Chapter 2: Review of the Literature.........................................................................8 Transition to Parenthood ......................................................................................9 Adolescent Mothers in the Transition to Parenthood ..................................9 Transitions Theory .....................................................................................11 Posttraumatic Growth and Meaning Making .............................................15 Parent Beliefs Research .....................................................................................21 Attachment and Parent Beliefs...................................................................22 Parent Cognitions .......................................................................................24 Parent Beliefs and Parenting Behavior ......................................................27 Parent Beliefs and Child Behavior .............................................................28 Attribution Theory Research..............................................................................29 Implicit Mindset Theory ............................................................................30 Parents as Learners: Meta-Parenting Mindset ...........................................40 Research on Interventions and Beliefs ...............................................................43 Interventions and Beliefs ...........................................................................44 Interventions and Parenting Beliefs ...........................................................46 Home Visiting Program Interventions ...............................................................50 Healthy Families ........................................................................................54 Program Retention .............................................................................................58 Healthy Families Program Retentions .......................................................59 Summary ............................................................................................................61