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5 May 2008
One-Third Of New Parents Clueless About Babies 
One-third of new parents have a surprisingly low-level of knowledge about typical infant development and unrealistic expectations for their child's physical and emotional growth, suggests a new study from the University of Rochester. The new findings were presented yesterday at the Pediatric Academic Society meeting in Honolulu, Hawaii. "There are numerous parenting books telling people what to expect when they're pregnant," said researcher Heather Paradis. "But once a baby is born, an astonishing number of parents are not only unsure of what to anticipate as their child develops, but are also uncertain of when, how or how much they are to help their babies reach various milestones, such as talking, grabbing, discerning right from wrong, or even potty-training." Paradis based her study on a nationally-representative sample of parents of more than 10,000 9-month-old babies. These parents first answered an 11-point survey designed to distinguish informed parents from less-informed parents (asking questions such as "Should a 1-year-old child be able to tell between right from wrong"). Paradis then compared these knowledge scores to a videotape analysis of the same families' parent-child interactions while teaching a new task, and from these parents' self-reports of how often they engaged their child in enrichment activities. The analysis revealed that 31 percent of parents of infants had low-level knowledge of infant development, and that this low-level knowledge correlated with lower parental education level and income. Still, even when controlling for maternal age, education, income and mental state (e.g., depression), low-level knowledge of infant development still significantly predicted parents being both less likely to enjoy healthy interactions with their infants during learning tasks and less likely to engage their children in regular enrichment activities. "This is a wake-up call for pediatricians," Paradis said. "Additional research is needed to explore how these unrealistic expectations form in the first place." Source: University of Rochester Medical Center
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