Longitudinal Trajectories of Maternal Parenting and the Growth of Executive Function during the Preschool Years

• In Event: Leveraging Latent Growth Modeling To Understand Antecedents and Consequences of Self-Regulation from Early-Childhood to Adolescence

Abstract

The preschool years represent tremendous growth in executive function (EF; Willoughby et al., 2010). High quality maternal parenting is key to promoting the development of early EF (Bernier et al., 2012). Recent studies using a growth modeling approach suggest that mothers’ parenting changes over time (Ku & Feng, 2021). In addition, all mothers may not show heterogeneous patterns of change over time and there is a possibility that subgroups of mothers exist with each group showing similar patterns of change (Hukkelberg et al., 2021). Here, we identified distinct trajectories of maternal parenting for the first three years of their child’s life and examined the role of trajectory membership in the growth of child EF from age 3 to 5, using data from the Family Life Project, a population-based longitudinal sample of 1,292 families in rural low-income regions in the United States.
Mothers’ sensitive and negative-intrusive parenting were measured using a mother-child interaction task, free play at 6 and 15 months and a puzzle task at 24 and 35 months (Cox & Crnic, 2002). At age 3, 4, and 5, the child was administered a battery of EF tasks (Willoughby et al., 2012). Using latent class growth analysis, we identified the 4-trajectory model for sensitive and negative-intrusive parenting from 6 to 35 months, respectively. The sensitive parenting trajectory model included the High-fluctuating (18%), Higher-stable (35%), Moderate-fluctuating (35%), and Low-increasing (11%) trajectories (Figure 1a). Next, the negative-intrusive parenting trajectory model included the Low-decreasing (54%), Moderate-increasing (29%), High-decreasing (13%) and Constant-high (4%) trajectories (Figure 1b).
The growth of EF from age 3 to 5 was estimated using latent growth curve analysis with EF levels at age 3 as the intercept and the rates of change in EF as the linear slope. Regarding sensitive parenting trajectories, children in High-fluctuating showed the highest EF at age 3 and those in Higher-stable showed the second highest (Figure 2a). Children in Moderate-fluctuating and Low-increasing showed the lowest EF at age 3 among the four trajectories. There was no evidence for differences in the growth rates of EF by trajectory membership of sensitive parenting.
In regard to negative-intrusive parenting trajectories, children in Low-decreasing showed the highest EF at age 3 among the four trajectories (Figure 2b). Children in Higher-decreasing showed higher EF at age 3 than those in Moderate-increasing and Constant-high. At age 3, children in Moderate-increasing and Constant-high showed the lowest EF among the four. We found evidence for differences in the growth rates of EF across trajectories, such that children in Constant-high showed greater growth in EF, compared to those in Moderate-increasing.
Our findings suggest that mothers show heterogeneous changes in parenting over early childhood. More importantly, our analysis demonstrates the protective role of the decreasing trajectory of negative-intrusive parenting in the development of early EF. A reduction in negative-intrusive parenting may help children develop EF at early ages, which may inform interventions targeting postpartum mothers who show high levels of negative-intrusive parenting.

Authors

• Seulki Ku, Erikson Institute
  Presenting Author

• Kibong Yun, Ewha Womans University

• Clancy Blair, New York University