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School readiness among low-income black children: family characteristics, parenting, and social support
Early Child Development and Care
Abstract
This study focuses on the associations between family variables and academic and social school readiness in low-income Black children. Analyses drew from the National Institute for Child Development (NICHD) Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development dataset. The participants included 122 children and their mothers. Data collection occurred when the children were 1, 6, 15, 24, 36, and 54 months old. Findings indicated that maternal sensitivity and the quality of the home environment predicted cognitive and language outcomes, whereas maternal depression and social support predicted social-behavioural outcomes. In addition, the impact of family resources on cognitive and language outcomes was fully mediated by parenting behaviours and the impact of social support on behaviour problems was fully mediated through maternal depression. Implications for family intervention are discussed.
... This is an emotional and uncertain time for parents, and so providing appropriate information and support is essential, particularly as an infant's associated developmental delay may not yet be visible to parents (Baird et al., 2000;Ballantyne et al., 2019;Fernández-Alcántara et al., 2015;Whittingham et al., 2013). During this critical early period, parents can have a big impact on their baby's outcomes by supporting their baby's development (Behrendt et al., 2019;Bono et al., 2016;Chiang et al., 2015). However, in order to do this, they have to be fully enabled (Ballantyne et al., 2019;Lord et al., 2018;Piggot et al., 2002;Singh et al., 1995). ...
... Keeping parents well informed during early stages of their child's development not only manages their uncertainty but is also important for improving later infant neurodevelopmental outcomes (Behrendt et al., 2019;Bono et al., 2016;Chiang et al., 2015;Lord et al., 2018;Singh et al., 1995). For example, lack of understanding of the benefits in performing physiotherapy exercises with their baby has been found to be a factor reducing parental adherence to at-home physiotherapy programmes (Lillo-Navarro et al., 2019). ...
Background
Early diagnosis of cerebral palsy is possible by 5 months corrected age for ‘at‐risk’ infants, using diagnostic tools such as the Hammersmith Infant Neurological Examination (HINE), Prechtl's General Movements Assessment (GMA) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). This is an uncertain and stressful time for parents where provision of appropriate information and support is essential.
Aim
To explore parents' views and experiences in relation to the new early neurodevelopmental follow‐up of ‘at‐risk’ infants.
Methods
Thirteen in‐depth one‐to‐one qualitative interviews were conducted by the primary researcher, with eight parents (six mothers and two fathers) of ‘at‐risk’ infants eligible for a follow‐up clinic where the GMA and HINE were performed at 12‐week corrected age. Interviews used a pre‐piloted topic guide and took place before and after the clinic. Interviews were audio‐recorded, transcribed verbatim and analysed using inductive coding and thematic analysis using the framework approach.
Findings
Seven themes were identified: (1) attempting to manage uncertainty, (2) taking priority, (3) trusting professionals, (4) independence in the parent role, (5) feeling understood, (6) patterns of care and (7) individuality. Parents reported experiencing uncertainty about their current situation and future. Adequate preparation for and timing of information are vital. When uncertainty is poorly managed, parents' wellbeing suffers. Individual parents' perspectives and infants' developmental trajectories differ, and information should be tailored specifically for this.
Conclusion
A parent's understanding of the journey through neurodevelopmental care for their high risk infants is initially very limited. Implementing a counselling service for parents to access psychological support and digital reminder system for clinic appointments, as well as providing more tailored information through trusted professionals, could all improve future parents' experiences.
... The literature points out several mediating mechanisms that explain the relationship between poverty and school readiness, such as stimulation in the home environment (Lurie et al., 2021), household chaos (Marsh et al., 2020), maternal depression (Jeon et al., 2014), parenting quality (Bono et al., 2016), children's self-regulation skills (Brown et al., 2013), and kindergarten teacher's level of experience and access to facilities (Ip, Rao, Bacon-Shone, Li, Ho, Chow, & Jiang, 2016). The present study focused on the family-context characteristics, and therefore, the mediators included stimulation and chaos in the home environment, mothers' depression, and parenting quality. ...
... Several studies reported the influence of poverty on children's social-emotional, cognitive, behavioral development, and academic achievement (Cook & Frank, 2008;Gershoff et al., 2007;Hair et al., 2015;Lurie et al., 2021). However, most of these studies included only one poverty variable -mostly income - (Dickerson & Popli, 2016;Gullo, 2018), and relatively few studies included more than one poverty variable (e.g., parent education and income) in a single model to see their unique effects on child outcomes (Ayoub et al., 2009;Bono et al., 2016). Moreover, most of these studies were conducted in Western cultures (Dickerson & Popli, 2016;Hair, Hanson, Wolfe, & Pollak, 2015). ...
Research Findings: The present study examined the relationship between
poverty (income-to-needs ratio [INR], parent education, material hardship,
and food insecurity) and children’s school readiness (vocabulary, mathematic
skills, and phonological awareness) through the mediating roles of stimulation and chaos in the home environment, maternal depression, and perceived maternal rejection. Participants were 5-year-old children (N = 184) and
their mothers living in socioeconomically disadvantaged neighborhoods in
Turkey. Mothers completed scales regarding poverty, home quality, and
depression. Children were tested for their school readiness via several assessments. Moreover, children reported the parenting quality of their mothers.
The results indicated that family INR and parent education positively, and
food insecurity negatively predicted children’s school readiness through the
mediation of stimulation at home and perceived maternal rejection.
Stimulation at home was positively related to children’s math skills and
receptive vocabulary, mothers’ depression was negatively related to math
skills, and perceived maternal rejection was negatively related to receptive
vocabulary and phonological awareness. Practice or Policy: Implications of
the findings for social policies and intervention programs are discussed.
Improving home environment quality and mothers’ parenting behaviors
should be targeted in future policies to contribute to children’s school
readiness.
... Prior research also found a positive association between parent perceived social support and better cognitive and behavioral outcomes in children (Carothers et al., 2006). Using longitudinal data, Bono et al. (2016) found that parent perceived social support was both directly and indirectly (through depression and parenting behavior) related to children's school readiness (measured as cognitive, language, and socialbehavioral skills). In addition, parent perceived social support has been viewed as a protective factor that strengthens parents' and children's resilience in response to various stressors (Armstrong et al., 2005;Algood et al., 2013). ...
... Consistent with prior research (Bono et al., 2016) and discussion (Ren et al., 2020), our findings indicate that parent perceived social support is positively related to better school readiness in children even in times of COVID-19. The current results support the view that the parent perceived social support parents is a crucial resource for them to deal with the stressors (Armstrong et al., 2005;Algood et al., 2013), such as promoting children's learning activities even in times of COVID-19 (Oppermann et al., 2021). ...
School readiness is an important but challenging issue of child development, especially during COVID-19 when most of the traditional offline activities that could promote school readiness (e.g., on-site visit) have been canceled. There is a gap between the knowledge needed to promote children’s school readiness in times of pandemic and the limited understanding of this topic so far. This gap could be particularly concerning in the social contexts where examinations are stressed and educational competition is high (e.g., Hong Kong). In this study, we examined how well children were ready for primary school, the extent to which parent perceived social support was related to children’s school readiness, and whether parent competence and their time spent with children would moderate the said link. A cross-sectional design survey with total population sampling (supplemented with convenience sampling) was conducted. Massive e-mails were sent to all kindergartens in Hong Kong inviting them to join the study by distributing the survey link to the parents of their K3 students. A total of 643 Hong Kong parents whose children were about to transition to primary school (87.1% mother) participated, answering measures specifically designed for this study online about how well they thought their children were ready for school, their competence to help with children’s school transition, and how much time they spent with children. Data were analyzed with PROCESS macro (model 3) in SPSS. The results found that most parents considered that their children were not fully ready for school, especially in terms of academic skills, self-management, and mental preparation. Furthermore, moderation analyses showed that after controlling for a number of demographic variables, parent perceived social support was positively related to better school readiness in children and this link was jointly moderated by parent competence and time spent with children. Specifically, children were rated most ready when parent perceived stronger social support, felt more competent, and spent more time with children. By contrast, the link between perceived social support and children’s school readiness was insignificant for parent who felt more competent but spent less time with children. Implications of how to enhance children’s school readiness are discussed.
