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No description available.

The purpose of this study was to investigate whether multiparous mothers of full term infants perceived newborns differently than multiparous mothers of premature infants. A convenience sample of 32 multiparous mothers was selected and placed into one of two groups according to the gestational age. Group 1 was comprised of 25 full term mothers and Group 2 was comprised of 7 preterm mothers.The Neonatal Perception Inventory - I was utilized to elicit mother's perceptions of the newborn. The instrument was found to be valid and reliable for use with multiparas. Demographic data was gathered on age, educational level, number of previous pregnancies and the classification of a high-risk pregnancy.Differences between the two groups were analyzed utilizing a ttest and Analysis of Covariance. The study's results indicated that there is no significant difference between neonatal perceptions of multiparous mothers of full term infants and multiparous mothers of premature infants. / School of Nursing

Parents are the first source of a child's learning of her or his gender. In fact, sex-role stereotyping of infants by parents may occur within the first 24 hours of birth. This study examined the nature of parental stereotyping on the basis of their infant's sex by obtaining parents' descriptions of their newborn and toy and clothing preferences for their newborn. In 1974, Rubin found that parents responded stereotypically to their infants on the basis of sex. Following Rubin's interview approach, 50 parent pairs from two urban hospitals were asked to participate in a parent-infant study and were subsequently interviewed 24 hours postpartum. Parents were asked open-ended descriptive questions about their newborn, given a semantic differential scale of 18 bi-polar objectives, asked about the importance of others recognizing their baby's sex, and asked a set of questions relating to the preference of clothing and toy choices for their newborn. Findings suggest that parents do stereotype their infants on the basis of biological sex. Sons were more likely to be described as strong, perfect, big or big-featured and energetic,--while daughters received more descriptions that mentioned their eyes, skin, or facial features and were also more likely to be described as small, tiny, or weak. Parents of boys were also more likely to state a preference for gender-specific toys and clothing. Infant sex did not make a notable difference on the importance that parents attributed to others recognizing their baby's sex. Fathers were more likely to perceive and describe their daughters more stereotypically than were mothers of either daughters or sons. Further studies to investigate gender stereotyping and its consequences as well as the interplay between the macro and micro levels of gender relations in society are suggested.