Birth of a Parent - Version 2
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Birth of a Parent: When and How Parenting Attitudes & Beliefs are Formed
IRAS ID
233291
Contact name
Merideth Gattis
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Cardiff University Research & Innovation Services
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 8 months, 0 days
Research summary
When people become parents, they bring different life histories and other individual factors to their role as parents. As a result, even people who are becoming parents for the first time have beliefs about what infants need and how parents can best meet those needs. This project will examine the attitudes and beliefs of women who are pregnant with their first child, and compare them with the attitudes and beliefs of women who are pregnant with a second or later-born child (or in other words, pregnant women who already have a child). The project will investigate the specific attitudes and beliefs pregnant women have about caring for infants, the role of parenting experience in shaping those attitudes and beliefs, and how individual factors such as self-regulation abilities influence parenting attitudes and beliefs. Primiparous and multiparous pregnant women will be invited to take part in a study of attitudes, beliefs and behaviours. The project will include three self-report questionnaire measures of parenting attitudes, beliefs, and behaviours: the Baby Care Questionnaire (BCQ) (Winstanley & Gattis, 2013), the Confusion, Hubbub, and Order Scale (CHAOS) (Matheny, Wachs, Ludwig & Phillips, 1995), and the Maternal Self-Efficacy in Nurturing Role Questionnaire (Porter & Hsu, 2003). All three of these measures are valid for women who are pregnant with their first child. The study will also include a behavioural measure of working memory as a proxy for self-regulation, the digit span subtest of the WAIS IV (Wechsler, 2008). The results of the study will provide insights into how parental attitudes and beliefs are shaped by experience, and will in turn guide future parenting education schemes.
REC name
East of Scotland Research Ethics Service REC 2
REC reference
17/ES/0141
Date of REC Opinion
26 Jan 2018
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion