Assessing knowledge of Saudi mothers with regard to parenting and child developmental milestones

Knowledge about childrearing and development of children greatly impacts on how parents can adequately and safely raise and interact with a child. This study aimed to assess Saudi mothers' level of knowledge of parenting and developmental milestones and describe the associated factors that affect their knowledge.

This cross-sectional study was conducted in the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia from January to February 2020. Four hundred Saudi mothers with children up to 6 years of age were included in the study from 20 randomly selected primary healthcare centers. The Knowledge of Infant Developmental Inventory Tool (KIDI-P) was used. Relevant demographic data were collected. Data were analyzed using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences software version 21 (SPSS). One-way ANOVA and t-test were used to detect any significant differences in mother's knowledge about developmental milestones related to the research variables.

The majority of mothers (42.2%) were between 28 and 35 years of age. Knowledge about parentaging scored on the average 53.3%, health and safety scored 63.4%, general principles 55.9%, and developmental milestones 51.8%. Data showed a statistically significant relation between mothers' age and parenting subscale (mean = 0.54, standard deviation [SD] = 0.18, P = 0.001), and mothers' education and parenting (mean = 0.52, SD = 0.18, P = 0.015). Significant differences were found between planned pregnancy and parenting (mean = 0.53, SD = 0.178, P = 0.044) and between planned pregnancy and child developmental milestones (mean = 0.51, SD = 0.12, P = 0.042).

Saudi mothers have limited overall knowledge of childrearing and developmental milestones of their children. Mothers' age, parental education, parity, and planned pregnancies had a positive effect on mother's knowledge of parenting and milestones parameters.