Parents don't know about babies
2008-05-04 13:08
Chicago - Nearly a third of US parents
know surprisingly little about typical infant development, and
this lack of understanding can rob their babies of much-needed
mental stimulation, researchers said on Sunday.
"There are numerous parenting books telling people what to
expect when they're pregnant," said Dr Heather Paradis of the
University of Rochester Medical Centre in New York.
"But once a baby is born, an astonishing number of parents
are not only unsure of what to anticipate as their child
develops, but are also uncertain of when, how or how much they
are to help their babies reach various milestones, such as
talking, grabbing, discerning right from wrong, or even
potty-training," said Paradis, who presented her findings at
Paediatric Academic Society meeting in Honolulu.
She and colleagues analysed parenting know-how based on a
national sample of parents representing more than 10 000
nine-month-old babies.
These parents completed an 11-question survey designed to
see which parents were well prepared and which were not.
The survey asked questions like, "Should a one-year-old child
be able to tell between right from wrong?" and "Should a
one-year-old child be ready to begin toilet-training?"
The correct answer to both is no.
Parents who got four or fewer correct answers were
considered to have low parenting knowledge.
Video analysis
The researchers then compared these surveys with a
videotaped analysis of the same families teaching their child a
new task, such as playing with blocks.
They also looked at information provided by the parents
about how often they engaged their children in enrichment
activities, such as reading books, singing songs or telling
stories.
They found that 31.2% of the parents had a low level
of knowledge about what to expect from their child, and this
was strongly correlated with lower parental education level and
income.
"The fact that almost a third of parents could only answer
four out of eleven questions correctly was very surprising to
us," Paradis said in a telephone interview.
Even when the researchers controlled for factors like the
mother's age, education, income and mental state, they still
found a significant number of parents with unrealistic
expectations about their baby's development.
And that had a negative impact on the parent-child
relationship. "Parents who had less knowledge had less quality
interaction with their kids," Paradis said.
Paradis said one way to address the problem is to urge
paediatricians to educate parents during well-baby visits.
"My hope for paediatricians is that we're able to come up
with some novel approaches to educating parents in the office
setting," she said.