title: Factors influencing gross motor development in young children in an urban child welfare system.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To determine whether young children involved with child welfare (CW) have gross motor (GM) delay; to examine relationships between GM skills and the influence of multiple factors on GM skills.
  
  
  METHODS
  One hundred seventy-six children involved with CW received GM assessment, physical examinations, and caseworker interviews. Descriptive statistics, correlations, t tests, analysis of variance and covariance, and multiple regression analyses were completed.
  
  
  RESULTS
  GM scores, lower than population norms, were associated with growth parameters. Children in kinship care had significantly higher GM scores compared with children in foster care and those with in-home protective services when adjusted for differences in time in CW. Abuse/neglect, medical neglect, and parental substance abuse produced lower scores; referral for abandonment produced higher scores. Age was most strongly related to GM outcome, with multiple regression explaining 19% of GM variance.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Children involved with CW have lower mean GM scores than population norms. Several factors specific to CW experiences may influence GM outcome.
authors.affiliation: Physical Therapy Department, The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104, USA. hansonh@email.chop.edu
authors.forename: Heather
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Hanson
authors.forename: Abbas F
authors.initials: AF
authors.lastname: Jawad
authors.forename: Tiffany
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Ryan
authors.forename: Judith
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Silver
mesh_terms: D000367:Age Factors; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D002648:Child; D002657:Child Development / Q000502:physiology*; D002669:Child Welfare / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D002675:Child, Preschool; D002658:Developmental Disabilities / Q000209:etiology*; D005260:Female; D006305:Health Status Indicators; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009048:Motor Skills; D010414:Pennsylvania; D012044:Regression Analysis; D012307:Risk Factors; D013223:Statistics as Topic; D014505:Urban Population / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*