Abstract
The current study was designed to explore the cognitions of African-American mothers about the importance of the first 3 years of life for brain development, and to determine the relations between those cognitions and important parenting beliefs. We collected survey data over a 1-week period from a diverse sample of 222 African-American mothers waiting for preventive and minor acute care appointments in six pediatric waiting rooms in Memphis, TN. Latent Class Analysis revealed two groups of mothers: one that was aware of the importance of the first 3 years for brain development (about 56 %), and one that is less aware (about 44 %). Mothers in the two latent classes had significantly different parenting beliefs about spoiling versus nurturing and the importance of stable child care arrangements, but not about corporal punishment of infants. Poverty and education significantly affected latent class membership. Parenting education interventions might be better targeted and more effective when informed by participants’ understanding of early brain development.
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Acknowledgments
The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial support of The Urban Child Institute in Memphis, Tennessee, and our colleagues Dr. Henry Herrod and Ms. Barbara Holden Nixon there for their contributions to the larger study on which this manuscript was based. We are grateful to the pediatricians and their staffs who allowed us to conduct this study with their patients, and especially to the participants who gave their time to be interviewed.
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Combs-Orme, T., Orme, J.G. & Lefmann, T. Early Brain Development: African-American Mothers’ Cognitions about the First Three Years. Child Adolesc Soc Work J 30, 329–344 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10560-012-0294-9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10560-012-0294-9