Mother and Father Support and Intrusiveness on School Readiness among Children in Low-Income Families

• In Event: Parenting Across Continents: Linkages, Pathways and Trajectories

Abstract

Introduction: Supportive and intrusive parent-child interactions have long been recognized as significant developmental contexts for young children. Despite the significance of early caregiving environments for a wide range of children’s outcomes, studies on the dyadic and longitudinal processes of both maternal and paternal parenting in low-income families are relatively scarce. Given the vulnerability of school readiness and associated skills in children with economic disadvantages, understanding complex family processes in toddlerhood can significantly benefit the efforts to develop effective parenting interventions to facilitate these children’s later positive academic outcomes. Although parent-child interactions are often assumed to be stable over time, recent evidence shows considerable variability in maternal and paternal intraindividual and interindividual changes in different cultural contexts (Lansford et al., 2018). Guided by a family systems theory that posits family subsystems’ interdependence, the present study sought to 1) identify variations in observed maternal and paternal supportive and intrusive interactions at 24 and 36 months; and 2) uncover longitudinal processes by which interactions with mothers and fathers uniquely and interactively contribute to children’s school readiness (vocabulary and social skills) at age 5. To these ends, the present study tests the following hypotheses. 1) The additive hypothesis: Greater support and less intrusiveness in interactions with mothers and fathers would be associated with more optimal outcomes in children; 2) The buffering hypothesis: High supportiveness with one parent would buffer negative effects of high intrusiveness with the other parent; 3) The specific linkage hypothesis: Interactions with mothers and fathers would vary with regard to their relative impact on outcomes (e.g., domain-specific). 4) The direct & indirect hypothesis: Father-child interactions would have both direct and indirect effects through supportive mother involvement.
Method: Mothers, fathers and children (N = 282 families) were drawn from a diverse sample of low-income families from the Early Head Start Research and Evaluation Project (EHSRE, 1996-2001; ACF, 2011). Parent-child interactions were observed in mother-child and father-child dyads during the 3-bag task at 24 and 36 months. Key school readiness indicators were available from the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test (PPVT-III) and parent ratings of social skills (FACES) at age 5. Latent difference scores (LDS) models were conducted to test the effects of initial levels and latent change (i.e., both constant and proportional change) in mother-child and father-child interactions on school readiness, including covariates of child gender, father residential status, and family risk.
Results: Results from the LDS model (Figure 1) revealed that at 24 months, maternal and paternal support were significantly associated with better age 5 vocabulary, and greater maternal support was significantly associated with better age 5 social skills. Greater 24-month maternal intrusiveness was significantly related to poorer age 5vocabulary, and greater 24-month paternal intrusiveness was significantly related to poorer age 5 social skills. Furthermore, increases in maternal support from 24 to 36 months uniquely predicted better school readiness in both vocabulary and social skills. Our findings highlight time-sensitive effects of parental support and intrusiveness in mother-child and father-child interactions that set the stage for school readiness.

Authors

• Wonjung Oh, Texas Tech University
  Presenting Author

• Hyoun K. Kim, Yonsei University
  Non-Presenting Author

• SuJung Park, Texas Tech University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Ann M Mastergeorge, Texas Tech University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Lori A Roggman
  Non-Presenting Author