Parenting Practices and Associations with Development Delays among Young Children in Dominican Republic

Abstract

BackgroundAccording to the World Health Organization, >200 million children in low- and middle-income countries experience developmental delays. However, household structure and parenting practices have been minimally explored as potential correlates of developmental delay in low- and middle-income countries, despite potential as areas for intervention.ObjectiveThe objective of the study was to examine associations of developmental delays with use of World Health Organization–recommended parenting practices among a clinic-based cohort of children aged 6-60 months attending in La Romana, Dominican Republic.MethodsThis study was conducted among 74 caregiver-child pairs attending the growth-monitoring clinic at Hospital Francisco Gonzalvo in June 2015. The Malawi Developmental Assessment Tool was adapted and performed on each child to assess socioadaptive, fine motor, gross motor, and language development. The IMCI Household Level Survey Questionnaire was used to assess parenting practices. Fisher's exact test was used to determine associations significant at 'P' FindingsAlmost two-thirds of children had a delay in at least 1 developmental domain. Most caregivers used scolding (43.2%) or spanking (44%) for child discipline. Children who were disciplined by spanking and scolding were more likely to have language delay ('P' = .007) and socioadaptive delay ('P' = .077), respectively. On regression analysis, children with younger primary caregivers had 7 times higher odds of language delay (adjusted odds ratio [AOR]: 7.35, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.52-35.61) and 4 times greater odds of any delay (AOR: 4.72, 95% CI: 1.01-22.22). In addition, children punished by spanking had 5 times higher odds of having language delay (AOR: 5.04, 95% CI: 1.13-22.39).ConclusionsParenting practices such as harsh punishment and lack of positive parental reinforcement were found to have strong associations with language and socioadaptive delays. Likewise, delays were also more common among children with younger caregivers.

Keywords

• child development
• discipline
• Dominican Republic
• early childhood
• global health
• parenting