McCormick M C, Shapiro S, Starfield B
Pediatrics. 1982 May;69(5):537-43.
A mother's expectations about the development of her infant have been found to be a strong determinant of child development, but little is known about the factors that may affect maternal assessment of development. In this study, the relationship of the mother's opinion of the development of her infant with several sociodemographic, antenatal, intrapartum, and infant health variables was examined for a large sample of 1-year-old infants for whom gross motor observations were also obtained at the time of the interview. Among those observed to be developing at an appropriate rate, 4.0% were perceived by their mothers as developing more slowly than the mothers considered normal; among infants developing more slowly, 28.6% were considered to be developing slowly by their mothers. In both groups the major determinants of maternal opinion of slow development concerned the infant's health: low birth weight, congenital anomalies regardless of severity, hospitalization during the first year of life, and high ambulatory care use. These results indicate that maternal perception of infant development may not reflect the infant's level, but past or present illness, and raise questions about the influence of infant health on maternal-infant interactions and the effect of such interactions on subsequent development in the child.
母亲对其婴儿发育的期望已被发现是儿童发育的一个重要决定因素，但对于可能影响母亲发育评估的因素却知之甚少。在本研究中，针对大量1岁婴儿样本，考察了母亲对其婴儿发育的看法与若干社会人口学、产前、产时及婴儿健康变量之间的关系，在访谈时还对这些婴儿进行了大肌肉动作观察。在那些被观察到发育速度正常的婴儿中，4.0%的婴儿被其母亲认为发育比母亲认为的正常速度要慢；在发育较慢的婴儿中，28.6%被其母亲认为发育缓慢。在两组中，母亲认为发育缓慢的主要决定因素都与婴儿健康有关：低出生体重、无论严重程度如何的先天性异常、出生后第一年住院以及大量使用门诊护理。这些结果表明，母亲对婴儿发育的认知可能并不反映婴儿的实际水平，而是反映过去或当前的疾病状况，这也引发了关于婴儿健康对母婴互动的影响以及这种互动对儿童后续发育的作用等问题。