... In a study with African-American children starting Head-Start, children demonstrated higher levels of self-control for those with mothers who identified more access to social support (Oravecz, Koblinsky, & Randolph, 2008). Similarly, following up 122 children from 1 to 54 months, Bono, Sy, and Kopp (2016) concluded parents' perceived social support significantly predicts children's less later behavioral problems, an indicator better behavioral regulation. In another study, researchers assessed mothers' perceived social support using the Inventory of Parental Experiences (IPE) and their first graders' ...
... From the main effects model, contrary to our initial hypothesis, none of the proposed predictors of baseline cortisol, mother-child attachment, and social support showed independent significant prediction of later EC, after accounting for maternal depressive symptomatology and household income. The null results were surprising given the previously identified predictive roles of child baseline cortisol (Alink et al., 2008;Dawson et al., 1992;Sullivan & Gratton, 2002;Susman & Ponirakis, 1997), mother-child attachment (Calkins & Leerkes, 2013;Kidwell & Barnett, 2007;Maughan, Cicchetti, Toth, & Rogosch, 2007;Pallini et al., 2018;Raver, 2004), and social support (Bono et al., 2016;Burchinal et al., 1996;Oravecz et al., 2008). Nevertheless, the lack of main effects may be viewed as a precondition that introduces the possibility of meaningful statistical interactional effects (Kraemer et al., 2008) and therefore emphasizes the importance of taking an integrative approach when understanding EC development. ...
Effortful control (EC) is a regulatory capacity that refers to children's ability to inhibit a dominant response to perform a subdominant response. Although attempts have been made to identify early predictors of children's EC, the confluence and interaction of child‐, familial‐, and community factors has not been pursued adequately. This study investigated how predictors from different aspects of children's rearing environment interacted to predict later EC. In a sample of 88 primiparous women with elevated depressive symptomotology and low household income, we examined how children's own psychobiology (baseline cortisol), familial relationship (mother–child attachment), and community resources (social support) at 17 months independently and jointly predicted EC at age 5. Our results showed that, controlling for maternal depressive symptomotology and household income, predictors from child‐, familial‐, and community‐aspect function integratively, rather than independently, in predicting later EC. Specifically, within the context of a secure attachment relationship, baseline cortisol positively predicts later EC only for children of mothers who reported low social support. Whereas within the context of an insecure attachment relationship, baseline cortisol negatively predicts later EC, regardless of the perceived social support levels. Our results highlighted the importance of taking into consideration predictors from multiple aspects for intervention designs.
... Maternal depressive symptoms have an effect on mother's displayed affect, attachment, and responding to children's needs (Bono, Sy, & Kopp, 2016). Mothers with depressive symptoms report that they have more feelings of inefficacy, cannot effectively manage the child's behaviors, and more easily become angry when disciplining their children (Elgar, McGrath, Waschbusch, Stewart, & Curtis, 2004). ...
... Family members' psychological well-being such as maternal depressive symptoms should be treated directly. Interventions aimed at reducing maternal depressive symptoms may be particularly important for the whole family, especially for those in poverty (Bono et al., 2016). Most importantly, parents from low-SES backgrounds could be encouraged to take courses on positive parenting and healthy marital interactions. ...
Using a longitudinal sample of 508 Chinese preschool children, this study examined how family socioeconomic status (SES) was related to preschool children's social skills development through family processes using multilevel latent growth curve modeling. After controlling for the effects of personal characteristics, a significant indirect effect of family SES on initial levels of children's social skills and growth was observed and mediated through maternal depressive symptoms, marital relationships, and parenting practices. Maternal depressive symptoms from family SES was linked to poorer marital relationships and parenting practices, which were linked to children's social skills. Authoritative parenting was related to increased growth in children's social skills. In addition, authoritative parenting mediated the effects of marital relationship quality on both initial levels and growth in social skills. Implications for future research and intervention are discussed. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).
... In other research, individuals in control groups have reported receiving social support (e.g., receiving validation and understanding, being able to talk with someone) from study participation (Nichols et al., 2012). The benefits of social support on parenting (e.g., Belsky, 1984;Seeger et al., 2022) and children's development (e.g., Bono et al., 2016;Shin et al., 2019) are widely recognized. Although we did not observe significant group differences, it is possible that parent-child interaction and child development scores could have worsened for some dyads and that social support masked our ability to detect First Pathways impact. ...
Equity-denied families report barriers to accessing parenting supports, and online programs have the potential to improve accessibility. First Pathways is a digital parenting program designed to promote parent-child interactions and children’s development by sharing parent-child interactive activity ideas and knowledge of how these activities support children’s brain development. We recruited equity-denied families from community organizations and via snowball sampling to investigate the effect of playing First Pathways on parent-child interactions and child development for parents and their children aged 3–36 months. We also examined predictors of game play. Parent-child dyads participated in a 2-month randomized controlled trial pilot study. The First Pathways group received daily reminders encouraging game utilization for one month. Parent-child interactions and children’s development were reassessed at 1- and 2-months. Although no significant group differences were found between the First Pathways and waitlist control group, the quartile of dyads who played First Pathways the most (n = 13) demonstrated significantly greater improvements in parent-child interactions compared to dyads (n = 12) who played the least. Moreover, total game play over the 2-month study was significantly correlated with improvements in parent-child interactions. Dyads were significantly more likely to play First Pathways while receiving reminders, and early play predicted later play. Dyads who showed the greatest reciprocity in their interactions (i.e., balanced back and forth serve and return exchanges) at baseline were most likely to have greater game play. Online programs have potential to support parent-child interactions and child development for equity-denied families; additional research is needed to understand facilitators/barriers to early engagement.
... Finally, social support is another factor that empowers families. Studies have shown that social support affects families' well-being (Armstrong et al., 2005) and has positive effects on the lives of parents and children alike (Bono et al., 2016;Whitman et al., 1987). In fact, the needs of parents with disabilities are basically similar to those of parents without (Olsen & Clarke, 2003, p. 37). ...
Plain language summary
The purpose of this article is to explore how the family life of parents with visual disabilities and their sighted children function in a healthy way. To deeply understand their experience, qualitative method was chosen and interviews were carried out with nine mothers and nine fathers with visual disabilities, and nine sighted children in Türkiye. The findings indicate that family members’ autonomy, their ability to adapt, and the social support they receive play key roles in the existence of a functional, strong family. The most significant limitation of the study is that almost all of the parents participating are from a particular socio-economic-cultural background and they have already gained the awareness and skills of independent living. The majority are well-educated. To overcome these difficulties, the data were evaluated from a solution-oriented perspective and the factors that empower family functioning were revealed through the existing positive examples. To empower these families, implications are presented on the basis of social work at the micro-messo and macro level.
... Other research conducted by Bono, Sy, and Kopp (2016), shows that social support has a direct influence on a person's social abilities, especially in black children as research subjects. The social abilities of children entering junior high school become an important part because during adolescence peer relationships become central and an important part of developmental tasks (Christie & Viner, 2005). ...
