Predictors of Haitian-American Infant Development at Twelve Months

Abstract

Perinatal and early childhood influences on the development of 66 Haitian-American children were examined as part of an ongoing home visiting program. Although all participants were impoverished, approximately two-thirds lived in an urban setting with some access to social and health services, while one-third lived in a rural farmworkers' community where housing and services were sharply substandard. Measures used to examine the development of infants in these 2 settings included birthweight, household crowding, parental contributions to the child-rearing environment (the HOME), and developmental progress at 12 months on the Bayley Scales of Infant Development. Results showed that the urban sample was advanced on the Mental Development Index of the Bayley Scales. Regression analyses showed birthweight and the HOME score measuring child-rearing environment to be significant predictors of mental development, while psychomotor development was related to birthweight and household crowding. The results indicate that even within this disadvantaged Haitian entrant population, environmental differences exist that influence infant development in subtle but significant ways.

Predictors of Development In Premature Infants From Low-Income Families: African Americans and Hispanics

“…Innumerable studies have demonstrated that the most potent predictive factors for the child development are the circumstances in which the child is raised such as the socioeconomic status of the family, the educational background of the parents, and the quality of the care-giving environment. [2][3][4][5][6][7][8]23 Therefore, it was surprising that in the present study no relationship was found between the home environment and the mental scores for Hispanic families. It is possible that the HOME scores or Bayley scores do not vary sufficiently to show such a relationship.…”

“…The Bayley scales have been used widely in several studies with different infant populations, including LBW infants. 22,23 Social support. Social support was measured by Net-Help 24 for the subjects in Boston, and the Arizona Social Support Interview Schedule 25 measured social support for the subjects in Los Angeles.…”

“…The use of the HOME inventory factor in different cultures and countries and its correlation with the child's cognitive ability documents its validity. 23,31,32 Procedure Demographic and background data were obtained from the medical records of the infants at the time of recruitment. The scales for the dependent and independent variables were obtained at 8 months (corrected age of the child) by infant observations and questionnaires for the mothers during the home visits.…”

Allochtone kinderen tijdens het eerste levensjaar: invloed van sociaaleconomische en etnische status op specifieke ontwikkelingsdomeinen

“…De tweede kritische bedenking is of de geobserveerde achterstanden in de ontwikkelingsprofielen van e´e´njarige kinderen relevant zijn voor het latere ontwikkelingstraject (predictieve validiteit De richting van de verschillen die uit ons onderzoek naar voor komt, is zeer duidelijk. Er is ook onderzoek dat de problemen van allochtone kinderen op cognitief en talig vlak in kleuterschool en lagere school bevestigt (Widmayer et al, 1990;Canino, Escobar, Canino & Rubio-Stipec, 1992;Kagitc¸ibasi, 2006). Bij de overgang naar de lagere school wordt bij een aanzienlijk en toenemend aantal allochtone kinderen getwijfeld aan de cognitieve maturiteit die nodig is om een schools leerproces aan te vatten (Lanfranchi, 2004).…”