Early Interactions With Mothers, Childcare Caregivers, and Peers and Their Implications for Early Adolescence Adaptation

• In Event: Parental Influences on Adolescent Development and Functioning

Abstract

Proximal processes that young children engage in with significant others in microsystems are engines of development. This study revisits this classic topic by focusing on complexity in within‐child configuration of positivities and negativities across proximal interpersonal processes in early childhood (i.e., mother-child, child care provider-child, and peer interactions at 6-36 months) and its implications for early adolescence adaptation (i.e., externalizing/internalizing problems, and social relationship quality at 6th grade). Latent profile analyses were conducted using NICHD SECCYD data (N = 1,364). Four profiles were identified: Single Risk with Mothers; Double Protection with Mothers and Child Care Providers; Double Risk with Child Care Providers and Peers; and Triple Risk with Mothers, Child Care Providers, and Peers. Early adolescence outcomes varied across profiles.

Authors

• Hongjian Cao, Beijing Normal University

• Yue Liang, Beijing Normal University

• Nan Zhou, Beijing Normal University