Dalarna University's logo and link to the university's website

Background: The long history of research on the parent-child relationship has focused almost exclusively on how parents influence the development of their offspring. Parenting knowledge has been associated with the improvement of the child and its life expectancy through direct and indirect effects, mediated by other factors, including socioeconomic status and living conditions.

Aim/ research questions: The study investigated Somali mothers’ knowledge and parenting practices on child development in Borama District, Somaliland.

Methodology: This study employed an inductive qualitative design, using in-depth interviews. Ten mothers were recruited from three maternal and child health centers in Somaliland. A qualitative thematic analysis was used to analyze the interview transcripts.

Results: The study found that mothers have knowledge about factors that contribute to child development, such as adequate nutrition. The participants demonstrated that they have knowledge about what is expected from their children when it comes to social and behavioral skills. They expected their children to be obedient and to follow the social values and norms. There were some traditional child-rearing practices that mothers did not want to continue, such as physical punishment and female genital mutilation.

Conclusion: Our study found that mothers have knowledge about the nutritional requirements of their children in the first years and the expected social and behavioral skills at the age of six to eight years. However, mothers did not have much understanding of factors contributing to cognitive development. The findings from this study stress the need for developing and tailoring parenting education programs to increase Somali mothers’ knowledge of child development.