Purpose: Because results of previous studies were inconclusive, our purpose was to examine the relationship between maternal education and infant neuromotor development in infants who are healthy and born at term.
Method: Secondary analysis of normative data derived through administration of the Harris Infant Neuromotor Test (HINT) to 412 Canadian infants was conducted. Infants were recruited from community-based infant programs, childcare facilities, and homes in five Canadian provinces. Inclusion criteria included: term birth (38-42 weeks), birth weight > or =2500 g, and no history of major prenatal, perinatal, or postnatal medical complications or maternal complications. Infants encompassed Canadian ethnic diversity as well as equal gender distribution at each of 10 monthly age intervals.
Results: The analysis demonstrated that maternal education was only minimally associated with infant neuromotor development as measured by HINT total scores.
Conclusions: Our results confirmed other researchers' findings of no association between maternal education and infant motor development.