PEDIATRICS Vol. 69 No. 5 May 1982, pp. 537-543
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Factors Associated with Maternal Opinion of Infant Development—Clues to the Vulnerable Child?

Marie C. McCormick MD, ScD1, Sam Shapiro BS1, and Barbara Starfield MD, MPH1

1 Health Services Research and Development Center and Health Services Administration, School of Hygiene and Public Health, The Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions, Baltimore

A mother's expectations about the development of her infant have been found to be a strong determinant of child development, but little is known about the factors that may affect maternal assessment of development. In this study, the relationship of the mother's opinion of the development of her infant with several sociodemographic, antenatal, intrapartum, and infant health variables was examined for a large sample of 1-year-old infants for whom gross motor observations were also obtained at the time of the interview. Among those observed to be developing at an appropriate rate, 4.0% were perceived by their mothers as developing more slowly than the mothers considered normal; among infants developing more slowly, 28.6% were considered to be developing slowly by their mothers. In both groups, the major determinants of maternal opinion of slow development concerned the infant's health: low birth weight, congenital anomalies regardless of severity, hospitalization during the first year of life, and high ambulatory care use. These results indicate that maternal perception of infant development may not reflect the infant's level, but past or present illness, and raise questions about the influence of infant health on maternal-infant interactions and the effect of such interactions on subsequent development in the child.

Submitted on May 14, 1981
Accepted on October 29, 1981




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