Experience with infants and knowledge of infant care.

Abstract

Recently Gilpin and Glanville ( 1977 ) reported the standardization of the Experience with Young Children Scale. This scale lists 21 activities, e.g., changing a diaper, trimming nails, which adults perform for or with infants and toddlers; subjects receive a point for each item which they report having performed, so scores can range from 0 to 21. In the present study, it was hypothesized that scores on the scale, Experience with Young Children, would be positively correlated with knowledge of infant care activities (defined as the number of specific care activities subjects could recall during a specified interval). A sample of 26 female college undergraduates (single, non-mothers) was recruited from the university's subject pool. Subjects were run in one session, during which they were first given instructions to list the things an adult might do with an infant. A 3-min. recall period was used. Subjects then took the Experience with Young Children Scale. Over-all the sample had a mean experience scale score of 17.42 (SD = 2.56) and listed a mean of 7.85 (SD = 2.03) discrete activities. As predicted, the two measures were positively correlated (7~~ = .33, p < .O5, l-tailed). That is, women with relatively greater experience with infants (as indexed by the Experience with Young Children Scale) spontaneously evidenced more extensive knowledge of different adult-infant activities than did women with less experience. These results are int-eresting both in that they provide additional evidence of the validity of the Experience with Young Children Scale and because they suggest that knowledge of infant care is normally acquired gradually, as a result of experience rather than from media materials or information transmitted verbally.