Locomotor restriction and infant walking: Does mother age play a role?

Maternal age is an understudied variable that is related to age of first walking: children of older mothers walk later. Walking age is also influenced by postural experiences and restrictions on physical exploration, so we tested the idea that the relation between maternal age and walking occurs because older mothers are more restrictive than younger ones. 803 mothers of 1- to 3-year-olds completed a newly created parent-report measure of restrictiveness. Factor analysis revealed five dimensions of restrictiveness that we entered into a mediational model to test our hypothesis. Maternal age remained predictive of walking age, but no relations were found between maternal age and restriction, or between restriction and walking. Although we did not find the expected influence of restrictiveness on walking age, we replicated the link between mother age and walking age. Other infant experiences related to mother age should be studied to clarify its role in development.