Maternal Self-Efficacy of Mothers of Children with Intellectual Developmental Disabilities,Down Syndrome,and Autism in Kuwait

This study aims to identify the perception of maternal self-efficacy among 95 Kuwaiti mothers of children with Developmental Disabilities (DD) to determine the differences in perception of maternal self-efficacy variables among the mothers based on demographic variables: Child’s age, Gender, Type of disability, Leisure time, and Mother’s age. A survey was conducted using Kandari’s (2005, Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Simmons College, Boston) Arabic version of the Caregiving Self-Efficacy Scale. The mothers were selected from different special education settings in Kuwait. They had 33 children with Intellectual Developmental Disabilities (IDD), 41 with Down Syndrome, and 21 with autistic disorder. The children included both males and females, and ranged between the ages of 6 and 15. The findings showed that (1) mothers of children with DD did not differ in their beliefs about aspects of maternal self-efficacy according to the Child’s age, Child’s gender, and the Mother’s age; (2) mothers of children with IDD, when compared to other mothers, had negative beliefs of all aspects of maternal self-efficacy; (3) mothers of children who did not attend a respite facility for an afternoon had negative beliefs of all aspects of maternal selfefficacy except for the child’s behavioral management; and (4) all mothers’ groups had negative beliefs about their ability to control their child’s behavior and their own emotions. Implications are discussed to provide services for mothers to help them develop their adaptive skills and meet their children’s needs, as well as their own.     

Comparing Parents of Children With Down Syndrome at Different Life Span Stages

The present study explored the experiences of parents of children with Down syndrome at different phases of the life span. Using a mixed‐method design, the current study included 445 participants who were divided into 4 groups based on the age of the child: (a) parents of children under 5 years of age (early childhood), (b) parents of children between 5 and 11 years of age (middle childhood), (c) parents of children between 12 and 18 years of age (adolescence), and (d) parents of children over the age of 18 (chronological adults). Parents reported higher coping strategy scores during the middle childhood and adolescent years than early childhood or later years (adult children). Qualitative data identified key areas that parents across the 4 groups reported, including acceptance of the diagnosis, having a positive attitude, their child's developmental level, and other internal and external factors that contribute to their attitudes and coping.     

Behavior of Mothers and Infants With and Without Down Syndrome During the Still‐Face Procedure

There has been limited study of how the constitutional characteristics of infants with Down syndrome (DS) influence the patterning of their relations with caregivers. To assess natural and perturbed interactions between infants with DS and their mothers, we tested ten 6‐month‐old infants with DS and 20 typically developing (TD) 4‐month‐old of similar mental age. Participants were videotaped with their mothers in a natural face‐to‐face interaction, a brief period when the mothers adopted a still‐face, and a subsequent reengagement phase. There was little to distinguish the infants in the initial phase of natural interaction, but the mothers of infants with DS were more likely to show assertive warmth, and unlike in the case of mothers of TD infants, high maternal directiveness tended to be associated with lower levels of infant looking and lack of fussing. During the still‐face episode, infants of both groups showed reduced looking and smiling, although infants with DS tended to show lower levels of fussing and fewer in this group showed fussing in the reengagement phase. Therefore DS infants were somewhat similar to TD infants of comparable mental age in being responsive to the still‐face procedure, but showed indications of group differences in intense emotional reactivity.     

When Children Have Two Mothers: Relationships With Nonresident Mothers,Stepmothers, and Fathers

Using data on 294 adolescents from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health who live with a biological father and have both a resident stepmother and a nonresident biological mother, this study examines the prevalence, antecedents, and consequences of adolescents’ closeness to each of their parents. Findings demonstrate that adolescents vary in their likelihood of having close relationships to resident fathers, resident stepmothers, and nonresident biological mothers, but when they can do so, they appear to benefit. Close relationships with both resident fathers and nonresident mothers are associated with fewer adolescent internalizing and externalizing problems. Closeness to resident stepmothers, however, is unrelated to these two outcomes. Results suggest that fathers play a particularly important role in these families.     

Successful Adoption of Children with Down Syndrome and Other Developmental Disabilities

Abstract

Children with many types of developmental disabilities have been successfully adopted. Nonetheless, there appears to be a belief among both adopters and some adoption workers that children with Down syndrome are especially easy to rear. The current paper uses different methodological strategies, including case-by-case matching and regression techniques, to test hypotheses relating to better outcomes for parents and families who have adopted children with Down syndrome in comparison to children with other developmental disabilities. The results demonstrated successful functioning for parents and families on a variety of measures, regardless of whether the adopted children had Down syndrome or other developmental disabilities. The positive stereotype for Down syndrome was not supported.     

Stress and Coping in Homeless Children

The possible moderating effects of social support and self-competence on the relationship between stressful life events and behavior problems were examined in 49 homeless children residing in shelters in New York City. The children's mothers were administered measures of their children's stressful life events, social support, and behavior problems; the children themselves were administered measures of their social support and perceived self-competence. There was support for the buffering hypothesis for social support, with the mothers' perceptions of their children's social support moderating a relationship between stressful life events and behavior problems. Social support also was related to self-competence and to behavior problems. The children's perceived self-competence did not function as a moderator. Implications for preventively oriented interventions with homeless children are discussed.     