Students' willingness to participate in academic and extracurricular activities at school is correlated with their readiness for school. Several elements influence students' motivation to participate in school activities, both academic and extracurricular. This research aims to determine the factors that shape the school readiness of junior high school students. The research method used is quantitative with a correlation research design. The research sample was 507 junior high school students in Yogyakarta, Indonesia, and was determined using a proportional random sampling technique. Data collection techniques used the school readiness scale, social support scale, self-esteem scale, and conflict resolution skills scale. Data analysis techniques to uncover research problems use path analysis. The research results showed that social support, self-esteem, and conflict resolution skills explained 92.5% of the factors forming the school readiness of junior high school students in Yogyakarta, Indonesia. Social support makes a high contribution to school readiness compared to conflict resolution skills and self-esteem.
... Therefore, adaptation to school can be expressed as a broad concept that includes the academic, social, and psychological adaptation of children. Children with easy and early adaptation to school are considered to have a high level of readiness, positive social and emotional skills, the ability to establish healthy peer relationships, and high academic success (Betts & Rotenberg 2007;Bono, Sy, & Kopp, 2016;Estell, Jones, Pearl, Van Acker, Farmer, & Rodkin, 2008;Onder & Gülay, 2010). Children who have problems adapting to school may experience low academic success, psychological 1. ...
This study aims to determine the opinions of preschool teachers on preschool adaptation during the Covid-19 pandemic process and to determine what can be done to facilitate the adaptation of children to school in such negative situations. The research was carried out as a multiple case study with 22 preschool teachers working at private and governmental institutions in seven different regions of Turkey. The data were collected by means of phone conversations using an interview form prepared by the researchers. The results of the research determined that children's adaptation was affected by masks and social distance requirements, necessitating teachers to prepare their activities accordingly. Teachers' opinions about the effect of gradual transition on the adaptation process to the school were found to differ. The findings and results of the research are detailed in the study.
... Extensive evidence has suggested the importance of parenting in children's readiness for school across all domains, including physical and mental health, cognition, socialemotional competencies, selfregulation, and learning approaches ( National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, 2016 ). Generally, positive parenting (such as parental warmth, support, sensitivity, and inductive reasoning) is significantly related to young children's cognitive skills as well as social-emotional competencies, which are foundations of academic success and wellbeing (e.g., Bono, Sy, & Kopp, 2016 ;Iruka et al., 2018 ;Kim, Wang, Orozco-Lapray, Shen, & Murtuza, 2013 ;Martin, Ryan, & Brooks-Gunn, 2007 ). Positive parenting has also been found to promote children's selfregulation by creating a favorable climate for them to learn to regulate their emotions, behaviors, and attention in a constructive manner ( Eisenberg, Chang, Ma, & Huang, 2009 ). ...
This study examined the role of selfregulation in the path from family factors to preschool readiness in China. Altogether 661 preschool children (M = 43.30 months, SD = 3.6) were sampled from 5 preschools in a coastal city of Southern China. Their parents reported on the family routines, parenting styles, and the child's selfregulation. And their teachers rated each child's preschool readiness. The structural equation modeling results suggested that: (1) selfregulation could significantly predict children's preschool readiness, including abilities to follow classroom rules, learning dispositions, and social competence; (2) selfregulation mediated the path from family routines to children's preschool readiness; (3) selfregulation also mediated the relationships between authoritative parenting and children's preschool readiness; (4) authoritarian parenting directly influenced children's social competence; and (5) family SES only correlated with young children's selfcare and emotional maturity. These findings underscore the importance of considering the joint influences of children's selfregulation, family routines, parenting styles, and family SES in shaping children's readiness for preschool.
... School quality is substantially worse for children from racial and ethnic minority backgrounds and low socioeconomic status (SES) [10]. Furthermore, children from historically marginalized communities are exposed to greater levels of financial difficulties and psychosocial stressors [11] that results in lower memory, cognitive function, behavior, and school performance [12]. Additionally, greater exposure to indoor and outdoor toxins, such as air pollutants and lead [13], deteriorate the brain development of racial and ethnic minority brain development. ...
Background: Recent studies have shown that parental educational attainment is associated with a larger superior temporal cortical surface area associated with higher reading ability in children. Simultaneously, the marginalization-related diminished returns (MDRs) framework suggests that, due to structural racism and social stratification, returns of parental education are smaller for black and other racial/ethnic minority children compared to their white counterparts. Purpose: This study used a large national sample of 9–10-year-old American children to investigate associations between parental educational attainment, the right and left superior temporal cortical surface area, and reading ability across diverse racial/ethnic groups. Methods: This was a cross-sectional analysis that included 10,817 9–10-year-old children from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) study. Parental educational attainment was treated as a five-level categorical variable. Children’s right and left superior temporal cortical surface area and reading ability were continuous variables. Race/ethnicity was the moderator. To adjust for the nested nature of the ABCD data, mixed-effects regression models were used to test the associations between parental education, superior temporal cortical surface area, and reading ability overall and by race/ethnicity. Results: Overall, high parental educational attainment was associated with greater superior temporal cortical surface area and reading ability in children. In the pooled sample, we found statistically significant interactions between race/ethnicity and parental educational attainment on children’s right and left superior temporal cortical surface area, suggesting that high parental educational attainment has a smaller boosting effect on children’s superior temporal cortical surface area for black than white children. We also found a significant interaction between race and the left superior temporal surface area on reading ability, indicating weaker associations for Alaskan Natives, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders (AIAN/NHPI) than white children. We also found interactions between race and parental educational attainment on reading ability, indicating more potent effects for black children than white children. Conclusion: While parental educational attainment may improve children’s superior temporal cortical surface area, promoting reading ability, this effect may be unequal across racial/ethnic groups. To minimize the racial/ethnic gap in children’s brain development and school achievement, we need to address societal barriers that diminish parental educational attainment’s marginal returns for middle-class minority families. Social and public policies need to go beyond equal access and address structural and societal barriers that hinder middle-class families of color and their children. Future research should test how racism, social stratification, segregation, and discrimination, which shape the daily lives of non-white individuals, take a toll on children’s brains and academic development.
... Prior studies conducted in LMIC have found that SES had a greater impact on cognitive development than parenting quality (Fernald, Kariger, Hidrobo, & Gertler, 2012). However, studies conducted in high-income settings, such as the United States, have reported strong effects of parenting quality, suggesting that these associations are inconsistent across settings (Bono, Sy, & Kopp, 2016). ...
This study, using longitudinal data from the South African Birth to Twenty Plus study, assessed associations between early childcare quality in the home between six months and two years, household SES and cognitive development at age 5. Childcare quality was assessed using measures of maternal responsiveness and cognitive stimulation. Cognitive development at age 5 was assessed using the Revised Denver Pre-screening Developmental Questionnaire (R-DPDQ). Bivariate analysis and multiple linear regressions were conducted. The analytical sample comprised 856 mother–child pairs. Quality of care in the home differed significantly according to SES status, with more children in the low SES group receiving low quality of care. There was no association between childcare quality and cognitive development. There were differences in the cognitive development scores of children in different socio-economic groups; high levels of cognitive stimulation in the home were associated with increased R-DPDQ scores for children in the low SES group.
... In addition to health benefits, the number of neighborhood friendships reported by fathers predicted marital and family satisfaction for men and their female partners (Hostetler, Desrochers, Kopko, & Moen, 2012). Additionally, in longitudinal analysis, low social support and maternal depression predicted children's social-behavioral outcomes (Bono, Sy, & Kopp, 2016). Therefore, the positive associations from social support may benefit the parent and the child in their ability to manage contextual, family, and individual stressors. ...
