Citation

Culp AM, Culp RE, Blankemeyer M, Passmark L. Infant Ment. Health J. 1998; 19(2): 111-123.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1998, Michigan Association for Infant Mental Health, Publisher John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

10.1002/(SICI)1097-0355(199822)19:2<111::AID-IMHJ3>3.0.CO;2-R

PMID

12294463

Abstract

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.

Language: en