mothers reported that they ‘sometimes’ experienced
feelings of stress. Depressive symptoms
were prevalent in this sample and 35% scored 16
or more on the CES-D. Most (89%) children did
have some type of dental insurance coverage,
typically Medicaid, and a majority (78%) had not
been to a dentist yet.
Children’s 1-week brushing frequency was a
continuous measure which ranged from 0–40 and
averaged 8.5 among the 1–3-year olds and 9.75
among the 4–5-year olds. Expected peaks in reported
brushing frequency were observed at seven
times per week (once per day) and 14 times per
week (twice per day). The entire distribution of
responses is presented in Fig. 1.
Many of the social cognitive variables were
significantly associated with children’s brushing
frequency (Table 2). As expected, maternal oral
health self-efficacy (OHSE) was a strong and