Results are mixed for relationship education (RE) interventions with low‐income couples. For couples who experienced positive changes, it is not clear what aspects of program models contributed to change. Many low‐income couples attend government‐funded RE with limited access to social and community resources. Program models often provide related resources complimentary to RE skill‐building. We examined the relationship between income, social support, and family functioning for low‐income, ethnically diverse couples (N = 856) who attended RE, as well as the mediating effects of social support on family functioning outcomes. Analyses included three separate dyadic models that examined associations among constructs at baseline and immediately following the RE intervention. Results demonstrated relationships between participants’ reported social support and family functioning such that (a) social support was associated with baseline family functioning for both men and women; (b) men’s baseline social support was influenced by women’s baseline family functioning; and (c) men’s and women’s social support change score had a positive influence on their own family functioning change score. However, social support was not a significant mediator of change in family functioning. Implications for RE practice and research are also discussed.
... The transition to kindergarten is a critical developmental period for children, setting the stage for later academic success, as well as future life outcomes (Malsch et al. 2011;Miller 2015). Research suggests that children who successfully transition to kindergarten possess multiple skills, including academic and socio-emotional abilities that allow them to meet the demands of the kindergarten classroom (Bono et al. 2016). Conversely, children who lack such skills experience early classroom challenges and are likely to face future academic difficulties (Rimm-Kaufman et al. 2000). ...
The transition to kindergarten is a critical milestone in children’s lives, with implications for academic and future life success. The demographic family/parental variables of residence, social class, and race have been associated with children’s adjustment to kindergarten. In particular, children growing up in families from urban, low-income African American backgrounds are at heighted risk for negative academic, cognitive, and socio-emotional outcomes as they transition to kindergarten. Relatively little inductive research exists on the kindergarten transition of this population and how families from urban, low-income African backgrounds positively support their children’s kindergarten adjustment. However, researchers using qualitative methods are increasingly examining the first-hand experiences of families from urban, low-income African American backgrounds to better understand family beliefs and practices that promote children’s successful kindergarten transition. Contributing to this gap in the literature, we utilized qualitative interviews informed by resilience theory to explore how 20 mothers from urban, low-income African American backgrounds facilitated their Head Start preschoolers’ transition to kindergarten. We found that, despite possessing parental/family risk factors associated with ineffective kindergarten transitions, mothers monitored and assessed their children’s academic and socio-emotional school readiness abilities, promoting readiness competencies while addressing readiness weaknesses. One of the ways that mothers supported children’s transition readiness was through one-on-one conversations with preschoolers. Our findings provide recommendations for effective home–school collaborations that support children’s successful kindergarten transition. Collaborating with engaged and motivated parents, Head Start can assist families and children prior to kindergarten and continue to serve as a link between families and children and elementary schools.
... Research on poverty and academic outcomes in the developmental psychology field consistently provides evidence that differences in parenting can partially account for the association between a family's low-income status and deficits in school readiness (e.g. Bono, Sy, & Kopp, 2015;Brooks-Gunn & Markman, 2005;Merz et al., 2015). In this study, we examined two often-used measures of parenting as they relate to school readiness; nurturance and use of discipline. ...
A disconnect exists between definitions of school readiness used in research and early childhood education (ECE). While researchers often discuss school readiness as a single, multidimensional construct, the majority of studies operationalize it using multiple measures rather than as one outcome. In comparison, in ECE settings a single measurement tool including multiple dimensions is used. The current study attempted to bridge this gap by examining the factor structure of the Desired Results Developmental Profile (DRDP), a measure of school readiness used in Head Start. We considered often-cited predictors of school readiness (parenting, effortful control) to replicate previous research findings. Analyses indicated a single factor was most appropriate for the DRDP. Measures of parenting and children’s effortful control were significant predictors of DRDP scores. Findings from the current study suggest an existing single factor, ECE-based measure of school readiness, such as the DRDP, can also be used as a research tool.
Early Learning and Childcare (ELCC) services are essential social determinants of a child’s well-being. However, many barriers exist within the ELCC climate of Canada and the United States of America (USA), limiting marginalized communities’ access to quality ELCC services. The objective of this systematic review is to investigate the barriers and facilitators that influence access to adequate ELCC for Black children and families. Using the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines, 55 studies were reviewed to examine common barriers and facilitators in accessing ELCC services for Black and racialized families living in Canada and the USA. The barriers and facilitators identified were grouped into four themes: familial context, types of care, socioeconomic factors, and cultural competence. The factors of parental involvement, access to formal ELCC services, income level, parental educational level, parental employment, cultural competence, and racism emerged as either barriers or facilitators depending on their existence and direction of influence. The reviewed studies discussed the impact of parental employment, specifically, maternal employment, on whether a child is enrolled in an ELCC program. The results of this study can advise ELCC service providers and policymakers in making the ELCC climate more equitable specifically for Black and other racialized communities.
Existing research suggests that children who experience poverty and hospitalization in early childhood are at risk of developing behavior problems. We examined whether the association between early childhood hospitalization and children’s internalizing and externalizing behaviors were moderated by family poverty status and child sex. Participants included 224 children from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development. There was no direct association between hospitalization and problematic behaviors. Poverty status during early childhood, but not child sex, significantly moderated the association between hospitalization and externalizing problems. Findings support the need for community programs that promote an integrative approach to healthcare for families experiencing poverty.
Despite evidence that insensitive parenting is associated with later academic achievement, few studies have evaluated mechanisms that may account for these effects. This study utilized a diverse sample of child-caregiver dyads (N = 245, 50.2% male, 46.5% Latinx) to evaluate a sequential mediation model from observations of female caregivers' insensitive parenting behaviors at age 4 to children's maternal representations at age 6, to teachers' reports of conflict in the teacher-child relationship at age 7 and, ultimately, to children's academic achievement at age 8. Even when holding prior levels of each study construct constant, analyses revealed a significant sequential mediation such that insensitive parenting contributed to increases in children's harsh maternal representations, which, in turn, predicted increases in teacher-child conflict at school and, ultimately, decreases in children's reading and math achievement. These findings highlight parenting and teacher-child relationship qualities as promising targets for interventions to promote children's academic achievement.
In this research, we applied the family stress model to examine maternal hostile attribution bias and emotion situation knowledge as mediators linking family financial strain and children's behavioral readiness for school in a sample of affluent mothers and preschoolers (63 boys). The sample was diverse with regard to race, but the majority of the children were White. Using serial mediational analyses conducted by PROCESS, results indicated that the associations between perceived family financial strain and low levels of social competence and high levels of internalizing behavior were mediated by maternal hostile attributions and lowered child emotion situation knowledge. We discuss the impact of perceived financial strain on parental cognitions and young children's emotion knowledge and behavioral readiness for formal schooling and offer directions for future research and implications for interventions.
This study aims to examine direct and indirect relationships between parenting styles, children's behavioural problems, their self- regulation skills and school readiness. In scope of the research, the mediating role of children's self-regulation skills was evaluated on parenting styles and school readiness and behavioural problems observed in children and school readiness. The data was obtained from 140, 66-72-month-children, enrolled at preschools affiliated to Ministry of Education in Central District of Burdur province in 2015-2016 education year, their parents and 8 teachers working at preschools. The obtained data were analysed with PROCESS macro, the direct and indirect path coefficients of the regression models were subjected to bootstrap analysis. It was determined that parental attitudes did not significantly predict school readiness of the children. On the other hand, attention/impulse control as a sub-dimension of children's self-regulation skills proved complementary mediation role between children's anxious/fearful behaviour and school readiness. The study also revealed the indirect-only mediation role of attention-impulse control between hostile/aggressive and hyperactive/distractible behavioural problems and school readiness. The results of the study indicate that children's anxious/fearful behaviour affect their attention-impulse control skills in a negative way and children's attention-impulse control skills affect their school readiness in a positive way. Findings of the study have been discussed in the scope of school readiness and suggestions are put forward in accordance with the results.