Infants' Behavioral Strategies for Emotion Regulation With Fathers and Mothers: Associations With Emotional Expressions and Attachment Quality

This study examined 12‐ and 13‐month‐old infants' behavioral strategies for emotion regulation, emotional expressions, regulatory styles, and attachment quality with fathers and mothers. Eighty‐five infants participated in the Strange Situation procedure to assess attachment quality with mothers and fathers. Infants' behavioral strategies for emotion regulation were examined with each parent during a competing demands task. Emotion regulation styles were meaningfully related to infant‐father attachment quality. Although expressions of distress and positive affect were not consistent across mothers and fathers, there was consistency in infant strategy use, emotion regulation style, and attachment quality with mothers and fathers. Furthermore, infants who were securely attached to both parents showed greater consistency in parent‐oriented strategies than infants who were insecurely attached to one or both parents. Limitations of this study include the constrained laboratory setting, potential carryover effects, and a homogeneous, middle‐class sample.     

Perfectionism,Coping, and Quality of Intimate Relationships

The present study examined the associations among perfectionism, marital coping, and marital functioning in a community sample of 76 couples. A theoretical model was tested in which maladaptive coping mediates the relationship between trait perfectionism and poorer marital functioning. As predicted, one of the interpersonal dimensions of perfectionism, socially prescribed perfectionism, was associated with maladaptive marital coping and poorer marital adjustment for both the self and the partner, even after controlling for depression and neuroticism. Finally, the use of negative coping strategies mediated the relationship between socially prescribed perfectionism and poorer marital functioning for both the self and the partner. Overall, this study highlights the importance of spouse‐specific forms of perfectionism in marital adjustment.     

Mothers of Children With Physical Disabilities: Influence of Family Processes on Mothers' Depressive Symptomatology

This study examines how family processes, or specific behaviors and relationships within the family, influence the risk of depression in mothers of children with disabilities. Specifically, the collective influence of children's maladaptive behavior problems, father involvement, and coparental conflict on the risk of depression among 60 married mothers of children with physical disabilities is examined. Based on data from the National Survey of Families and Households, findings showed that these mothers perceived the child's behavioral problems as less influential when they were more satisfied with the father's parenting. Furthermore, coparental conflict appeared to mediate the influence of the child's behavior and her satisfaction with the father's involvement on the mother's risk of depression.     

Depression Risk among Mothers of Young Children: The Role of Employment Preferences, Labor Force Status and Job Quality

This study examines how desire for employment, employment status, and job quality associate with depressive symptoms among mothers of infants and toddlers. We use the longitudinal NICHD Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development (SECCYD) to estimate regression models with a variety of controls including prior depression. We find that employment in high-quality versus low-quality jobs is associated with reductions in depressive symptoms, both for mothers who do and do not desire employment. Furthermore, non-employed mothers have elevated depression levels only if they desire employment. Our results demonstrate that neither employment nor non-employment is best for all mothers of young children; rather mental health depends on mothers’ employment preferences and, when they do work for pay, job quality.     

The Relationship of Divorced Adult Children With Their Elderly Parents

Some 93 divorced adult children of elderly parents, 69 women and 24 men aged 44.4 years, were interviewed in depth concerning their interpersonal and helping relationships with elderly parents. The great majority still felt close to their parents and had a compatible relationship with them, with little conflict. Most helped parents out of love and a desire to protect them from need, but found lack of money and time their most severe problems in helping. Although present costs of helping were low, most adult children felt future help would be limited by job and other responsibilities. Implications for social services are discussed.     

Looking Behavior and Smiling in Down Syndrome Infants

We studied the relation between direction of gaze and smiling in 15 typically developing infants and 15 infants with Down syndrome. All of them were videotaped during face-to-face interaction with their mothers at home, and while having access to their familiar toys. Results showed that mothers in the two groups behaved in a similar way; that Down syndrome infants looked at their mother's face for longer than typically developing children; and that the relationship between looking and smiling was similar in the two cases and reflected as an increase in the time the infant looked at its mother's face and a decrease in the time the infant looked at toys. It was deduced that Down syndrome infants are capable of distinguishing the differential significance of faces and toys, so that, in the same way as typically developing infants, they direct their affective behavior fundamentally towards the social element, which leads us to consider the affiliative function implied by this expression.     

Violence Exposure Among Children of Incarcerated Mothers

Social workers are becoming increasingly aware of the unique experiences faced by children of incarcerated parents. Little is known, however, about their experiences prior to their parents being incarcerated. Using data from a broader study of incarcerated women, we examined women’s accounts of their children’s exposure to violence prior to maternal incarceration. Open-ended interviews addressed family and relationship history, physical and psychological victimization, lifetime delinquency and crime, and interactions with service and justice systems. Interviews were analyzed using ATLAS/ti software and a grounded-theory approach. The emergent themes revealed a myriad of consequences experienced by the children, including child witnessing of violence, emotional sequelae, bodily harm from abuse and neglect, sexual abuse, and birth defects from prenatal violence. Implications for research and practice are discussed.     

