Does motherhood affect the quality of life of adolescents?

Study objective: Assess the quality of life (QOL) of female adolescents with children compared to those without children.

Design: Cross-sectional.

Setting: Public university-affiliated family planning clinic, São Paulo, Brazil.

Participants: 91 female adolescents (16-19 years) of low socio-economic status with and without children.

Interventions: The Portuguese version of the WHOQOL-BREF questionnaire was used.

Outcome measures: Mean scores of the 4 main domains were compared between adolescents with and without children.

Results: Both mothers (N = 40) and nonmothers (N = 51) had low mean scores (<75%) in most of the QOL domains. Compared to adolescents without children, adolescent mothers scored significantly lower in the physical (52.1 vs 59.4, P = .0137) and social (66.9 vs 77.3, P = .0182) domains.

Conclusion: Adolescent mothers have a significantly lower quality of life in the physical and in the social relationships domains than nonmothers.