Mothers, fathers and other caregivers’ stimulation and children’s school readiness in Ghana

• In Event: Protective factors for children’s academic progress and outcomes in West Africa

Abstract

Positive and stimulating experiences at home are considered critical in the early years when children develop rapidly (Black, 2017; Bornstein, 2006). In particular, research, mainly from high-income contexts, show that maternal-child stimulations have been associated with children’s school readiness (e.g. Roskos, 2019, McMunn et al., 2017). While research has predominantly focused on mothers, over the years, a growing number of studies have provided evidence that father-child stimulations are important predictors of children’s school readiness (e.g. McMunn et al., 2017; Curtas et al., 2020). Besides parental stimulation, emerging evidence highlight the important role played by other caregivers (individuals other than the biological parents) in children’s development, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa. However, the links between other caregiver-child stimulation and children’s school readiness has received very little consideration in empirical work.
We extend previous work by focusing on six home-stimulation activities (i.e. reading, storytelling, naming, counting and drawing, singing songs, playing with child and taking child out) and theoretically differentiated them into cognitive and socioemotional stimulation (Bornstein & Putnick, 2012). Drawing on data from the Quality Preschool for Ghana project collected at two time-points across one school year (N = 2,975; Mage = 5.2 years; 49% female), we examined the concurrent contributions of mothers, fathers, and other caregivers’ cognitive and socioemotional home stimulation to children’s school readiness skills, measured across four domains – literacy, numeracy, socioemotional skills and executive functions.
Multivariate regression analyses showed that mothers and other caregivers’ stimulation—but not fathers—predicted child outcomes. Specifically, in lagged models controlling for children’s fall scores, mothers’ cognitive stimulation was significantly associated with only literacy and numeracy. Other caregivers’ cognitive stimulation was negatively associated with children’s socioemotional skills. With regards to socioemotional stimulation, in the lagged models, only mothers’ stimulation was significantly associated with child outcomes – literacy and executive outcomes. Father’s stimulation practices were not associated with any child outcomes.
The findings support the growing evidence from sub-Saharan Africa that home stimulation is an important driver of child development and extends this work by looking at contributions from various caregivers in the household. It also highlights the need for interventions to adopt a family-inclusive approach that engages not only mothers but fathers and other caregivers to maximize improvements in children’s development.

Authors

• Esinam Ami Avornyo, University of Cape Coast
  Presenting Author

• Sharon Wolf, University of Pennsylvania