This study investigated relations between parent teaching, cumulative instability/chaos and school readiness in a group of 130 children attending a Head Start preschool. Cumulative instability/chaos negatively predicted fall school readiness as well as spring school readiness. Parent teaching did not predict fall school readiness but did predict spring school readiness. Fall school readiness predicted spring school readiness, suggesting the possibility that this variable helped to carry the effect of cumulative instability/chaos, as measured in the fall of the preschool year, to spring school readiness. Fall school readiness mediated the relationship between fall cumulative instability and spring school readiness. Implications for intervention efforts are discussed. © 2018
Objective: Aim of the study was to determine the risk factors that leads to various infectious diseases (pneumonia, diarrhea, meningitis etc.) in young children at Civil Hospital Karachi. The study identifies the link between the infections and other factors like previous medical history, unhygienic conditions etc. and its impact on the health of under-five children. Study Design: Cross sectional study. Place and Duration of Study: This study was conducted at the Pediatrics Unit in Civil Hospital Karachi from March 2014 to August 2014. Materials and Methods: A sample size of 384 was achieved. Patients of aged 6 months to 5 years with infectious diseases were randomly selected and their mothers were asked questions related to it in a local language. Data was analyzed on SPSS version 16. Results: Pneumonia 115 (29.9%), Acute gastroenteritis 60 (15.6%) and meningitis/encephalitis 49 (12.7%) were most common diseases. 228 (59.4%) children were born premature, 234 (60.9%) had weight less than or equal to 2.5 kg. Only 74 (19.3%) of children were fully vaccinated. 239 (62.2%) had large family size with 222 (57.8%) claiming to have disease vectors present in their homes. Conclusion: Prematurity, low birth weight, non-vaccination and poor living conditions around child is linked with occurrence of infectious disease in children under 5 in our scenario.
A variety of family processes have been hypothesized to mediate associations between income and young children's development. Maternal emotional distress, parental authoritative and authoritarian behavior (videotaped mother-child interactions), and provision of cognitively stimulating activities (Home Observation for Measurement of the Environment [HOME] scales) were examined as possible mediators in a sample of 493 White and African American low- birth-weight premature infants who were followed from birth through age 5. Cognitive ability was assessed by standardized test, and child behavior problems by maternal report, when the children were 3 and 5 years of age. As expected, family income was associated with child outcomes. The provision of stimulating experiences in the home mediated the relation between family income and both children's outcomes; maternal emotional distress and parenting practices mediated the relation between income and children's behavior problems.
Research Findings: Data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class of 1998–1999, were used to examine the relation between parenting, sociodemographic characteristics, and school readiness among (N = 1,136) African American boys in kindergarten. Parenting was defined as parenting style (i.e., warmth and control), home learning stimulation, and culturally relevant parenting. Two child outcomes previously linked to school readiness were examined: kindergarten reading and approaches to learning. Hierarchical regression analyses were performed to address 2 research questions. First, does parenting predict kindergarten reading above and beyond the contribution of sociodemographic characteristics? Second, does parenting predict kindergarten approaches to learning above and beyond the contribution of sociodemographic characteristics? Practice or Policy: Children with parents who set consistent bedtimes, provided more books in their homes, and read to them more frequently had better kindergarten reading scores after socioeconomic status, environmental safety, and maternal education were controlled. Similarly, children with parents who provided more books in their home and read to their children more frequently had more positive teacher-rated approaches to learning scores in kindergarten. Implications for future research are discussed.
Rates of teenage pregnancies are higher for African American and Latina adolescents compared to their White peers. African American and Latina adolescent mothers also experience more adversities than their White peers, such as higher rates of depression, school dropout, and economic disadvantage. Furthermore, children of adolescent mothers are at higher risk for adverse development. Parenting stress and social support can impact outcomes experienced by adolescent parents and their children. The present study examined the influence of adolescent mothers' parenting stress and perceived social support on maternal depression at baseline (six months after birth), and its impact on infant development one year later (18 months after birth). Participants were 180 adolescent mothers of African American or Latino/Hispanic descent. Results suggest that higher levels of parenting stress and less perceived social support were associated with higher levels of depression in the adolescent mothers at baseline. Higher levels of maternal depression were also associated with more developmental delays in infants one year post-baseline. Additionally, depression mediated the relationship between parenting stress and later child outcomes. These findings highlight the importance of examining parenting factors such as parenting stress, social support, and maternal depression in ethnic minority adolescent parents, and provide valuable information regarding unique risk and protective factors associated with positive maternal outcomes for ethnic minority adolescent parents and healthy development for their children.
IMPORTANCE The study provides novel data to inform the mechanisms by which poverty negatively impacts childhood brain development. OBJECTIVE To investigate whether the income-to-needs ratio experienced in early childhood impacts brain development at school age and to explore the mediators of this effect. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS This study was conducted at an academic research unit at the Washington University School of Medicine in St Louis. Data from a prospective longitudinal study of emotion development in preschool children who participated in neuroimaging at school age were used to investigate the effects of poverty on brain development. Children were assessed annually for 3 to 6 years prior to the time of a magnetic resonance imaging scan, during which they were evaluated on psychosocial, behavioral, and other developmental dimensions. Preschoolers included in the study were 3 to 6 years of age and were recruited from primary care and day care sites in the St Louis metropolitan area; they were annually assessed behaviorally for 5 to 10 years. Healthy preschoolers and those with clinical symptoms of depression participated in neuroimaging at school age/early adolescence. EXPOSURE Household poverty as measured by the income-to-needs ratio. MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES Brain volumes of children's white matter and cortical gray matter, as well as hippocampus and amygdala volumes, obtained using magnetic resonance imaging. Mediators of interest were caregiver support/hostility measured observationally during the preschool period and stressful life events measured prospectively. RESULTS Poverty was associated with smaller white and cortical gray matter and hippocampal and amygdala volumes. The effects of poverty on hippocampal volume were mediated by caregiving support/hostility on the left and right, as well as stressful life events on the left. CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE The finding that exposure to poverty in early childhood materially impacts brain development at school age further underscores the importance of attention to the well-established deleterious effects of poverty on child development. Findings that these effects on the hippocampus are mediated by caregiving and stressful life events suggest that attempts to enhance early caregiving should be a focused public health target for prevention and early intervention. Findings substantiate the behavioral literature on the negative effects of poverty on child development and provide new data confirming that effects extend to brain development. Mechanisms for these effects on the hippocampus are suggested to inform intervention.
Aims
Depression requires the presence of either depressed mood or anhedonia, yet little research attention has been focused on distinguishing these two symptoms. This study aimed to obtain the prevalence rates of these two core depression symptoms and to explore the risk factors for each symptom by race/ethnicity.
Methods
2423 White, African American, Hispanic and Asian/Pacific Islander (API) women from the Massachusetts area completed the Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System (PRAMS) from 2007 to 2008.
Results
Socioeconomic variables (SES) accounted for increased rates in depressed mood and anhedonia among African Americans and Hispanics compared with Whites. API women were still 2.1 times more likely to report anhedonia after controlling for SES. Stressors were associated with depressed mood across groups and associated with anhedonia for Whites and Hispanics. Having a female infant was associated with depressed mood for APIs. Being non-US born was associated with anhedonia for Whites, APIs and African Americans, but not Hispanics.
Conclusions
Prevalence rates for depressed mood and anhedonia differ across race/ethnic groups and risks associated with depressed mood and anhedonia depend on the race/ethnic group, suggesting the importance of distinguishing depressed mood from anhedonia in depression assessment and careful inquiry regarding symptom experiences with a diverse patient population.
