Health and safety intervention with first-time mothers.

A health education program was evaluated which used child development specialists as home visitors and served a population of first-time mothers living in rural communities. The evaluation compared health and safety outcomes between intervention and control groups. The research staff, separate from the intervention staff, collected data in the homes of 156 intervention and 107 control mothers when the infants were 6 and 12 months old. Significant group differences were found on health and safety outcomes. As compared with controls, the intervention mothers (i) had safer homes; (ii) were more likely to use birth control, thus had fewer pregnancies since birth of their first child; (iii) reported smoking fewer cigarettes; (iv) knew more about effects of smoking on their child's health and (v) were more likely to use health department services. In sum, mothers who received early education home visits from child development specialists experienced positive health and safety outcomes. It is highly recommended that a program such as this be implemented as part of health delivery program with new mothers and infants.

Parent education home visitation program: adolescent and nonadolescent mother comparison after six months of intervention.

PIP: This study examined the effect of an intervention over a 6-month period to improve first time mothers knowledge about parenting and safety in the home. The sample included 61 mothers who completed a baseline and follow-up survey. Mothers were first time adolescent (38) and nonadolescent (22) mothers recruited from rural county health departments for participation in a voluntary home visitation intervention program. Four hypotheses were tested that associated home visitation with greater parenting skill and child development knowledge and safety. Adolescent mothers were expected to make greater gains but to lag behind nonadolescent mothers in child development knowledge, parenting skills knowledge, household safety, and use of community resources. The sample included 32% with a high school degree and 12% African American. 83% were in school. 85% lived at or below the US federal poverty level. Parent Educators provided weekly in-home education based on a manual and individualized curriculum. Parenting skills knowledge was measured by the Adolescent-Adult Parenting Inventory (Bavolek, 1984). Home safety was measured by Culp's Home Safety Checklist. Educators recorded use of 13 community services. Analysis of variance revealed that infant knowledge increased to the same level among all mothers regardless of adolescents' lesser knowledge at baseline. Parenting skill knowledge of child roles increased for both ages, but older mothers scored higher. Parenting skill knowledge of alternatives to corporal punishment increased similarly for both ages. No age or interactive effects were related to improvement in safety or use of community services.^ieng

Adolescent depressed mood, reports of suicide attempts, and asking for help.

Subjects of this study were 220 students in the 6th through 12th grades. Results indicate that 57% of the students reported symptoms of depressed mood (CES-D); 33% had thought of suicide; and 6% had attempted suicide. Depressed mood scores were significantly different between those students who had attempted suicide and those who had not. Loneliness was identified as a problem among 66% of the students, along with school-related problems and not feeling good about oneself. Fifty percent of the middle school students and 40% of the high school students were unaware of services in their school. Among the students with symptoms of depressed mood, 49% did not ask for help. Of those who did not seek help, 68% believed they had to take care of their problems themselves. Adolescents who have symptoms of depressed mood and who believe they must take care of their own problems are over-represented among teenagers who think of attempting suicide.

Adolescent and older mothers' interaction patterns with their six-month-old infants.

Children of adolescent mothers suffer more physical, intellectual, and emotional difficulties than do other children. In order to gain a better understanding of the differences, the interaction patterns of adolescent mothers and non-adolescent mothers interacting with their young infants were compared. One hundred adolescent mothers and 29 married primiparous non-adolescent mothers were observed interacting with their six-month-old infants during a feeding episode and a play episode. All of the mothers had a high school education or less. During feeding, the adolescent mothers demonstrated less expressiveness, less positive attitude, less delight, less positive regard, fewer vocalizations, and a lower quality of vocalizations than non-adolescent mothers. During play, the adolescent mothers demonstrated less inventiveness, less patience, and less positive attitude than the non-adolescent mothers. These results extend and strengthen what is known about adolescent mothers patterns of interaction with their young infants.

Maltreated children's self-concept: effects of a comprehensive treatment program.

Perceived competence and social acceptance scores of 17 maltreated children enrolled in therapeutic day treatment were compared to those of 17 maltreated children who had not received the program services. Multivariate and follow-up univariate analyses indicated developmental gains and enhancement of self-concept among the treatment group when compared to controls and to their own pretreatment levels.

Effects of cesarean delivery on parental depression, marital adjustment, and mother-infant interaction.

To further our understanding of the effects of cesarean delivery on maternal and paternal depression, marital adjustment, and mother-infant interaction during perinatal and three-month postpartum feeding, data were prospectively collected on 80 primiparous married women and their infants, and 76 of their husbands. There were 56 vaginal deliveries and 24 cesarean section deliveries. Data were collected by interview at the latter part of the second trimester and three months post-partum by examination of the mothers' and infants' medical records, and by observation of mother-infant feedings at two days and three months postpartum. The infants' birthweight, weeks of gestation, and Apgar scores at five minutes, maternal age at delivery, and maternal and child health index risk scores were not significantly different between the two groups. Mothers who had cesarean delivery had significantly higher labor index risk scores than those with vaginal birth. The mothers and fathers were not significantly different on levels of depression or marital adjustment prenatally or at three months postpartum. There were no significant differences in mother-infant behaviors during the feedings observed. That we found no differences after cesarean and vaginal delivery would support the theory that mothers respond to infants' behavioral repertoire and not to the mode of delivery.

A tool for educating parents about their premature infants.

This study examined the effectiveness of intervening with parents of premature infants by showing them examples of newborns' sensory, perceptual, and social capabilities. Fourteen couples and their premature infants, divided into an intervention group and a nonintervention group, were studied. Parents in the intervention group observed an assessment of premature infant behavior (APIB) examination and received feedback from the examiner prior to completing a parental assessment battery; the nonintervention group did not observe the APIB examination until after they completed the assessment battery. The assessment battery measured parental anxiety, perceptions, and awareness of neonatal behavior. Comparisons between the two groups revealed (a) intervention fathers reported significantly lower anxiety than did nonintervention fathers, (b) intervention mothers and fathers had significantly more realistic perceptions of their newborn compared to nonintervention parents, and (c) intervention mothers had significantly more accurate awareness of their newborns' abilities than nonintervention mothers, and intervention fathers had higher, but nonsignificant, awareness scores compared to nonintervention fathers. Having parents observe the administration of the APIB may be an effective way to educate them about their premature infant's behavior.

Maltreated children's developmental scores: treatment versus nontreatment.

Following treatment in a therapeutic day treatment program, a group of 35 maltreated children were compared to a matched group of 35 maltreated children who had not been enrolled in a therapeutic day treatment program. The results of matched pairs t-test analyses indicated that the treatment subjects had significantly higher developmental scores in five areas of development--fine motor, cognitive, gross motor, social/emotional, and language. Further, pretest and posttest comparisons of the percentile scores of the treatment group indicated that the posttest scores were significantly higher than the pretest scores. This study demonstrates that remediation of developmental delays in maltreated children under the age of 6 years can be accomplished through an intensive day treatment program.

Sensorimotor versus cognitive-perceptual training effects on the body concept of preschoolers.

The effects of two training programs on the body concept development of preschoolers as reflected in human figure drawings were investigated in this study. Twenty-four three-, four-, and five-year-old preschool children were divided into two experimental groups and one control group, matched closely by age and sex. All subjects were pre-tested with the Good-enough-Harris Drawing Test and post-tested with the same instrument after a one-month intervention training period. Group A received ten hours of sensorimotor training and Group B received ten hours of verbal body-part identification training. The mean gain scores of the two experimental groups were significantly different, with a greater mean gain by the sensorimotor group. Implications for occupational therapy are discussed.