2011 The Palm Beach County Family Study (Full Report)

It should be noted that it is not clear whether mothers’ responses primarily reflect children’s behaviorsand development or opportunities to draw, write, and look at books, which has been known to vary infamilies (e.g., Dickinson, 1994; Beals, DeTemple & Dickinson, 1994; Hart & Risley, 1995; Raikes et al.,2006; Snow, Barnes, Chandler, Goodman & Hemphill, 1991). As discussed in the next chapter, weobserved some variations in the reported availability of print materials in the home between U.S.-bornand foreign-born families.We also asked mothers to indicate the level of education they expected the focal children to achieve. Themajority (76%) of the mothers said they expected their children to graduate from college, and another 11percent expected their children would attend (but not necessarily graduate from) college. Thirteen percentexpected their focal child to graduate from high school, but not go any further. These figures differ fromwhat we found in year 4, when 87 percent of mothers expected their focal child to graduate from college;5 percent expected them to attend college; and 7 percent expected them to graduate from high schoolonly. There were no differences in these results as a function of maternal characteristics; however, therewere differences as a function of children’s reported development. Specifically, mothers who reportedthat they expected their children to attend or graduate from college were more likely to report that theirchildren demonstrate a high level of emerging literacy and pre-academic skills than were mothers who didnot expect their children to attend college.SummaryIndicators of maternal functioning examined in this chapter include a measure of depression, mothers’self-reported health, a measure of parental stress, and administrative data on reports of child abuse andneglect. The percentage of mothers reporting depressive symptoms was fairly stable from years 2 to 5 andsignificantly lower relative to the first year. The percentage of mothers with elevated parental stressscores was also stable from years 2 through 5 (but was not measured in year 1). Finally, similarproportions of mothers described themselves as in “good” to “excellent” health in all 5 years.Access to healthcare is another indicator related to maternal health. A majority (77%) of the mothersreported receiving regular medical care for themselves at the time of the year 5 interview, but this stillindicates that, as in year 4, almost a quarter of the sample mothers are going without routine healthcare.This group of mothers, therefore, is less likely to have access to services that will keep them healthybetween pregnancies, should they become pregnant again. Use of prenatal care by mothers who had givenbirth to children subsequent to their focal child followed the same pattern observed with the focalchildren. That is, among the 14 percent of the mothers who had had a subsequent pregnancy at the time ofChapin Hall at the University of Chicago 40