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Social determinants of parent–child interaction in the UK
Author(s) -
Brocklebank R.,
Bedford H.,
Griffiths L. J.
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
child: care, health and development
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.832
H-Index - 82
eISSN - 1365-2214
pISSN - 0305-1862
DOI - 10.1111/cch.12090
Subject(s) - developmental psychology , logistic regression , psychology , ethnic group , reading (process) , cohort , demography , medicine , sociology , anthropology , political science , law
Abstract Background Children are shaped in part by their environment and one rich in communication is therefore beneficial. Activities such as play and reading have long lasting positive effects on development. This study examined the social and demographic characteristics of mothers who play with, read to and tell stories to their child, using data from the UK ‐wide M illennium C ohort S tudy ( MCS ). Methods The study included 14 034 mothers of singleton 5‐year‐old children. Using data from the first and third sweeps of the MCS , we examined how often mothers engaged with their child in playing, reading and telling stories, according to their social and demographic characteristics: ethnicity, socio‐economic status, highest academic qualification, lone mother status, age at birth of cohort child, number of children and employment status. Adjusted logistic regression analyses were conducted using Stata. Results When their children were 5 years old, 22% of mothers reported playing, 51% reading and 13% telling stories everyday. I ndian, P akistani, B angladeshi and B lack mothers were significantly less likely to play with their child at least weekly compared with White mothers. The same applied to lone mothers compared with those living with a partner. Mothers with academic qualifications lower than degree level were less likely to read at least once weekly. Compared with mothers who worked full‐time, those who worked part‐time, were ‘on‐leave’ or unemployed, were more likely to play with, and read to, their child at least weekly. Mothers with more than one child were significantly less likely to engage at least weekly in any of the three activities studied. Conclusions We found significant inequalities in the frequency of playing, reading and telling stories according to sociodemographic characteristics. This information is important to be able to target more effectively vulnerable children using established public health initiatives, like ‘ B ookstart’ and ‘ S urestart’, aimed at promoting play, reading and story telling.