Support For Mothers Research Articles

Relation‐based intervention with at‐risk mothers: Outcome in the second year of life

AbstractIt has been shown that the UCLA home visiting/mother–infant group intervention made a significant positive impact during the child's first 2 years of life on two indices of the mother's support and on three areas of mother–child and child development: (1) The mother's responsiveness to the needs of her child and the related development of his or her security of attachment; (2) the mother's encouragement of her child's autonomy and the related development of his or her autonomy; and (3) the mother's encouragement of her child's task involvement and the related development of his or her task orientation. By child age 2 years, the mothers experiencing the intervention, in comparison with those that did not, also used verbally persuasive as opposed to coercive intrusive methods of control and their children responded more positively to these controls. Mothers who did not experience the help of the intervention had significantly more difficulty controlling their child if it was a boy as opposed to a girl. They used the least appropriate methods of control, and the boys responded more negatively to these controls.The nature of the development of the mother's use of appropriate controls and the child's response to that control was elucidated by determining on the total sample where 12‐month antecedents influenced the indices of control either independently of or in interaction with the intervention status. The child's endurance in the test situation was an independent predictor of mother‐appropriate control and the child's positive response to that control, while the absence of maternal intrusiveness further enhanced the impact of the intervention on that control. ©2001 Michigan Association for Infant Mental Health.

Parenting Stress in Employed and At-Home Mothers in Italy

In Italy, there has been strong cultural support for motherhood as the ideal female role. As increasing numbers of Italian mothers enter the workforce, little is known about the effects of maternal employment. An examination of parenting stress that included work status and Type A Behavior Pattern (TABP) was conducted with 174 employed and at-home mothers in Italy. Higher TABP was associated with higher maternal stress in employed mothers and more stressful parent-child interactions for at-home mothers. The strength of the relationship between parenting stress and TABP varies by maternal work status and parenting stress domain. Considering these results, personality characteristics that are incongruent with feminine gender schema may be especially relevant to the prediction of parenting stress.

Relationship of family support and ethnic minority students' achievement in science and mathematics

The academic interest and competencies in science and mathematics of children are often begun in families. This research seeks to identify those aspects of family support that have the most influence on students' learning in mathematics and science. It examines the relationship of the mother's support and participation to the eighth grade ethnic minority child's score on standardized tests, particularly mathematics and science. Mothers of 80 students responded via telephone to 63 questions on their behavior, on the physical environment of the home, on their attitudes toward science and mathematics, and four demographic questions. Alpha reliabilities of groups of questions, frequencies, factor analysis using varimax rotation and principle components, and ANOVAs were computed. Finally, multivariate analyses ended with three stepwise multiple regressions using the test scores as dependent variables. This preliminary research on involvement of parents of ethnic minority students shows that students have higher test scores if parents help them see the importance of taking advanced science and mathematics courses, emphasize the importance of mathematics in today's careers, set limits, and visit science/mathematics exhibits and fairs with their child. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Sci Ed 82:111–125, 1998.

The Effects of a Family Support Program and Other Factors on the Home Environments Provided by Adolescent Mothers

THE EFFECTS OF A FAMILY SUPPORT PROGRAM AND OTHER FACTORS ON THE HOME ENVIRONMENTS PROVIDED BY ADOLESCENT MOTHERS* Tom Luster, Harry Perlstadt, Marvin McKinney, Kathryn Sims, and Linda Jang** We examine factors related to the quality of the home environments that 83 teenage mothers provide for their 12-month-old infants. The teens and their infants were enrolled in a family support program; teens who received weekly home visits from a family advocate had higher scores on the HOME inventory than those in a comparison group. In addition, the teens who provided relatively supportive environments: (a) were less depressed and more empathic, (b) had infants who were heavier at birth and less irritable at 12 months, (c) received more support from the father of the baby, and (d) lived in safer neighborhoods. This study addresses two questions regarding influences on the parenting behavior of adolescent mothers. First, do adolescent mothers who receive a relatively intensive family support program provide higher quality care for their year-old infants than adolescent mothers who receive less intensive services? Second, what factors other than the family support program are related to the quality of care that adolescent mothers provide for their infants? Approximately 1 out of 10 females between the ages of 15 and 19 becomes pregnant each year, and nearly half of those who become pregnant become parents (Moore, 1995). Research on children born to teen mothers shows that these children tend to do less well than their peers on both cognitive and socialemotional measures (Furstenberg, Brooks-Gunn & Morgan, 1987; Wadsworth, Taylor, Osborn, & Butler, 1984). However, there are marked individual differences among children born to teenage mothers; some do well whereas others do not. Those who are successful in school and exhibit few behavioral problems tend to have mothers who are relatively well adjusted, finish high school, limit further childbearing, and eventually become economically self-sufficient (Furstenberg et al., 1987). More successful children of teenage parents also tend to experience more supportive home environments than peers who are doing less well (Dubow & Luster, 1990). As Furstenberg et al. noted, the life courses of the young mothers and their children seem to be intertwined; successful children tend to have mothers who have coped well with early childbearing and who also provide supportive environments for their children. The Family TIES Support Program Family TIES (Trust, Information, Encouragement, and Support), a family support program, was designed to help teenage mothers cope with early childbearing and to support the development of their children so that the children ultimately arrive at school prepared to succeed in that setting. The specific goals of the program were based on past research on successful outcomes in children born to teenage mothers. The goals included helping the young mothers complete high school and eventually find adequate employment, avoid additional unintended pregnancies, and provide high quality care for their children. The psychological well-being of the young mothers was also emphasized in this program, because the teens' ability to nurture their children and to take advantage of services that are available are likely to depend on their psychological adjustment (Schorr, 1988). The design of the program was influenced by what is known from past research about successful family support programs (Olds & Kitzman, 1990; Schorr, 1988). Programs tend to be successful when: (a) the primary person providing the intervention establishes a close relationship with the young mother; (b) the program is long term; (c) case loads are small; (d) the person working with the families is able to cross traditional service delivery boundaries; and (e) the program is ecologically oriented, that is, it focuses on the infant, the mother, the mother's support system, and the larger context rather than on any one of these components. …

Influences on Maternal Responsiveness to Developmentally Delayed Preschoolers

Forty preschoolers with Down syndrome, 29 with a neurological impairment, and 40 with delays of unknown etiology were videotaped in a free play situation with their mothers. A composite rating of maternal behavior, indexing maternal responsiveness, was treated as the outcome measure in a series of regression analyses to assess the effects of maternal and paternal well-being and psychosocial support, and child characteristics and behavior, on maternal responsiveness. Parental age, mother's support, and child responsiveness contributed to maternal responsiveness. Families with older parents, better maternal support, and more responsive children had more responsive mothers.