Parental practices and beliefs on motor development in the first year of life

Abstract Introduction: In the child’s first year of life, motor development is critical for the other areas of child development. Beliefs and parenting practices influence the parents’ care and encouragement of their children, reflecting in their motor development; however, the Brazilian literature on this subject is scarce. Objective: to characterize the parental practices and beliefs associated with motor development in the first year of life; and to verify if practices and beliefs are interrelated. Methods: Two questionnaires were developed and applied, one about parenting practices and the other about parental beliefs on motor development in the first year life, to 27 caregivers of children between 12 and 24 months of age, who participated in an aquatic stimulation program. The agreement between practices and beliefs was verified by a graphical method, based on the transformation of ordinal scores to an interval scale using Rasch analysis. Results: The participants had higher levels of education and economic status. They reported a variety of practices focused on the motor development of their children, such as family interaction through playing, toy offers, lap time and free movement space. Conclusion: Most of the practices were based on parental beliefs, for some activities, however, beliefs and practices diverged, demonstrating the complexity inherent to the formation of parental beliefs.摘要 引言：儿童出生后的第一年，运动发育对其其他领域的发展至关重要。父母的养育观念与养育行为会影响其对子女的照料与鼓励，并体现在儿童的运动发育水平中；然而巴西学界针对该主题的研究仍较为匮乏。 研究目的：阐明与出生后第一年儿童运动发育相关的父母养育行为与观念，并验证二者是否存在关联。 研究方法：编制并施测两套问卷，其一聚焦父母养育行为，其二针对父母对儿童出生后第一年运动发育的观念，研究对象为27名参与过水中刺激项目的12~24月龄儿童的照料者。采用基于拉希分析（Rasch analysis）的图形化方法，通过将顺序得分转换为等距量表的方式，验证养育行为与观念之间的一致性。 研究结果：受试照料者的受教育程度与经济水平均较高。他们报告了多种旨在促进儿童运动发育的养育行为，例如通过游戏开展亲子互动、提供玩具、抱持陪伴以及预留自由活动空间。 研究结论：多数养育行为均基于父母的养育观念，但针对部分活动而言，养育观念与实际行为存在分歧，这体现了父母养育观念形成过程中固有的复杂性。