Brief reportReading and literacyAttitudes About Shared Reading Among At-Risk Mothers of Newborn Babies
Section snippets
Study Sample
This was a cross-sectional analysis of mother-infant dyads enrolled onto a longitudinal study of early child development. Consecutive enrollment of eligible dyads occurred from November 2005 to August 2006 in the postpartum unit of Bellevue Hospital Center, an urban public hospital serving at-risk families. Inclusion criteria were: intention to receive pediatric care at Bellevue, language English or Spanish, no medical complications, no Early Intervention eligibility. Written informed consent
Study Sample
A total of 293 mother-newborn dyads met eligibility criteria, of whom 211 (72.1%) were enrolled and 82 (27.9%) refused. Descriptive information is provided in Table 1. Fifty families (23.7%) did not report plans to read to their child in infancy. Eighty-nine (42.2%) did not report baby books in the home. Forty-two (19.9%) reported concerns about effective shared reading, including child care (3.3%), work or school (4.7%), household chores (4.3%), insufficient time (2.8%), illness or fatigue
Discussion
In this study, almost 25% of mothers of newborns delivering in an urban public hospital did not report plans to read books to their child in his or her infancy, and more than 40% did not have baby books in their homes. Mothers without plans to share books in infancy or baby books at home tended to have lower education and SES, firstborns, perceived reading difficulties, and not speak English. With the exception of SES, each of these retained significance after adjustment for potential
Acknowledgments
This study was performed with the support of National Institutes of Health (NIH)/National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD)-funded R01 “Promoting Early School Readiness in Primary Health Care” (R01 HD047740-02). We thank members of our project team for their work related to this study, including Virginia Flynn, Gilbert Foley, Leyla Almanza Peek, Jessica Urgelles, Margaret Wolff, and Brenda Woodford. We also thank our colleagues at the New York University Steinhardt School
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