DETERMINANTS OF MATERNAL CHILD-REARING ATTITUDES

This study investigated the correlates of negative attitudes toward child-rening low-income urban black and Hispanic mothers. Using a randomized block procedure. 144 adolescents and 139 adults giving birth to healthy infants at a large metropolitan hospital were recruited. All consenting women were interviewed in the hospital within 2 days after delivery, using standardized measures of child-rearing attitudes. self-esteem, depressive symptoms, social support, and cognitive ability. Hierarchical multiple regression analyses showed that depressive symptoms, cognitive ability, and two demographic characteristies (maternal age and spoken language) accounted for 42.4% of the variance in negative childrearing attitudes during the postpartum period. The contributions of social support and self-esteem were no longer significant when the effects of the other psychosocial factors were taken into consideration simultaneously. The utility of early assessment of maternal altitudes as a marker for maternal risk status is addressed. The adaptive function of maternal altitudes and the implications for child-rearing practices are discussed in relation to the process of acculturation. J. Am. Acad. Child Adolese. Psychiatry, 1990. 29, 3:375–381. © 1990, The American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. All rights reserved.