Influence of maternal stress and maternal education on efficiency of infants' exploratory behaviour

• Main Author: Tan, Rena
• Other Authors: Darren Yeo
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: Nanyang Technological University 2024
• Subjects: Social Sciences; Infant exploration; Maternal stress
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/10356/175668
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

Early exploration is a vital process of learning as it lays the foundation for later perceptual and cognitive development. Several studies have investigated stimulus, individual, and environmental factors which influence infants’ exploratory behaviour. Given the importance of mothers in infants’ lives, we sought to investigate how infants’ exploration is associated with maternal factors such as stress and SES. Specifically, we hypothesised that maternal stress is negatively associated with infants’ efficiency in exploration of a novel toy, and that maternal education, a proxy of SES, would moderate this relationship. We also hypothesised that maternal education is negatively associated with maternal stress. To investigate these relationships, we utilised a secondary data set and obtained parental questionnaires and video recordings of 73 infants, aged 8 to 12 months, engaging in a Novel Toy task. Contrary to our hypothesis, our findings showed that maternal education has a significant positive association with maternal stress levels. However, we did not find support for the hypothesis that maternal stress is associated with infants’ efficiency in exploration and the moderating role of maternal education on this relationship. We suggest future research to replicate our study while addressing our shortcomings such that we can accurately ascertain the relationship between these factors. Future research in this direction is vital, considering the key role of early exploration in nurturing children’s development.