| Children, from birth to three years of age, are exposed to numerous stressors that affect their well-being and development. During this developmental period, social workers are concerned with risk factors that threaten well-being and with protective factors that promote resiliency. A proven protective factor is parent-child interaction. Two major risk factors in the social environment are involvement in the child welfare system and poverty. Based upon previous research that demonstrates that these risk factors jeopardize parent-child interaction, this study explored the effects of caregiver role (biological or foster mother), child developmental delay, and social support on parent-child interaction. Using relational psychodynamic theory and the ecological perspective as a theoretical framework, specific concepts included attachment, mutual cueing, good-enough mother, goodness of fit, personal space, and niche.;This exploratory field study utilized a dominant-less dominant, parallel/simultaneous mixed-method design. Data collection involved three methodologies (observations of parent-child interactions, structured interviews to obtain quantitative data, and open-ended interviews to obtain qualitative data). Forty mother-child dyads were recruited from a child welfare agency on the basis of convenience.;Correlational analysis revealed that child developmental delay impacted parent-child interaction as children with developmental delays had lower scores for cueing and responding to cues. Correlational analysis also demonstrated that social support had a significant relationship with parent-child interaction, with parents who had more social support having better quality interactions with their children than parents with lower levels of social support. T-test results indicated that caregiver role affected parent-child interaction. Foster mothers had significantly better interactions than biological mothers. Parent-child interaction regressed on social support, caregiver role, and child developmental delay yielded significant relationships between parent-child interaction and social support and caregiver role. When parent-child interaction was regressed on social support, parent education, and caregiver role to explore the influence of education as a covariate, a significant relationship was found for social support. Content analyses of the qualitative data added breadth and depth to the understanding of the differences in parent-child interaction by caregiver role and child developmental delay. Implications are presented for social work practice, policy, theory development, and future research. |
