56 - The Influence Of Maternal And Child Interactive Behaviors On Early Child Development

Poster Number: 56
Publication Number: 56.203

Kati Baillie, University of New Mexico School of Medicine, Albuquerque, NM, United States; Tiffany Emery, University of New Mexico School of Medicine, Albuquerque, NM, United States; Jean Lowe, University of New Mexico School of Medicine, Albuquerque, NM, United States; Sofia Markee, University of New Mexico Children's Hospital, Albuquerque, NM, United States

Background: The quality of interactions between children and their caregivers significantly impacts a child’s development. Positive maternal behaviors during play are associated with better self-regulation and fewer behavioral problems, while poor parental well-being is associated with increased developmental difficulties.

Objective: We explored the relationship between positive and negative maternal interactive behaviors during play, parental well-being, and cognitive and language development in children aged 18 months old (mo). We hypothesized positive maternal behaviors during play would positively correlate with higher Bayley Scales of Infant Development III (BSID-III) cognitive and language scores at 18 mo and poor parental well-being would lead to more negative directing behaviors and child disengagement.

Design/Methods: Healthy term infants were recruited in Albuquerque, NM between 2010-2012 as part of a longitudinal study of parenting and child development (n=40). BSID-III was used as an objective measure of cognitive and language development. Parental well-being was measured using a parental stress index (PSI) questionnaire in addition to socioeconomic status (SES). The Maternal Attention Directing Manual (S. Landry 2000) was used to code six minute free-play videos of mother-child dyads, focusing on positive maternal directing behaviors, such as “maintain” and “introduce” and negative behaviors, such as “redirect” or “zaps”. Intercoder reliability was greater than 80%.

Results: A significant positive correlation was found for BSID-III language scale and maternal frequency of maintaining behavior (p=0.001). A significant negative correlation was found for BSID-III language scale and frequency of maternal redirecting behavior (p=0.018) and duration of redirecting (p=0.018). Using partial correlations to control for maternal education level, significant positive associations between BSID-III language score at 18 mo persisted for frequency and duration of maintaining behavior (p=0.004 and p=0.001 respectively). In addition, a significant positive correlation between the PSI parent distress scale and duration for redirecting behavior was found (p=0.042) when controlling for maternal education.Conclusion(s): We demonstrate that early child language development was positively impacted by maternal maintaining behavior and negatively impacted by maternal redirecting behavior during play. Increased maternal stress levels resulted in increased redirecting behavior. Overall, these results suggest higher parental stress may have a negative impact on early child language development.