title: Profiles of maternal care observed in a group of Brazilian mothers: an exploratory study.
abstract: The aim of this study is to characterize profiles of maternal care in a sample of Brazilian mothers, using a cultural-biological perspective. Participants were 315 women who had at least one child younger than six years-old. They were selected from six Brazilian states. In each state, two groups of mothers were studied, one from the capital and one from a small city. They were interviewed and answered scales on allocentrism, social support, adult attachment, and practices of childcare. Mothers' characteristics, the type of context (capital vs. small city), and reported childcare practices were used in a Tree analysis. A Correspondence analysis was performed using the four clusters obtained and mothers' answers regarding their youngest child. Univariate GLM analyses were performed to compare mothers in the four clusters in terms of their scores on the different scales. Four maternal profiles presenting distinctive patterns of association between mothers' characteristics and care practices displayed to the youngest child were identified. We conclude that maternal care is a multi-determined phenomenon and that the method employed in this study can give insights into how the combination of diverse social-biological factors can result in a set of childcare practices.
authors.affiliation: Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. mlseidl@gmail.com
authors.forename: Maria Lucia
authors.initials: ML
authors.lastname: Seidl-de-Moura
authors.forename: Altay L
authors.initials: AL
authors.lastname: de Souza
authors.forename: Angela Donato
authors.initials: AD
authors.lastname: Oliva
authors.forename: Mauro Luis
authors.initials: ML
authors.lastname: Vieira
authors.forename: Eulina
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Lordelo
authors.forename: Rosana Suemi
authors.initials: RS
authors.lastname: Tokumaru
authors.forename: Tatiana Targino Alves
authors.initials: TT
authors.lastname: Bandeira
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001938:Brazil / Q000208:ethnology; D016000:Cluster Analysis; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D009035:Mothers / Q000145:classification / Q000523:psychology*; D009769:Object Attachment; D016487:Parenting / Q000208:ethnology* / Q000523:psychology; D012944:Social Support; D012951:Socialization; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D014505:Urban Population; D055815:Young Adult