Mothers' sensitive responsiveness in rural and urban families from Andean Peru, and its relation with early childhood development

Acronym

P_MSR-ANDES

Consortium Coordinator

Noblega Mayorga, Magaly Suzy

Start Date

August 1, 2018

End Date

March 31, 2020

Status

https://purl.org/pe-repo/concytec/estadoProyecto#concluido

Tipo de proyecto

https://purl.org/pe-repo/ocde/tipoProyecto#investigacionBasica

Description

Sensitive responsiveness of caregivers is one of the most widely studied aspects of parent-infant relations in the literature on early childhood development (Mesman & Emmen, 2013). Indeed, sensitive parenting has proved to predict secure attachment (Bakermans et al., 2003; De Wolff & Van IJzendoorn, 1997; Posada et al. 2006). At the same time, it has been shown to be a precursor of positive adjustment in later childhood (Thompson, 2008). Although there is evidence that sensitivity can be observed in many different cultures (Mesman, Van IJzendoorn, Sagi-Schwartz, 2016), rural populations are underrepresented in observational studies of sensitivity. A pilot study in rural Peruvian areas found surprising high sensitive responsiveness levels in mothers (Fourment et al., 2018), which were not expected due to the relatively harsh economic conditions of these rural areas (Mesman et al., 2012), and because previous studies in Peru found low levels of sensitivity in urban low socioeconomic status mothers (Conde et al., 2017). Qualitative analysis of the videos led to the hypothesis that high sensitivity levels were facilitated by the presence of multiple caregivers¿ networks, and the flexible timing and organization of caregiving routines that are typical of rural Peru (Fourment et al., 2018). The proposed study aims to test this hypothesis by comparing sensitive caregiving in 60 families, of which 30 are still residing in the rural area, and 30 have migrated to an urban area. This way, we can study the impact of a changing lifestyle (with less extensive caregiving networks and more constrained routines in the urban versus rural context) on mother's sensitivity. Additionally, the relationship among mothers¿ sensitivity and children developmental outcomes will be tested.

Keywords

Sensibilidad materna

;

Desarrollo infantil temprano

;

Familias andinas

;

Entornos rurales y urbanos

Área de conocimiento

Social sciences

Campo OCDE

https://purl.org/pe-repo/ocde/ford#5.04.05