Corporal punishment is a controversial practice used by the majority of American parents and is especially prevalent among African Americans. Research regarding its consequences has produced mixed results although it is clear that there is a need for considering the context within which corporal punishment is administered. To assess the impact of spanking, we employed an expanded parenting typology that includes corporal punishment. Longitudinal self-report data from a sample of 683 African American youth (54 % female) were utilized to evaluate the relative impact of the resulting eight parenting styles on three outcomes: conduct problems, depressive symptoms, and school engagement. Results from Negative Binomial Regression Models indicate that the effect of corporal punishment depends upon the constellation of parenting behaviors within which it is embedded and upon the type of outcome being considered. While it is never the case that there is any added benefit of adding corporal punishment, it is also the case that using corporal punishment is not always associated with poor outcomes. Overall, however, our findings show that parenting styles that include corporal punishment do not produce outcomes as positive as those associated with authoritative parenting.
This article reports longitudinal data on the link between the affective quality of the mother–child relationship and school-relevant cognitive performance. Sixty-seven mothers and their children participated in the first (preschool) phase of the study; 47 were included in a follow-up when the children were 12 years of age. The affective quality of the mother–child relationship when the child was 4 years of age was significantly correlated with mental ability at age 4, school readiness at ages 5–6, IQ at age 6, and school achievement at age 12. These associations remained significant when the contributions of maternal IQ, socioeconomic status (SES), and children's mental ability at age 4 were taken into account. Our findings suggest that affective relationships may influence cognitive growth in three ways: (a) by affecting parent's tendency to engage and support children in solving problems; (b) by affecting children's social competence and, consequently, the flow of information between children and adults; and (c) by affecting children's exploratory tendencies, hence their willingness to approach and persist in tasks. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Although measures of the home environment have gained wide acceptance in the child development literature, what constitutes the “average” or “typical” home environment in the United States, and how this differs across ethnic groups and poverty status is not known. Item-level data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth on four age-related versions of the Home Observation for Measurement of the Environment–Short Form (HOME-SF) from five biennial assessments (1986–1994) were analyzed for the total sample and for four major ethnic groups: European Americans, Asian Americans, African Americans, and Hispanic Americans. The percentages of homes receiving credit on each item of all four versions of the HOME-SF are described. For the majority of items at all four age levels differences between poor and nonpoor families were noted. Differences were also obtained among African American, European American, and Hispanic American families, but the magnitude of the effect for poverty status was greater than for ethnicity, and usually absorbed most of the ethnic group effects on HOME-SF items. For every item at every age, the effects of poverty were proportional across European American, African American, and Hispanic American groups.
Social scientists do not agree on the size and nature of the causal impacts of parental income on children's achievement. We revisit this issue using a set of welfare and antipoverty experiments conducted in the 1990s. We utilize an instrumental variables strategy to leverage the variation in income and achievement that arises from random assignment to the treatment group to estimate the causal effect of income on child achievement. Our estimates suggest that a $1,000 increase in annual income increases young children's achievement by 5%–6% of a standard deviation. As such, our results suggest that family income has a policy-relevant, positive impact on the eventual school achievement of preschool children.
The authors examined the associations between socioeconomic status (SES), race, maternal sensitivity, and maternal negative-intrusive behaviors and language development in a sample selected to reduce the typical confound between race and SES (n = 146). Mother-child interactions were observed at 12 and 24 months (coded by randomly assigned African American and European American coders); language abilities were assessed at 18, 24, 30, and 36 months. For receptive language, race was associated with ability level, and maternal sensitivity and negative-intrusive parenting were related to rate of growth. For expressive communication, race, SES, and maternal sensitivity were associated with rate of growth; race moderated the association between negative-intrusive parenting and rate of growth such that the relation was weaker for African American than for European American children. The results highlight the importance of sensitive parenting and suggest that the association between negative-intrusive parenting and language development may depend upon family context. Future work is needed concerning the race differences found, including examining associations with other demographic factors and variations in language input experienced by children, using culturally and racially validated indices of language development.
Why parental socioeconomic status correlates strongly with various measures of child and adult achievement is an important and controversial research question. After summarizing findings from recent contributions to this literature, we conduct two sets of analyses using data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics. Completed schooling and nonmarital childbearing are related to parental income during early and middle childhood, as well as during adolescence. These analyses suggest that family economic conditions in early childhood have the greatest impact on achievement, especially among children in families with low incomes. Estimates from sibling models support the hypothesis that economic conditions in early childhood are important determinants of completed schooling.
Mothers' perceived stress and social support were found to be significant predictors of maternal attitudes and the quality of interaction with their infants, when measured concurrently across an 18-month period. However, long-term predictions were poor, as stability of maternal stress and support factors was only moderate. The quality of infants' interactive behavior was also affected by maternal stress and support, but only during the early measurement periods of one and four months.
In this article a conceptual model for the study of child development in minority populations in the United States is proposed. In support of the proposed model, this article includes (a) a delineation and critical analysis of mainstream theoretical frameworks in relation to their attention and applicability to the understanding of developmental processes in children of color and of issues at the intersection of social class, culture, ethnicity, and race, and (b) a description and evaluation of the conceptual frameworks that have guided the extant literature on minority children and families. Based on the above considerations, an integrative conceptual model of child development is presented, anchored within social stratification theory, emphasizing the importance of racism, prejudice, discrimination, oppression, and segregation on the development of minority children and families.
Although hundreds of studies have documented the association between family poverty and children's health, achievement, and behavior, few measure the effects of the timing, depth, and duration of poverty on children, and many fail to adjust for other family characteristics (for example, female headship, mother's age, and schooling) that may account for much of the observed correlation between poverty and child outcomes. This article focuses on a recent set of studies that explore the relationship between poverty and child outcomes in depth. By and large, this research supports the conclusion that family income has selective but, in some instances, quite substantial effects on child and adolescent well-being. Family income appears to be more strongly related to children's ability and achievement than to their emotional outcomes. Children who live in extreme poverty or who live below the poverty line for multiple years appear, all other things being equal, to suffer the worst outcomes. The timing of poverty also seems to be important for certain child outcomes. Children who experience poverty during their preschool and early school years have lower rates of school completion than children and adolescents who experience poverty only in later years. Although more research is needed on the significance of the timing of poverty on child outcomes, findings to date suggest that interventions during early childhood may be most important in reducing poverty's impact on children.
Family practitioners consider social support to be a significant resource for individuals and family members encountering stress. There has, however, not been an adequate way to assess an individual's or a family's perception of the social support they are receiving. A new definition of social support is presented, along with a way to measure two dimensions of social support: (a) the kinds of support available, such as emotional support; and (b) the sources of support, such as friends. The instrument described here has been used most extensively with first-time parents, but has potential as an aid for therapists and educators to help individuals and families in other contexts and roles.
Previous research suggests a relationship between poverty, caregiver depression, caregiver stress and children's externalizing behaviour. However, little research exists to suggest the manner in which these concepts are interrelated. Latent growth curve analyses were conducted on caregiver–child dyads data from the Early Head Start Research and Evaluation Project to identify the path through which poverty, caregiver depression, caregiver stress and child externalizing behaviours were related. Analyses identified a path through which caregiver stress and depression mediated the effect of poverty on child externalizing behaviours. In addition, the influence of caregiver depression on child externalizing behaviours was mediated by caregiver stress. Implications and limitations of these findings are discussed.
This study examined community characteristics as predictors of parenting quality among African-American mothers. Residential stability and social capital are defined as positive features of community social organization, especially in areas with high concentrations of poor, single, African-American mothers with children. In residentially stable communities, members are able to form social ties to community, and this helps community members build social resources in the form of social capital. Among the 759 African-American mothers who participated in the Family and Community Health Study (FACHS), there was a positive and direct relationship from perceptions of community social capital and organizational group participation to parenting quality. Personal outlook did not mediate the relationship between any of the social capital study variables (residential stability, perceptions of social capital, and organizational group participation) and parenting quality. To the contrary, personal outlook was significantly related to parenting quality among these mothers' net effect of the main study variables and an extensive set of community- and individual-level social and demographic control variables.
