Semester
Fall
Date of Graduation
2011
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Type
MS
College
Eberly College of Arts and Sciences
Department
Psychology
Committee Chair
Katherine Karraker.
Abstract
This study evaluated mothers' specific knowledge of their own toddlers' development. Mothers' predictions of their toddlers' performance on the Bayley Scales of Infant Development, Second Edition (BSID-II) were compared to their toddlers' performance on each task. In addition, mothers' accuracy in their predictions and toddlers' performance was compared to the toddlers' display of emotional behaviors during the assessment. Mothers (N = 68, Mage = 31.31 years) with toddlers between the ages of 19 and 26 months (M age = 21.76 months) completed demographic questionnaires, measures assessing their perceived parenting self-efficacy, their knowledge of developmental norms, and their expectation for their toddlers' performance on the BSID-II. Toddlers were administered the BSID-II, with their parent present. The administration was videotaped and toddlers' behavior during the assessment was later coded. Results indicated that mothers' predictions were associated with their toddlers' performance, but their predictions of performance varied between the mental and motor scales. In addition, mothers' biographical information was not associated with their accuracy on either the mental or the motor scale, or their toddlers' performance. Mothers' biases were associated with their toddlers' performance on the mental scale, but not the motor scale. Finally, mothers' ratings and the assessment administrator's ratings of toddlers' emotional behavior were associated with mothers' accuracy and their toddlers' performance. However, toddlers' display of emotional behavior was only modestly associated with their mothers' accuracy. These results suggest that mothers may take their children's typical behavior into consideration when predicting their performance, recognizing that the toddlers' emotional behavior during the assessment will likely affect their performance. These findings may be useful to the revision and development of assessments for young children and to practitioners who work with parents of young children.
Recommended Citation
Powell, Darcey N., "Mothers' Accuracy and Bias in Predicting their Toddlers Performance on the Bayley Scales of Infant Development" (2011). Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports. 3345.
https://researchrepository.wvu.edu/etd/3345