title: Social Competence in Infants and Toddlers with Special Health Care Needs: The Roles of Parental Knowledge, Expectations, Attunement, and Attitudes toward Child Independence.
abstract: Little research has empirically addressed the relationships among parental knowledge of child development, parental attunement, parental expectations, and child independence in predicting the social competence of infants and toddlers with special health care needs. We used baseline data from the Strengthening Families Project, a prevention intervention study that tested Bavolek's Nurturing Program for Parents and Their Children with Health Challenges to explore the roles of these variables in predicting social competence in infants and toddlers with special health care needs. Bivariate relationships among the study variables were explored and used to develop and test a model for predicting social competence among these children. Study findings pointed to a combination of indirect and direct influences of parent variables in predicting social competence. Results indicated that parents who encouraged healthy behaviors for developing a sense of power/independence were more likely to have children with social competence developing on schedule. Elements related to parental expectations, however, did not have the hypothesized relationships to social competence. The present study provides preliminary data to support the development of knowledge based interventions. Within medical settings, such interventions may indeed maximize benefit while minimizing cost.
authors.affiliation: Knights of Columbus Child Development Center, Cardinal Glennon Children's Medical Center, Saint Louis University School of Medicine, 3800 Park Avenue, St. Louis, MO 63104, USA. dzand@slu.edu.
authors.forename: Debra
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Zand
authors.affiliation: Knights of Columbus Child Development Center, Cardinal Glennon Children's Medical Center, Saint Louis University School of Medicine, 3800 Park Avenue, St. Louis, MO 63104, USA. kjpierce@slu.edu.
authors.forename: Katherine
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Pierce
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Missouri-Saint Louis, 5400 Arsenal, St. Louis, MO 63139, USA. Nicole.Thomson@mimh.edu.
authors.forename: Nicole
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Thomson
authors.affiliation: Knights of Columbus Child Development Center, Cardinal Glennon Children's Medical Center, Saint Louis University School of Medicine, 3800 Park Avenue, St. Louis, MO 63104, USA. mbaig7@slu.edu.
authors.forename: M Waseem
authors.initials: MW
authors.lastname: Baig
authors.affiliation: Knights of Columbus Child Development Center, Cardinal Glennon Children's Medical Center, Saint Louis University School of Medicine, 3800 Park Avenue, St. Louis, MO 63104, USA. cteodore@slu.edu.
authors.forename: Cristiana
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Teodorescu
authors.affiliation: Knights of Columbus Child Development Center, Cardinal Glennon Children's Medical Center, Saint Louis University School of Medicine, 3800 Park Avenue, St. Louis, MO 63104, USA. langrisa@slu.edu.
authors.forename: Sohail
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Nibras
authors.affiliation: Knights of Columbus Child Development Center, Cardinal Glennon Children's Medical Center, Saint Louis University School of Medicine, 3800 Park Avenue, St. Louis, MO 63104, USA. maximr@slu.edu.
authors.forename: Rolanda
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Maxim
keywords: attunement; independence; infant; parental knowledge; social competence; toddler