Publication Type: Individual Poster
Abstract: Background and Aims: Maternal behavior has been associated with many child outcomes, which have the potential to be long-term influences in children’s socioemotional development. Therefore, understanding the factors, such as parenting attributions and parent personality, that influence individual differences in parenting behaviors is important. Belsky & Barends (2002) highlighted the need to examine moderators of the association between parent personality and parenting behavior, and parental attributions may be one potential moderator. The goal of this study was to examine the relations between maternal parental attributions and parenting behaviors and to see if parental attributions played a moderating role in the relation of parent personality to parenting behavior.
Methods: Mother-toddler dyads (119 boys, 97 girls) were observed in a 3 min free play session when the toddlers were 30 months-old (mean age = 29.77 mos). Mothers completed the Parent Attribution Test (PAT, Bugental, Blue, & Cruzcosa, 1989) when the toddlers were 12 months-old and the Big Five Personality Measure (John, Donahue, & Kentle, 1991) when the toddlers were 18 months-old. Based on PAT scores, two groups were formed: mothers with low perceived balance of control over caregiving failures (PCF) and mothers with a more balanced perception of control over caregiving failures. Scales for openness to experience, conscientiousness, extroversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism were computed from the Big Five. Maternal sensitivity (e.g., promptly and appropriately responding to baby’s cues, encouraging baby’s efforts), intrusiveness (e.g., displaying over-controlling behavior, over-stimulating baby), positive affect (amount of smiles and laughter), and negative affect (e.g., unpleasant tone of voice, expressing criticism) were coded from the free play session. A composite of maternal responsiveness was calculated by subtracting intrusiveness from sensitivity.
Key Results: Preliminary analyses revealed that mothers with low PCF displayed less responsiveness, sensitivity, and positive affect and more intrusiveness when interacting with their toddlers. Although maternal negative affect did not differ between mothers with low PCF compared to mothers with more balanced parental attributions, parental attributions interacted with parent personality to predict maternal negative affect. Openness to experience and conscientiousness were positively related and agreeableness was negatively related to maternal negative affect for mothers with low perceptions of control; the associations were not significant for mothers with balanced parental attributions.
Conclusions: These results highlight the need to consider multiple factors when examining relations between parent personality and parenting behaviors. The implications of these findings for toddlers’ social and emotional development will be presented.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: ABSTRACT

The origins and implementation of Argentina’s national Infant-Maternity Programs (IMPs) result from specific state initiatives during the 1930s involving the organization of the welfare state. Even though women’s organizations in this country increased their relative strength during the late nineteenth and the early twentieth centuries, the propitiation, design, and implementation of specific nationwide maternal and child health and nutrition provisions enacted since the mid-1930s came out of both male legislators and public health professionals’ initiatives (e.g., medical doctors and hygienists) with a notable absence of voices from women’s organizations. This is paradoxical for the Argentine case, where women’s involvement within a private and state-funded charitable institution, the Sociedad de Beneficencia, was paramount (almost hegemonic) for organizing both charitable activities, and welfare and health provisions for mothers, children, and the destitute population from the nineteenth century onwards. Is this a case of maternalist policies without Maternalists?

In this article, I inquire into Argentina’s IMPs from their origins as maternalistic provisions during the 1930s to their most recent transformations resulting from the implementation of market liberalization reforms in the 1990s. This work is part of a more extensive comparative historical research on Argentina’s and Chile’s IMPs, addressing the role of different institutional contexts on the specific characteristics of the reforms, their resulting policy programs, and their overall social and economic effects.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: This paper explores how the women who participated in the Maternalism movements of the Progressive Era shaped how “womanhood” was perceived by the public and how their definition of womanhood was institutionalized. Particular attention will be paid to the Suffrage Movement, the Christian Temperance Movement, and the Home Economics Movement. The author contends that a collective women’s voice emerged during this time period. Although it was fueled by a diverse grouping of women it predominantly represented the views of upper class, Christian, white women.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: In recent years, the idea that participation in community activities may create network resources that in turn improve the health and well-being of individuals and families has gained considerable prominence among both researchers and policymakers. However, nearly all of the existing literature in this area is set in developed settings. To assess the relevance of this hypothesized pathway to health, we must establish a relationship between social capital and health in settings outside of the developed world. In this paper we assess the link between participation in community activities and health in Indonesia. Specifically, we ask whether children are healthier when their mothers are active within their communities. Panel data come from the 1997 and 2000 waves of the Indonesia Family Life Survey. Our results indicate that, in Indonesia, maternal community participation is positively related to child height-for-age in poorer households and in households with less educated mothers, mitigating the deleterious effects on health associated with low socioeconomic status. This relationship holds when community fixed effects are included in the estimations.

Publication Type: Poster
Abstract: Although the positive effects of maternal education on children’s health are often taken for granted, little is known about how these effects may differ by race and ethnicity. This paper uses data from all WIC visits in the state of Wisconsin for the years 1997-2001 to assess maternal education gradients for breastfeeding initiation and duration. Results show that more maternal education results in a greater incidence of breastfeeding for whites, but results are mixed for blacks and Hispanics. A variety of hypotheses for the different returns to education for breastfeeding are explored.