Level of maternal education and performance of Black, South African infants on the 1996 Griffiths Mental Development Scale

Abstract

IntroductionMaternal level of education and profession have not been well researched as mediating factors in infant development. The impact of maternal employment on child development remains a topic of much informal debate. Mothers who have a tertiary education are likely to enter professional occupations, and subsequently to belong to a middle to high socioeconomic group. This in turn influences access to financial resources, diet, health care and sanitary facilities, quality of education, exposure to books and technology, and familiarity with Western cultural mores, which are all likely to have an effect on child development and psychological functioning. 1,2,3 However, it has been demonstrated that maternal employment during the first three years of a child's life has a deleterious (albeit small) effect on the child's intellectual development. 4 The general increase in the employment of women over the past few years, together with the increase in single parent households, is suggested to afford parents less time and energy to invest in their children. Consequently, this paper reports on the results of a comparison between the performance of infants with educated, professionally employed mothers versus those with less educated, nonprofessional mothers, on the Griffiths Mental Development The study compared the performance on the Griffiths Mental Development Scales of Black, South African infants with mothers who had twelve or more years of education and who were professionally employed with infants of mothers with fewer than twelve years of education and who were employed in non-professional jobs. Method: The sample consisted of 40 infants (aged 13-16 months), to whom the Griffiths Mental Development Scales was administered. Results: The infants with professional mothers performed significantly better than their counterparts with non-professional mothers on the General Quotient, as well as on the Locomotor Scale. While maternal level of education did not appear to distinguish between infants in terms of social, fine motor, language, hearing, processing speed or practical reasoning, it did discriminate in terms of gross-motor functioning. Conclusion: It is suggested that, as the infant develops, the skills assessed by the Griffiths Scales, which are initially differentiated, become increasingly interrelated. Consequently, poor gross-motor skills, which may be more likely in infants from a low socio-economic status, may have far-reaching implications. Thus, it is important to consider maternal level of education and the socio-economic status background of the infant, as this may influence overall performance on the Scales.

Developmental delay of infants and young children with and without fetal alcohol spectrum disorder in the Northern Cape Province, South Africa

“…Finally, some limitations stem from the use of the GMDS tool, which tends to measure general ability in completing a given task, but may have low sensitivity for detecting minor developmental delays especially during infancy. 16,48 Despite these limitations, the current study sheds light on early development of children with and without FASD in an impoverished community in South Africa. Furthermore, it describes socio-economic factors, present in the community which appear to contribute to the nature and extent of developmental delay.…”

“…63 Most researchers concur that maternal education levels are amongst the most reliable predictors of childhood development with similar associations between low maternal educational levels and gross motor functioning been reported in a study amongst black South African children 13 to 16 months of age. 48 On the other hand, researchers using the Bailey Scales of Infant Development failed to find a link between low maternal education levels, their findings suggest that the quality of the home environment affects the gross motor delay of low birth weight infants aged 18 months to 5 years. 64 The current study identified links between high parity and the death of a sibling with delay over developmental scales during early childhood.…”

“…33,34 These scales, developed in the United Kingdom, have been extensively used in South Africa. [35][36][37][38][39][40][41][42][43][44][45][46][47][48] They show good test-retest reliability and are able to predict long term development. 49 The first five scales assess development from infancy to middle childhood (age 8) with the higher order, sixth scale included at three years of age.…”

Neurodevelopmental delay among HIV-infected preschool children receiving antiretroviral therapy and healthy preschool children in Soweto, South Africa

“…Three South African studies using the Griffiths 0-2 year 1996 scale have found neurodevelopment in the first and early second year to be similar or superior to the British population (Amod, Cockcroft, & Soellaart, 2007;Cockcroft, Amod, & Soellaart, 2008;Perez et al, 2005). A deterioration of functioning has been shown between 11 and 21 months in children from low socio-economic circumstances in Cape Town (Laughton et al, 2010).…”

Alcohol exposure during pregnancy altered childhood developmental trajectories in a rural South African community

“…Age‐appropriate versions of the GMDS‐ER measured developmental functioning at years one and five, with prematurity corrected at year one. The GMDS‐ER was developed in the United Kingdom, and although it does not provide normal measures for South African children, it has been extensively used to assess the development of local children in the country . Existing Afrikaans and Xhosa translations were used.…”