SELF-EFFICACY AND INFANT CARE SKILLS OF AFRICAN AMERICAN MOTHERS.
Contributors: Columbia University. Teachers College.
Published: 1994
Number of pages: 139
Subjects: Education, Health.; Health Sciences, Nursing.; Sociology, Individual and Family Studies.; Black Studies.
Description: At birth, the infant is a defenseless and dependent being. Therefore, mothers should be empowered with infant care skills. This study was conducted to determine the relevance of a self-efficacy assessment tool in determining infant care skills of African-American mothers.

A voluntary sample of 200 postpartum African-American mothers in a New York City hospital center rated their self-efficacy expectations on 52 infant care tasks. Data on demographic variables and the investigator's ratings of mothers' skills on five tasks (holding, feeding, burping, bathing, and diapering) were obtained. The two data collecting tools were adapted from Froman and Owen (1989). Means and standard deviations were computed; cross-tabulations and Spearman Correlations, Pearson Correlations and scatterplots, stepwise regression, and t-tests were then used to answer questions examining the relationship of mothers' self-efficacy to actual infant care skill.

Results showed alpha internal consistency estimates of.97 and.70 for the two tools, respectively. Maternal variables that positively correlated with maternal skills are: parity (r =.40, p $\leq$.001) for holding, feeding, burping, bathing, and diapering; age (r =.27, p $\leq$.01) for feeding, (r =.21, p $\leq$.01) for burping, (r =.25, p $\leq$.001) for bathing. Mothers who had girls expressed more self-efficacy than those who had boys. There was positive correlation (r =.51, p $\leq$.001) between the mothers' self-ratings and the investigator's ratings on five selected tasks. There was slightly stronger correlation (r =.55, p $\leq$.001) with the mothers' self-ratings on the 52 items and the investigator's ratings on the five tasks. The more educated the mother was, the less efficacious she was on infant care (p $\leq$.01). The best predictors of mothers' skills were the mothers' self-ratings of their self-efficacy (p $\leq$.001) and the number of children they had (p $\leq$.001).

The study supported Froman and Owen's (1990) finding that the tool, Infant care Scale, could be used to assess infant care skills of mothers. The study also suggested that African-American mothers leave the hospitals with parenting skills. The high infant mortality rate for African-Americans could not be related to poor parenting skills only, but could also be due to other factors.
Notes: Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 55-11, Section: A, page: 3420.

Thesis (ED.D.)--COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY TEACHERS COLLEGE, 1994.

School code: 0055.