Despite previous research indicating that early negative child behavior and the quality of parent-child relationships are predictive of later externalizing problems, few investigators have attempted to trace these antecedents back to infancy. In a sample of 100 infants from low-income families, infant persistence and maternal responsiveness were…

Healthy Start is a 5-year program that encourages community-based strategies for reducing infant mortality. This report addresses Congressional concerns of preliminary evaluation results reported by the press concerning the program's efficacy. The report strives to answer three Congressional concerns: (1) the plan for the national program…

A resource for child caregivers providing family day care for infants and toddlers, this book is designed to provide information and suggestions in a format that is easy to follow, and in language that is easy to read. Chapter 1 gives tips on "baby-proofing" the home, as well as ideas for toys, equipment, and how to integrate a baby into…

This report examines the determinants of the high level of infant mortality in Washington, D.C. Data were analyzed for 36,872 black resident single-delivery births occurring in the years 1980 through 1984, and 762 infant deaths occurring to these birth cohorts from 1980 to 1985. Findings were the following: (1) poor birthweight distribution among…

Text, illustrations, and exercises are utilized in these four learning modules to instruct parents and nursing students in topics related to child care and development. The first module, "Growth and Development: Let's Test Your Baby's Reflexes" by Bonnie Wojcik, describes the behavioral signs that are indicative of eight normal primitive…

This booklet presents evidence which links the effects of unplanned pregnancies on the health of the mother and child. The first section identifies the causes of high mortality and morbidity rates among children. Teenage child-bearing, child-bearing past the age of 35, family size and birth intervals are discussed. The second section presents…

This paper presents a study designed to determine if providing information to primiparous mothers about the behavioral characteristics of their infants would affect reciprocity in mother-infant interaction. Thirty married, Caucasian, middle class mothers of healthy, normally carried and delivered 48-hour-old first-born infants served as subjects.…

This paper discusses the nature of the infant social world. Infants develop attachments to both parents. Father-child and mother-child relationships are qualitatively different. They involve different types of experiences and have different implications for the child's personality development. The fathers' sex-differentiating behavior focuses the…

This study examined the effect of a day care program on mother-child interaction patterns and attachment behaviors, and compared these patterns of behavior with those obtained from a matched sample of more advantaged home-reared infants. Subjects were 60 infants, ranging in age from 3 1/2 to 9 1/2 months, and their mothers. There were three groups…

This paper reports an exploratory investigation of motor patterns characteristic of maternal gameplaying behavior conducted with forty-eight 4-, 6- and 8-month-old infants and their mothers. Videotapes of 6-minute laboratory mother-infant play sessions were segmented into maternal games which were categorized according to the type and complexity…

The present investigation examined the ability of the Inventory of Home Stimulation (STIM) to predict changes in relative mental test performance of children between 6 months old and 36 months of age. The six STIM subscales were used in discriminant analysis to classify infants into three groups (gainers, stable, losers) in terms of their change…

The conference on Physical Trauma as a Cause of Mental Retardation dealt with two major areas of etiological concern - postnatal and perinatal trauma. Following two introductory statements on the problem of and issues related to mental retardation (MR) after early trauma to the brain, five papers on the epidemiology of head trauma cover…

From 1956-1960 an estimated 34,000 infants annually failed to survive in many parts of the United States due to risks far in excess of those for some areas of the country. There is a growing gap between death rates for white and nonwhite infants in the United States, with the excess mortality rate of nonwhite infants continuing to rise. Only 15…

Because of the sparcity of research on infants' response to social events, especially different categories of people, infants between 8 and 18 months of age were introduced to five different social events: strange adult male and female, strange 4-year-old female, mother, and self. The infants' responses indicated that approach affects stimulus…

To assess the effect of setting on mother-infant interaction, 24 twelve-month-old children and their middle class mothers were observed on two occasions, a week apart. Half of these dyads were seen twice at home under naturalistic conditions or twice in the lab in a free play situation. The remaining 12 pairs were observed once in each location…