A META-ANALYSIS OF INFORMING MOTHERS CONCERNING THE SENSORY AND PERCEPTUAL CAPABILITIES OF THEIR INFANTS: THE EFFECTS ON MATERNAL-INFANT INTERACTION.
Contributors: University of Texas at Austin.
Published: 1983
Number of pages: 212
Subjects: Health Sciences, Nursing.
Description: This ex post facto analytic study was designed to determine the efficacy of providing information to new mothers concerning the sensory and perceptual capabilities of their newborns on the overall outcome of maternal-infant interaction. The sample consisted of twenty experimental studies conducted on this topic. The meta-analysis methodology was utilized to integrate the findings of the twenty studies. Effect sizes were calculated in standard deviation units from summary statistics in each of the selected studies.

For all outcomes the average effect size was .44, indicating that the average mother in the experimental group exceeded the average mother in the control group by .44 standard deviation units on the outcome measures. Mean effect sizes for all categories and subcategories were positive, indicating that the treatment was also effective in the following categories: maternal responsiveness; .42, infant responsiveness, .38; and reciprocal relationship, .56. Effect size changes for the subcategories of maternal responsiveness were as follows: maternal anxiety, .46; maternal attitude, .42; maternal confidence, .27; maternal knowledge, .60 and maternal sensitivity, .44.

Sixteen study characteristics were coded for the studies. Analyses of variance procedures were utilized to determine the influence of the coded variables on the magnitude of change in the outcome effect sizes. In terms of these data, seven of the sixteen coded variables produced significant differences in the magnitude of various outcome variables.

The major implication of this study was that providing information to mothers concerning the social capabilities of their infants increased the effect size of maternal-infant interaction. Further, results tended to support the home as the most effective setting in which to provide the information, with one to five weeks post-discharge from the hospital as the most effective time to present the information and one month following the presentation to measure the outcomes. An additional finding of interest was that studies conducted by investigators in Education produced the largest mean effect sizes in terms of maternal-infant interaction.
Notes: Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 45-05, Section: B, page: 1431.

Thesis (PH.D.)--THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT AUSTIN, 1983.

School code: 0227.