Association Between Health Literacy and Parental Self-Efficacy among Parents of Newborn Children

Objective To determine whether health literacy was associated with parental self-efficacy in a diverse sample of parents of newborns. We hypothesized that parents with lower health literacy would have lower parental self-efficacy. Study design We conducted a cross-sectional analysis of baseline surveys from 253 English and Spanish speaking parents >18 years old with newborns Results Parents (median age, 29 years) were 92.1% female, 54.5% black/African American, and 29.6% Hispanic/Latino. More than one-half (58.9%) had completed some college education or more, 49.0% spoke mostly English, and 16.2% had low health literacy. In bivariate analyses, parental self-efficacy was significantly lower in parents with fewer household residents. In multivariable analyses, parents with low compared with high health literacy had significantly lower parental self-efficacy scores (total and 4 subtypes including caretaking procedures, evoking behaviors, reading behaviors and signaling, and situational beliefs). Conclusions Lower health literacy was associated with lower parental self-efficacy in parents of newborns. To maximize impact on positive parenting behaviors and child outcomes, interventions assisting parents with low parental self-efficacy should consider strategies to address low health literacy.