Developmental Outcomes for Children of Young Mothers

This study tested the association between mother’s early age at first birth and various life outcomes for her children in later adolescence and early adulthood. Data were analyzed from the Rochester Youth Development Study, an ongoing panel study of adolescents enrolled in seventh or eighth grade in Rochester Public Schools in 1988 (N =729). Boys born to mothers who began childbearing before age 19 had elevated risks of drug use, gang membership, unemployment, and early parenthood. Girls born to young mothers only had elevated risks of early parenthood. Of the mediators tested, low maternal education had the largest mediating effects. The findings suggest that the risks associated with being born to a young mother are substantial but perhaps disproportionately so for boys.     

Work Hours,Schedules, and Insufficient Sleep Among Mothers and Their Young Children

Studies have linked parents' employment, work hours, and work schedules to their own sleep quality and quantity, but it is unclear whether these associations extend to children. The authors used data from the 5‐year in‐home survey of the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study (N = 1,818) to examine the associations between maternal work hours and schedule and insufficient sleep among disadvantaged mothers and their young children. They found that mothers who worked more than 35 hours per week were more likely to experience insufficient sleep compared to mothers who worked fewer hours, whereas children were more likely to experience insufficient sleep when their mothers worked between 20 and 40 hours. Nonstandard work schedules were associated with an increased likelihood of insufficient sleep for mothers but not their children. The results highlight a potentially difficult balance between work and family for many disadvantaged working mothers in the United States.     

White Mothers,Brown Children: Ethnic Identification of Maori‐European Children in New Zealand

Studies of multiethnic families often assume the ethnic identification of children with the minority group results from the minority parent. This study examines an alternate view that mainstream parents also play an important role in transmitting minority ethnicity. It explores this argument using data from New Zealand on the ethnic labels mothers assign to their Maori‐European children. It finds that European mothers are just as disposed as Maori mothers to designate their child as Maori, either exclusively or in combination. Two explanations, grounded in ethnic awareness and gendered inheritance, are proposed. Although neither satisfactorily predicts maternal designation decisions, the readiness of European mothers to identify their child as Maori underscores their role in diffusing Maori ethnicity.     

Coresidence and Geographic Proximity of Mothers and Adult Children in Stepfamilies

Children who live with or near a parent provide more care and receive more help from parents than geographically distant children. Stepfamily ties may be weaker than ties between biological kin, but little is known about the geographic proximity of step‐ versus biological kin. The authors used data from the Health and Retirement Study (N = 13,239 mothers and 45,675 biological and stepchildren) to show that stepchildren and stepmothers are less likely to live together, less likely to live nearby, and less likely to move closer than biological children and mothers. When mothers have only stepchildren, they are less likely to have a coresident child or a child nearby than mothers with both step‐ and biological children. Coresidence and geographic proximity are lower in stepfamilies formed after divorce than after widowhood. The findings are consistent with a legacy of conflict and strain and the likely competing needs of biological and stepmothers.     

Careers in Caring: Mothers of Children with Disabilities

This study concerns 14 women, mothers of children with disabilities, who have extended their family care-giving responsibilities to disability-related public work. Recognized as parent leaders on the local and state levels, the women described their experiences and talked about their work during in-depth interviews. The women's stories offer testimony to the power of experience in personal change and vocational calling. However, the findings from the interviews suggest that the mothers' public missions represented the ambiguities and contradictions present in women's work of caring for others. One problem described by the women concerned the socially devalued status accorded their activities in terms of economic compensation. Although the women received little or no pay, they reported satisfaction and personal fulfillment with their work. Another dilemma existed for some women who desired professional status and credibility, even though they recognized the unique contributions that parents of children with disabilities bring to others. The personal growth and the public service achieved by the women illustrate the potential accomplishments of other parents at home and in public service.     

East African Mothers with HIV: Testing,Talking, and Transmission to Children

ABSTRACT

Experiences of African mothers with HIV can inform the development of services to prevent HIV transmission to children. A small qualitative study was conducted in Tanzania with six openly HIV-positive women. They suggest that counseling and HIV testing additionally benefit the mother beyond reducing HIV transmission to her child. They recommend that testing of couples would allow them to make plans and informed choices together concerning sexual behavior, childbearing, and prevention of HIV transmission to children.     

Depressive Symptoms in Mothers of Recently Adopted Post-Institutionalized Children

To determine whether depressive symptoms are elevated within months of adoption, we compared women who had recently adopted a toddler from an overseas orphanage to women with children of the same age who adopted more than a year before or were raising a child they birthed. The groups did not differ significantly in means or in percentage with elevated symptoms (Session 1, χ²(2) = 2.5, ns; Session 2, χ²(2) = 1.38, ns). The results provided no evidence of elevated symptoms in the first months following adoption for women who adopted internationally relative to other women with toddler-aged children.