Concussions and youth football: using a public health law framework to head off a potential public health crisis

Concussion from sport is increasingly recognized as a public health priority. In response, all states and the District of Columbia have enacted youth concussion legislation. This paper first examines key developments in concussion-related policy and legislation and then uses the findings from recent scientific studies to highlight the need to incorporate evolving scientific evidence into concussion legislation in order to better protect youth and adolescent athletes. Next, the paper discusses the framework of empirical health law research and why it should be applied in the case of concussion legislation. Finally, this paper argues that empirical health law research should be considered in any decision about whether legislation can help improve the health and safety of young players, a particularly vulnerable population whose unique needs have not yet been adequately addressed.     

The determinants of parenting competence in adolescent mothers

Recent research has implicated the maternal behavior of adolescent mothers as a significant factor in the high rate of developmental delays observed in infants of young mothers. In the present study, the interaction of 58 low-income adolescent mothers and their infants was observed and standardized and projective tests were administered. Factor analysis indicated that the variables of overall self-esteem and maternal efficacy explained 66% of the variance in terms of maternal self-perception, while expressivity and facilitation accounted for 83% of the variance in maternal behavior. Self-esteem and self-efficacy were more positively associated with involvement with the infant's father than with the mother's family of origin. On the other hand, support from the father was negatively associated with parenting competence. The capacity to interpret infant emotions was crucial to the development of parenting competence. Overall, the associations between the determinants of parenting competence and the quality of mother-infant interaction showed significant variations according to the age of the adolescent, suggesting a need to move away from use of maternal age as a continuous variable. Also required is the development of parenting models that recognize that the determinants of competence are different for adolescents than for adult women.