Mothers' Perspectives on Managing the Developmental Delay of a Child With Considerations for Contextual Influences and Maternal Functioning.
Anne Chevalier McKechnie, Julee Waldrop, Yui Matsuda and 4 others
PMID 29947554WHAT IT FOUND
Mothers of very young children with developmental delays described their views and daily management as tied to depression, isolation, and disagreements with fathers or family.
Their own mental health appeared to shape how they saw the child and carried care.
Key findings
01Mothers with clinically concerning depressive symptoms tended to describe their children in incongruent or deficit-focused ways, while mothers without such symptoms tended to describe children more positively and holistically.
02Many mothers said attending to their own mental health and self-care was as important as, or more important than, the child’s developmental goals, and problems with managing care arose when mental health was not attended to.
03Most mothers reported discrepant views with the child’s father or caregiving partner, and unresolved conflict was far more common than descriptions of families on the verge of breakdown.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
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What it does not show
The study included only 29 mothers from one U.S. state, selected purposively for comparison, so the themes cannot be assumed to apply to all families of children with developmental delays. Some mothers in the sampling frame, especially those with limited English proficiency, could not be reached, so the sample may underrepresent families with language and access barriers. Fathers and other caregiving partners were not interviewed, so family conflict and support are described only from the mothers’ perspective. Children’s developmental delays varied widely, from nearly resolved concerns to confirmed diagnoses such as autism spectrum disorder, so the findings may not apply to families with a stable diagnosis. Two family-management dimensions, condition management effort and family life difficulty, had insufficient data for rich comparison.
Declared interests
The supplied text lists NIH extramural and non-U.S. government research support. No author conflict-of-interest declaration is provided in the supplied text.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that maternal depression causes distorted views of the child or that nurse-led screening improves outcomes. This study interviewed 29 mothers and described their perceptions; it did not test a nursing intervention or establish cause and effect.