Cent Eur J Public Health 2011, 19(3):143-146 | DOI: 10.21101/cejph.a3665

Moderate Alcohol Consumption as a Mediator of a Mother's Behavior towards Her Child

Mojmír Tyrlík, Štěpán Konečný

Institute for Research on Children, Youth and Family, Faculty of Social Studies, Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic

Aim: The purpose of this study is to examine the effect of moderate drinking on mother's behaviour towards her child.

Method: The European Longitudinal Study of Pregnancy and Childhood (ELSPAC) survey sample consisted of 3,569 Czech women, who were interviewed when their children were 18 months old. There were three areas related to mother child relationship investigated: hygiene, activities with the child, and the mother's emotional relationship with the child. Besides alcohol consumption, we also evaluated the mother's neuroticisms.

Results: Our results suggest that the behaviour of moderate drinking mothers differs from the behaviour of abstaining mothers. The abstinents express more emotions for the child, they handle better the demands of maternity and pay more attention to needs for child's educative activities. Significant differences were not noticed in the frequency of physical activities with the child (cuddling, physical playing, walks).

Conclusion: Our data supports the assumption that moderate drinking of a mother is disadvantageous for the child as compared to abstinence. The abstinents display a higher level of concern about the child.

Keywords: drinking, alcohol consumption, women, care about child, emotions, maternity

Received: January 25, 2011; Revised: May 12, 2011; Accepted: May 12, 2011; Published: September 1, 2011  Show citation