`Mommy knows best': parents' perceptions of their infant's health

Abstract

The purpose of the research presented in this article is to analyze how parents assess their child's health, ranging from excellent to poor. Specifically, it asks how the sociodemographic and health characteristics of infants and parents influence parents' perceptions of their child's health status. The data for this research come from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study — Birth Cohort (ECLS-B), which are able to address the relationship between sociodemographic covariates and parents' perceptions of their child's health. Binary logistic regression techniques are used in a nested manner to model the way in which parents arrive at a subjective measure of their child's health status. The results indicate that prior diagnoses of health conditions, interaction with the health care system, parents' assessment of their own health and poverty status influence how parents determine their child's health status.