A Scoping Review of Transitions, Stress, and Adaptation Among Emerging Adults.

This scoping review examined research on transitions among emerging adults, 18- to 30-year-olds, to identify designs, populations, frameworks, transition types, and transition outcomes. A librarian conducted the search, yielding 2067 articles. Using predefined criteria, teams screened abstracts and reviewed articles, with 82% to 100% interrater agreement. Data from the final 160 articles were placed in evidence tables and summarized. Most frequently, the studies had exploratory-descriptive designs (69%), nondiagnosed samples (58%), no theoretical frameworks (58%), developmental transitions (34%), and health-related behavior outcomes (34%). This transition research is in an early stage of knowledge development and would benefit from further theory development.

Social Support, Parenting Competence, and Parenting Satisfaction Among Adolescent, African American, Mothers.

This secondary analysis explored how social support changed during the first 6 months postpartum and examined the relationships among social support, parenting competence, and parenting role satisfaction. Single, low-income, adolescent, new mothers ( N = 34) completed measures of perceived parenting competence, parenting role satisfaction, and four types of received social support (emotional, informational, tangible, problematic) from the entire social network at 1 week, 6 weeks, 3 months, and 6 months postpartum. Results indicated that social support did not change over time. Emotional, informational, and tangible social support were significantly correlated, concurrently and predictively, with perceived competence and satisfaction at most data collection points. Future social support intervention studies using social support as a modifiable variable with this high-risk group of African American adolescent new mothers are advocated. Health care professionals are encouraged to examine existing social support within these mothers' identified family units.