Factors Associated with Maternal Rating of Infant Health in Central Harlem

Maternal perceptions of infant health are strongly associated with the use of health services and may influence the child's future health and development. The extent to which such perceptions reflect infant health problems or a response to environmental stress in the mother's life is unclear. Because this issue may be especially important in disadvantaged groups for which both high levels of infant morbidity and environmental stress are common, we have explored the correlates of maternal perceptions of infant health among 367 mothers of 12-month-olds in central Harlem. Lower ratings of infant health were associated with such indicators of morbidity as problems in the neonatal period, hospitalization, and one or more episodes of illness. They were also associated with lower family income and the mother's rating of her own health in the bivariate analyses, but not in multivariate analyses. Neither maternal mental health, social support, nor enviromental stress appeared to influence maternal rating of child health. These findings indicate that a mother's ratings of her infant's health relate specifically to the child's morbidity, independent of her own health and environmental stress. Moreover, within disadvantaged communities, infants of the poorest mothers may experience greater levels of morbidity.