Subjects often drop out of longitudinal studies prematurely, yielding unbalanced data with unequal numbers of measures for each subject. Modern software programs for handling unbalanced longitudinal data improve on methods that discard the incomplete cases by including all the data, but also yield biased inferences under plausible models for the drop-out process. This article discusses methods that simultaneously model the data and the drop-out process within a unified model-based framework. Models are classified into two broad classes—random-coefficient selection models and random-coefficient pattern-mixture models—depending on how the joint distribution of the data and drop-out mechanism is factored. Inference is likelihood-based, via maximum likelihood or Bayesian methods. A number of examples in the literature are placed in this framework, and possible extensions outlined. Data collection on the nature of the drop-out process is advocated to guide the choice of model. In cases where the drop-out mechanism is not well understood, sensitivity analyses are suggested to assess the effect on inferences about target quantities of alternative assumptions about the drop-out process.
This study examined the use of the Metropolitan Readiness Test (MRT) as a descriptor and predictor of children's abilities and competence in kindergarten through grade two. Four hundred and four children were assessed at kindergarten entry, grade one, and grade two with a variety of academic, cognitive, and social-emotional measures. The MRT demonstrated significant correlations (r = .36 to .68) with these criterion measures and was a strong predictor of children's social competence in early elementary school. The MRT was moderately correlated with and highly predictive of (r = .45 to .76) academic and cognitive tests administered in grades one and two. The results are discussed in terms of an ecological framework and address current issues in the field of early childhood education related to screening for the identification of children at risk for school failure.
The CES-D scale is a short self-report scale designed to measure depressive symptomatology in the general population. The items of the scale are symptoms associated with depression which have been used in previously validated longer scales. The new scale was tested in household interview surveys and in psychiatric settings. It was found to have very high internal consistency and adequate test- retest repeatability. Validity was established by pat terns of correlations with other self-report measures, by correlations with clinical ratings of depression, and by relationships with other variables which support its construct validity. Reliability, validity, and factor structure were similar across a wide variety of demographic characteristics in the general population samples tested. The scale should be a useful tool for epidemiologic studies of de pression.
This paper investigates the sources of work-family strains and gains in a sample of 300 two-earner couples. Although most men and women report work-family gains, not all individuals experienced work-family strains. Workload and the quality of experiences at work and at home were major predictors of work-family strains. Experiences at work and at home, social support, and sex-role attitudes were major predictors of work-family gains.
This chapter presents research from the Iowa Youth and Families Project (IYFP), a longitudinal study of Iowa families who were living in small towns and on farms during the farm crisis of the 1980s. The research was designed to assess how the macrosocial change and economic upheaval that occurred across the US during the 1980s influenced family functioning and the well-being of parents and their children. The 1st section of the chapter describes the empirical and theoretical foundations for the Family Stress Model. The sections that follow summarize findings from the IYFP and other studies relevant to the various processes and mechanisms proposed in the Family Stress Model. The authors also consider research on hypothesized protective mechanisms or dimensions of vulnerability that may moderate the causal linkages proposed in the theoretical model. After reviewing the possible applied significance of this work, they close with a discussion of conclusions that can be drawn from the research conducted thus far and the implications of these findings for future investigations of family economic stress. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
One of the major tasks of parenting is shaping child behavior, both for immediate compliance to expectations and norms and for long-term socialization of behavioral habits. Much of this socialization occurs around the discipline event, in which the parent responds to the child's misbehavior or noncompliance. The most important finding from analyses of discipline patterns among African American families is great heterogeneity across families. This chapter focuses on one of several disciplinary strategies used by African American parents in contemporary society, namely, physical punishment. African American parents, in general, rely on a context of warmth and acceptance of their children and employ mild physical punishment (e.g., spanking) in response to child misbehavior. Even though spanking is experienced by more than 90% of all American children, one of the more striking and well-replicated findings in the child development literature is that European American parents employ spanking less frequently than do African American parents. The reasons for this difference, the effect on child outcomes, the mechanisms through which parenting practices exert an impact on child outcomes, and the public policy implications of this difference are all addressed in this chapter. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
This article examines the frequency and stability of externalizing symptoms in a sample of 325 5-year-olds. Parent and teacher ratings, teacher nominations, parent-child interaction, and child measures were obtained. Using cutoff scores on teacher ratings, an average of 20% of the children were rated as having moderate externalizing problems in kindergarten and first grade. For both boys and girls, parent-teacher stability correlations ranged from .34–.45, and kindergarten teacher ratings from November and April correlated at .76. Instability in externalizing symptoms from kindergarten to first grade was related to a number of concurrent and previously assessed factors. For girls these included learning problems, shy-anxious behavior, mother-child interaction measures, and cognitive ability. Factors related to instability for boys included learning problems, social skills, cognitive ability, and self-control. These variables accounted for an additional 40% of the variance for boys (50% for girls) in first grade externalizing symptoms after controlling for externalizing symptoms in kindergarten.
The present study describes the depressive symptomatology of 393 parents of prekindergarten children and assesses ethnic differences in the depression scores of these parents and their differential consequences for children's social competence. Data are drawn from the National Center for Early Development and Learning (NCEDL) classroom study, a national, longitudinal study examining the quality and outcomes of prekindergarten programs operated in schools or under the direction of state and local educational agencies, and the supplemental NCEDL familial and social environments study. Analyses indicated that Latino parents were more likely than African-American and White parents to be depressed. However, as reported by both parents and teachers, behavioral outcomes for African-American children of parents with elevated depressive symptomatology were worse than children of their Latino and White counterparts. Interactions between ethnicity and depressive symptomatology emerged in the parent-child relationship, with African-American parents with elevated depressive symptoms reporting significantly greater levels of conflict in the parent–child relationship than their non-depressed counterparts. African-American parents with elevated depression scores were also less likely to be in marital relationships than their non-depressed counterparts. Among African-American families, parent–child conflict served as a mediator of the effects of parental depression on child outcomes. Implications for intervention are discussed.
Living in a disordered community is negatively associated with psychological well-being. We investigated the role of social support in the link between community environment and psychological distress in a sample of 152 African American women from low socioeconomic backgrounds in a large metropolitan southeastern city. Structural equation modeling revealed that the association between low quality of community environment and increased psychological distress was accounted for by the mediating role of social support. Findings suggest the importance of social support in improving the mental health of African American women from low socioeconomic backgrounds. Because social support is affected by the environment in which women live, interventions should be community-focused. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
The observed gap in average wages between black men and white men inadequately reflects the relative economic standing of blacks, who suffer from a high rate of joblessness. The authors estimate the black-white gap in hourly wages from 1980 to 1999 adjusting for the sample selection effect of labor inactivity. Among working-age men in 1999, accounting for labor inactivity—including prison and jail incarceration—leads to an increase of 7%–20% in the black-white wage gap. Adjusting for sample selectivity among men ages 22–30 in 1999 increases the wage gap by as much as 58%. Increasing selection bias, which can be attributed to incarceration and con-ventional joblessness, explains about two-thirds of the rise in black relative wages among young men between 1985 and 1998. Apparent improvement in the economic position of young black men is thus largely an artifact of rising joblessness fueled by the growth in in-carceration during the 1990s. Inequality between black men and white men is often measured by wage differences in the civilian labor force (e.g., Cancio, Evans, and Maume 1996; Sakamoto, Wu, and Tzeng 2000; McCall 2001; Grodsky and Pager 2001). However, comparisons of wage earners may inaccurately describe 1 Hank Farber, George Farkas, Jerry Jacobs, and Chris Winship made useful sugges-tions on earlier drafts.
