Neuroscience
An American study has tested how much mothers know about child development, safety issues in raising children, infant sleeping habits and nutrition.
Two hundred and three women at a paediatric clinic and an obstetric clinic in a southern state in America were approached by a researcher. The women were mothers or mothers-to-be aged from 18 to 52 years, and were predominantly Caucasian (52 per cent) or African American (39 per cent).
Overall, the mothers answered 65 per cent of questions correctly, being most aware of the importance of establishing eating and sleeping routines (82 per cent correct) but least aware of how much sleep infants need (26 per cent correct) or what 6-month-olds are capable of doing (53 per cent correct).
"On average, women overestimated development by three months or more" Stephanie Reich of Vanderbilt University said. "This is a disturbing finding, as research in child maltreatment suggest abusive parents tend to overestimate their child's abilities".
Mothers who'd had more education tended to answer more questions correctly. Non-White mothers tended to score less well - "this may be because non-White families tend to have less continuous care and report having a less participatory relationship with their paediatrician", Reich said "therefore leading to less provision of anticipatory guidance".
"What is needed now are ways to educate mothers about typical child development" Reich said. "Preliminary research has shown parenting classes are effective in teaching parents about typical child development".
"Since maternal knowledge affects how mothers raise their children, increasing knowledge about typical child development would be beneficial" Reich concluded.
___________________________________
Reich, S. (2005). What do mothers know? Maternal knowledge of child development. Infant Mental Health Journal, 26, 143-156.
Post written by Christian Jarrett (@psych_writer) for the BPS Research Digest.
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Neuroscience
Do mums know about child development?
An American study has tested how much mothers know about child development, safety issues in raising children, infant sleeping habits and nutrition.
Two hundred and three women at a paediatric clinic and an obstetric clinic in a southern state in America were approached by a researcher. The women were mothers or mothers-to-be aged from 18 to 52 years, and were predominantly Caucasian (52 per cent) or African American (39 per cent).
Overall, the mothers answered 65 per cent of questions correctly, being most aware of the importance of establishing eating and sleeping routines (82 per cent correct) but least aware of how much sleep infants need (26 per cent correct) or what 6-month-olds are capable of doing (53 per cent correct).
"On average, women overestimated development by three months or more" Stephanie Reich of Vanderbilt University said. "This is a disturbing finding, as research in child maltreatment suggest abusive parents tend to overestimate their child's abilities".
Mothers who'd had more education tended to answer more questions correctly. Non-White mothers tended to score less well - "this may be because non-White families tend to have less continuous care and report having a less participatory relationship with their paediatrician", Reich said "therefore leading to less provision of anticipatory guidance".
"What is needed now are ways to educate mothers about typical child development" Reich said. "Preliminary research has shown parenting classes are effective in teaching parents about typical child development".
"Since maternal knowledge affects how mothers raise their children, increasing knowledge about typical child development would be beneficial" Reich concluded.
___________________________________
Reich, S. (2005). What do mothers know? Maternal knowledge of child development. Infant Mental Health Journal, 26, 143-156.
Post written by Christian Jarrett (@psych_writer) for the BPS Research Digest.
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- Mothers' Reading Style Affects Children's Later Understanding Of Other People's Minds
The use of cognitive verbs like 'think', 'know', 'remember' and 'believe' by mothers when reading picture books to their children has a beneficial effect on their children's later ability to understand other people's...
- Reading To Babies Gives Them A Head-start
Toddlers read to daily by their mothers from an early age have bigger vocabularies and superior cognitive skills. Helen Raikes and colleagues asked 2,581 mothers from poor families enrolled on the Early Head Start programme in America how often they read...
- Does The Way Mothers Think About Their Difficult Children Matter?
Early findings have shown that the mothers of badly behaved young children think about their child’s behaviour in a characteristic way, tending to believe that their bad behaviour is intentional and has to do with the nature of the child rather than...
- Dissecting Good Parenting
How affectionate parents are towards their children, and how they respond to their children’s distress are two distinct aspects of good parenting that each have a unique effect on a child’s development, psychologists at the University of Toronto...