Mothers’ emotional availability and kindergartners’ academic and social-emotional outcomes: Direct and indirect paths of influences

• In Event: Poster Session 11
  In Poster Session: PS 11 Topic - Education, Schooling

Abstract

The effects of parenting on children’s academic and socio-emotional outcomes are a focal topic for researchers; and elucidating the processes by which these constructs are linked is essential. A potential mechanism in which parenting quality may lead to a child’s successful adaptation to kindergarten (K) could be through children’s effortful control (EC), defined as the conscious capacity to regulate emotion (Rothbart & Bates, 2006), and task orientation (TOS), defined as the capacity to expend effort in mastering a task (Smith-Donald et al., 2007). EC is rooted in temperament, is a robust predictor of children’s academic and socio-emotional achievement (Eisenberg et al., 2010), and can be further shaped by quality of parenting (Rothbart & Bates, 2006). Mothers’ sensitivity and scaffolding have been found to predict increases in EC during childhood (Kiff et al., 2011). In turn, EC has been found to predict task orientation skills (TOS) among kindergartners (Brock et al., 2009), which in turn is predictive of academic achievement and classroom adjustment (Greene et al., 2004). The current study investigated longitudinal relations between mothering quality and kindergartners’ academic achievement and relationship quality with teachers, and whether this link was mediated by children’s EC and TOS.
Home and school data from 93 families were drawn from a larger study examining family processes and kindergartner outcomes at Summer, Fall, Winter, and Spring of the K year. Mothers bedtime emotional availability was observed during summer from digital videos of mother-child bedtime interactions and assessed using Biringen’s Emotional Availability (EA) Scales. Mother-reported child EC was assessed during fall using the Child Behavior Questionnaire (Rothbart et al., 2001). The TOS was assessed by project staff at winter using the short form of Adapted Leiter-R assessor report (Smith-Donald et al., 2007). Lastly, during spring, teachers completed the Academic Performance Rating Scale (DuPaul, 1991) and the Student-Teacher Relationship Scale (Pianta, 2001).
Serial mediation analyses investigated whether child EC and TOS serially mediated the relations between mothers’ bedtime EA and kindergartners’ academic as well as relationship quality with teachers (see Figure 1). Direct and indirect effects were computed using the bootstrapping procedure via the PROCESS macro in SPSS (Hayes, 2013). Results (Table 1) showed significant direct effects of summer bedtime EA on children’s spring outcomes as well as serial mediational pathways. Specifically, maternal EA during summer predicted higher levels of EC in children (Fall), leading to better TOS (Winter), and in turn to stronger academic performance and closer student-teacher relationships (Spring). In addition, there was a significant indirect effect of mother’s bedtime EA on academic performance through child EC.
These findings indicate that mothers’ EA at summer (pre-K) is a both a direct and indirect predictor of child academic and social-emotional functioning late in the K year. In addition to having an apparent direct impact, analyses identified two mediated pathways from EA to spring outcomes, with EA’s putative impact of children’s EC early in the K year to be particularly important. These findings can inform the development of family-based intervention programs aiming to improve the transition to kindergarten.

Authors

• Ulziimaa Chimed-Ochir, Pennsylvania State University, University Park
  Presenting Author

• Liu Bai, Pennsylvania State University, University Park
  Non-Presenting Author

• Corey Jean Whitesell, Pennsylvania State University, University Park
  Non-Presenting Author

• Kaitlin Marie Trexberg, Pennsylvania State University, University Park
  Non-Presenting Author

• Douglas M Teti, The Pennsylvania State University
  Non-Presenting Author