This article examines the adequacy of the “rules of thumb” conventional cutoff criteria and several new alternatives for various fit indexes used to evaluate model fit in practice. Using a 2‐index presentation strategy, which includes using the maximum likelihood (ML)‐based standardized root mean squared residual (SRMR) and supplementing it with either Tucker‐Lewis Index (TLI), Bollen's (1989) Fit Index (BL89), Relative Noncentrality Index (RNI), Comparative Fit Index (CFI), Gamma Hat, McDonald's Centrality Index (Mc), or root mean squared error of approximation (RMSEA), various combinations of cutoff values from selected ranges of cutoff criteria for the ML‐based SRMR and a given supplemental fit index were used to calculate rejection rates for various types of true‐population and misspecified models; that is, models with misspecified factor covariance(s) and models with misspecified factor loading(s). The results suggest that, for the ML method, a cutoff value close to .95 for TLI, BL89, CFI, RNI, and Gamma Hat; a cutoff value close to .90 for Mc; a cutoff value close to .08 for SRMR; and a cutoff value close to .06 for RMSEA are needed before we can conclude that there is a relatively good fit between the hypothesized model and the observed data. Furthermore, the 2‐index presentation strategy is required to reject reasonable proportions of various types of true‐population and misspecified models. Finally, using the proposed cutoff criteria, the ML‐based TLI, Mc, and RMSEA tend to overreject true‐population models at small sample size and thus are less preferable when sample size is small.
Using data collected over a 6-year period on a sample of 1,039 European American children, 550 African American children, and 401 Hispanic children from the children of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, this study assessed whether maternal emotional support of the child moderates the relation between spanking and behavior problems. Children were 4–5 years of age in the first of 4 waves of data used (1988, 1990, 1992, 1994). At each wave, mothers reported their use of spanking and rated their children's behavior problems. Maternal emotional support of the child was based on interviewer observations conducted as part of the Home Observation for Measurement of the Environment. For each of the 3 racial-ethnic groups, spanking predicted an increase in the level of problem behavior over time, controlling for income-needs ratio and maternal emotional support. Maternal emotional support moderated the link between spanking and problem behavior. Spanking was associated with an increase in behavior problems over time in the context of low levels of emotional support, but not in the context of high levels of emotional support. This pattern held for all 3 racial-ethnic groups.
Children born to adolescent mothers have heightened vulnerability for exposure to multiple stressful life events owing to factors associated with teenaged parenthood such as poverty and low levels of maternal education. This study investigated whether early exposure to negative life events such as parental divorce, residential instability, and deaths in the family predicted children’s socioemotional and behavioral functioning at age 10. Hierarchical regression analyses suggested that negative life events—which were reported by 94% of the sample—were associated with less favorable developmental outcomes, with social support serving as a buffer between exposure to these events and children’s anxiety, internalization, externalization, and maladaptive behaviors.
Children's internalizing problems are a concerning mental health issue, due to significant prevalence and continuity over time. This study tested a multivariate model predicting young children's internalizing behaviors from parenting practices, parents' anxiety–depression and family stressors. A community sample of 2 year old children (N = 112) was followed longitudinally to 4 years. Parents completed questionnaires and playroom observations provided independent measures of parenting and child variables. Predictors of early childhood internalizing difficulties were over-involved/protective parenting, low warm-engaged parenting, and parental anxiety–depression. Family life-stress and parental anxiety–depression also predicted problematic parenting practices. These findings were discussed within the context of the design of early childhood parenting programs to prevent anxiety and depression in children.
This research examines relations between measures of child-mother and child-teacher relationships and the extent to which these measures predict early school outcomes. Observations of shared affect and control problems in mother-child interaction in preschool were low-to-moderately correlated with concurrent pre-school teacher-reported aspects of child-teacher security, conflict, and dependency. Overall quality of child-mother interaction predicted teacher-reported social adjustment in kindergarten, and quality of both child-mother and child-teacher interaction predicted children's performance on a measure of concept development in preschool. Results suggest that qualities of child-mother interaction are more strongly related to preschool and kindergarten adjustment outcomes than are qualities of the child-teacher relationship. The results point to the strength of adult-child interactions in the context of the family when understanding the role of relationships with children and teachers in the school context.
This study examined relations between ratings of mother-child interactions in a problem-solving situation at school entry and academic achievement in grades 2, 3, and 4. Data on the child's cognitive and fine-motor ability and mother's education were also collected at school entry. Academic achievement was assessed with the Iowa Test of Basic Skills (ITBS). A factor score reflecting mother-child competence in the interaction situation correlated approximately .40 with ITBS total and subtest scores in grades 2, 3, and 4. In regression analyses with the mother-child measures entered first, mother's education, child cognitive and fine-motor ability added significantly to the prediction of ITBS scores and did not appreciably reduce the predictive relation of the mother-child competence factor. When the mother-child competence factor was entered last in regression, the majority of the variance was accounted for by the ability and demographic measures. The partial correlations of mother-child competence and the three ITBS total scores were significant when controlling for cognitive ability. An interaction term representing the combination of cognitive ability and mother-child competence accounted for a small, but significant increment in variance for the second and third grade ITBS. Implications for professional practice are discussed.
The Black-White achievement gap in children's reading and mathematics school performance from 4½ years of age through fifth grade was examined in a sample of 314 lower income American youth followed from birth. Differences in family, child care, and schooling experiences largely explained Black-White differences in achievement, and instructional quality was a stronger predictor for Black than White children. In addition, the achievement gap was detected as young as 3 years of age. Taken together, the findings suggest that reducing the Black-White achievement gap may require early intervention to reduce race gaps in home and school experiences during the infant and toddler years as well as during the preschool and school years.
Thesis (Ph. D.)--Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, 1988. Vita. Abstract. Includes bibliographies.
In previous research, a substantial gap in test scores between white and black students persists, even after controlling for a wide range of observable characteristics. Using a newly available data set (the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study), we demonstrate that in stark contrast to earlier studies, the black-white test score gap among incoming kindergartners disappears when we control for a small number of covariates. Real gains by black children in recent cohorts appear to play an important role in explaining the differences between our findings and earlier research. The availability of better covariates also contributes. Over the first two years of school, however, blacks lose substantial ground relative to other races. There is suggestive evidence that differences in school quality may be an important part of the explanation. None of the other hypotheses we test to explain why blacks are losing ground receive any empirical backing. Copyright (c) 2004 President and Fellows of Harvard College and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Information pertaining to a revision of the Caldwell HOME Inventory for use with families of children ages 3 to 6 was presented. Factor and item analyses were used as a basis for reducing the number of items from 80 to 55. The items were clustered into eight subscales. Kuder-Richardson 20 coefficients for the scale ranged from .53 to .93. Concurrent and predictive validity studies indicated that the HOME scales significantly correlated with IQ (as high as r = .58). Low to moderate correlations were obtained between HOME scores and SES measures, with significant correlations ranging from .30 to .65.
Children from teen parent families are impaired developmentally compared to children of older mothers. Family support has frequently been proposed as a mediator of the stress that teen parents experience as a result of teen parenthood. This longitudinal study investigates the role of family support factors and maternal characteristics in relation to child outcomes (6-7 year old children) in teen parent families. Two models outlining the role of partner and grandmother family support are proposed to explain the process by which child development occurs within the family contexts of teen families. Implications of the results for intervention are discussed.
Reliability of the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale, a 20-item symptom checklist, is examined using data from a sample of community respondents containing Anglos (254), Blacks (270), and Mexican Americans (181). Although the survey response rate was lower for Mexican Americans, quality of the data provided by this group was not significantly different from that for Anglos or Blacks. That is, there were no differences among these groups in terms of missing data or internal consistency reliabilty (as measured by Cronbach's alpha and Spearman-Brown split halves). Factor-analytic results also demonstrate the same general structure of responses among the three groups.