The language and literacy development of young children starts in the home, and is
strongly influenced by the experiences and beliefs they are exposed to by their parents.
Teenage mothers are reported to have an increased risk of low levels of educational
attainment, with preliminary data suggesting literacy development is also impeded. Further,
their potentially negative experiences with reading may influence their beliefs and
perceptions of the activity. Children of teenage mothers are at greater risk of delayed
language and literacy development, and their mothers may be less able to provide the
enriched experiences required to facilitate optimal development. Therefore, interventions to
support both the mother’s own literacy beliefs and skills, and the literacy environment in
which they raise their children are a potentially useful way of optimising the developmental
opportunities available. Despite the identified intergenerational nature of literacy learning,
interventions targeting the literacy skills of teenage mothers and their children, particularly in
the New Zealand context, are sparse. The experiments in this thesis addressed the need to
better understand the language and literacy development of New Zealand teenage mothers
and their children, and determine the effectiveness of interventions to target these important
areas.