The influence of rearing practices on children nutritional status and development

• In Event: Poster Session 04
  In Poster Session: PS 04 Topic - Health, Growth, Injury

Abstract

Children living in poverty are at risk of malnutrition and developmental delays (López Salazar, 2015). Undernourishment can have grave consequences on the physiological and psychological development. The most sensitive stages to sub-nutrition are gestational age and the first year of life because damage at this period reduces neuronal proliferation, which cannot be compensated later. (Drewett, Corbett, & Wright, 1999; Hughes & Bryan, 2003; Prado & Dewey, 2014). Caregiver practices can exacerbate or mitigate effects of economic scarcity on these issues. Parenting practices used by the primary caregiver determine to a large extent the quantity, quality, and the way in which children receive food. At once, there are many factors that can significantly deteriorate child-care patterns related to food, health preservation, and development, such as the family environment characterized by apathy and disorganization (Kerr, Black, & Krishnakumar, 2000), and emotional disturbances such as depression and parental stress (Ashiabi & O’Neal, 2007; Surkan, Kennedy, Hurley, & Black, 2011).
The aim of this study was to explore the influence of rearing practices and socioemotional caregiver factors on the nutritional status and psychological development in a sample of Mexican children; also, the participation of some sociodemographic variables is analyzed. Sixteen children (9-19 months-old) at risk of malnutrition or malnourished and their main caregivers participated. In addition to the nutritional status, infant development was assessed using the Bayley Child Development Scales. Caregivers answered questionnaires on demographics, parenting practices using the RPS-Questionnaire (Cortés, Romero, & Sánchez, 2006), and parenting stress (Abidin, 1995). Descriptive statistics were obtained for sociodemographic, nutritional and child development, and parental variables, also nonparametric Man-Whitney U-test, Kruskal-Wallis and Spearman Rho tests were used to study the relationships between different variables.
Results showed that the parameter most affected is body height, which indicates a history of nutrient deficiencies. Regarding the developmental scales, it was found that the average of the children is with the expected values for a healthy child on both the psychomotor scale and the mental scale. However, it can be observed in minimum values that there were cases in which the execution of the infants was lower than expected (Table 1).
Positive relations between responsive rearing practices and children favorable condition were found, and negatives associations between parental stress and child indicators of optimal nourishment and development (Table 2). Some demographic factors were associated with the caregiver and the child variables: Responsive Practice (r = 0.625, p < 0.01), Promotion of Skills (r = 521, p < 0.05), Willingness (r = 0.520, p < 0.05), also a significant difference was found in the values of the Responsive Practice according to child’s gender (U = 8, p < 0.05), caregivers show higher scores with girls (M = 4.7) than children (M = 4.06) .
Results found have limitations imposed by the sample size to conclude on the direction of the effects in the relationships obtained. Despite this, the results show the relevance of the caregiver's characteristics and practices.
 

Author

• Assol Cortés Moreno, National Autonomous University of Mexico
  Presenting Author