Page 338 - Encyclopedia of Nursing Research

MOTHER–INFANT/TODDLER RELATIONSHIPS n 305

Goudoever, & Oosterlaan, 2009; Boyce, Smith, Maternal stress, low social support, marital
& Casto, 1999). Research has found that when discord, and maternal depression have been
compared with normal birth weight peers, viewed as important factors placing young M
low-birth-weight children have greater diffi- children at risk for poor developmental
culty in sustaining attention, are at risk for outcomes (Gao, Paterson, Abbott, Carter, &
poorer academic performance, have more Iusitini, 2007; Gross, Sambrook, & Fogg, 1999;
problems regulating their emotions, and are Petterson & Albers, 2001; Perry & Fantuzzo,
more likely to have internalizing behavioral 2010). Recently, researchers have shifted the
difficulties (Aarnoudse-Moens et al., 2009). focus away from unidirectional to bidirec-
Even in the absence of medical complica- tional effects. For example, depressed moth-
tions, mothers of low-birth-weight infants ers who are sad, preoccupied, and irritable
tend to experience greater stress and care- may be unable to attend to their infant’s needs
giver burden than mothers of normal birth or to deal calmly and effectively with their
weight infants (May & Hu, 2000; Singer, toddler’s demands for attention. However, it
Ethridge, & Aldana, 2007). Such early biolog- is also possible that behaviorally demanding
ical risk can have significant effects on the children cause mothers to feel ineffective,
quality of the mother–infant/toddler rela- fatigued, and ultimately depressed. The clin-
tionship. Caregiver burden has been shown ical implications of viewing problems in the
to decrease maternal quality of life which in mother–infant/toddler relationship as bidi-
turn increases parenting stress. High levels rectional is that effective nursing interven-
of parenting stress can negatively impact the tions should focus on the mother–child dyad
parent–child relationship and reciprocally or the family unit rather than on the mother
affect the child’s quality of life (Lee, Hwang, or child alone (National Research Council
Chen, & Chien, 2009). and Institute of Medicine, 2009).
The relationship between parenting envi- In the past 10 years, greater attention
ronment and the mother–infant/toddler rela- has been placed on the role of race/ethnic-
tionship has been extensively studied, although ity in the development of the mother–infant/
the theory underlying cause-and-effect rela- toddler relationship. Demographic trends
tionships remains poorly understood. For toward greater multiculturalism and expec-
example, there are many hypotheses to account tations for researchers to understand how
for the significant associations found between parenting processes may differ across racial/
parenting in low-income environments and ethnic groups have led to more thought-
poorer outcomes in very young children ful examinations of parenting processes
(Blair et al., 2008; Duncan & Brooks-Gunn, among families of color (Coll et al., 1998;
1997; Mistry, Vandewater, Huston, & McLloyd, McLloyd, Cauce, Takeuchi, & Wilson, 2000).
2002; Shonkoff, Boyce, McEwen, 2009). As a Different family structures and childrear-
result, interventions for promoting healthy ing values will affect how parents socialize
parent–child relationships among low-income their infants and toddlers. Although all chil-
families simultaneously target many environ- dren thrive under the care of a loving and
mental risk factors (e.g., support, psychological responsive parent, research has shown that
guidance, education, nutrition, and facilitat- there is no single way that love and atten-
ing access to community-based services). The tion need to be expressed. Indeed, research
complexity of the parenting environment and has shown that some parenting strategies
understanding how social contexts in early life that negatively affect behavioral outcomes in
affect young children and parents has been an European American children appear to have
important area of study. no such affect on African American chil-
The psychological health of the mother dren (Berlin et al., 2009; Dodge, McLoyd, &
and child has received much attention. Lansford, 2005).