Maternal behaviour and anxiety as related to children's response to their first dental experience

This study was conducted to examine the relationship between the mother's behaviour in the treatment room and her child's behaviour during the initial dental visit. It is hypothesised that mothers who behave in a positive way by providing reassurance and information will have more cooperative children. A scheme for categorising the mothers’ behaviour was developed. It consists of six categories that describes the mother as being: informative, sympathetic, rewarding, blaming, threatening or passive. Moreover, two questions were developed end examined for their predictive value of the mother's behaviour. These two questions ask the mother to describe her most likely behaviour in two different everyday life situations where her child might become anxious. [Continues.]