Final answer:
Adolescent mothers are often more stressed and may perceive their infants as more challenging, which can increase the risk of abusive parenting compared to adult mothers.
Step-by-step explanation:
Compared with adult mothers, adolescent mothers are more likely to perceive their babies as more difficult and they may struggle with parenting challenges due to being less capable of coping with stresses, especially the new stress of becoming a parent. Teenage mothers are statistically more prone to engage in abusive parenting. This is influenced by the fact that as a parent's age increases, the risk of child abuse decreases. For instance, children born to mothers who are fifteen years old or younger are twice as likely to be abused or neglected by age five compared to children born to mothers ages twenty to twenty-one.
Although the question juxtaposes qualities such as knowledge about child development, effectiveness in interaction with infants, or likelihood of engaging in abusive behavior, the research consistently highlights that age and maturity can affect parenting skills and the likelihood of negative outcomes. Adolescent mothers, grappling with their own developmental changes and identity formation, often find the additional responsibilities and emotional demands of parenting particularly challenging.