Positive Parenting and Early Childhood Cognition: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials

• In Event: When, for Whom, and why? Disentangling the Relations Between Positive Parenting and School Readiness

Abstract

Early cognitive skills represent transdiagnostic risk markers for a host of short- and long-term clinical, school, and family outcomes. Identifying modifiable contributors to early cognition is essential to policy and programming. A growing number of randomized controlled trials have examined positive parenting interventions in relation to early cognitive development. Studies yield variable estimates when it comes to the direction and magnitude of intervention effects, and there are considerable differences in study design in terms of participant, intervention, and outcome characteristics. Thus, although there is growing support for the effectiveness of positive parenting interventions in enhancing children’s early cognition, several questions remain, which are best addressed with a systematic review and meta-analysis.
The current presentation examines the effectiveness of positive parenting interventions for improving children’s early cognition up to six years of age, in four meta-analyses addressing one of the following outcome domains: cognition, language, executive functioning, and pre-academics. The objectives are to assess the magnitude of intervention effectiveness and moderators of effect sizes. We hypothesized that outcome domain, developmental timing, and context (e.g., social disadvantage) would influence intervention effectiveness.
To address these aims, we followed a PRISMA protocol. We include randomized controlled trials of interventions targeting positive parenting to improve cognition in children < 6 years. Studies that included children with neurodevelopmental and/or hearing disorders were excluded. MEDLINE, PsycINFO, ERIC, and ProQuest Dissertations & Theses (October 2021) and citation chaining identified relevant records. Five reviewers completed screening/assessments, extraction, and risk of bias. Pooled analysis in Comprehensive Meta-Analysis (Version 3) used random effects modelling, with moderation via Q-statistics and meta-regression.
We include 61 independent samples (N = 9687 participants) across 79 papers. Results show that positive parenting interventions led to significant improvements in cognition (g = 0.46, N = 5746; k = 33) and language (g = 0.25, N = 6428; k = 30). Effect sizes were smaller and nonsignificant for executive functioning (g = 0.07, N = 3628; k = 14) and pre-academics (g = 0.16, N = 2365; k = 7). Several moderators emerged for language and cognition (Tables 1 and 2). The most robust moderators, based on meta-regression, were as follows: for cognition, studies with higher risk of bias scores yielded larger intervention effects. For language, studies with younger children had larger effect sizes.
The strength of the relationship between positive parenting and child development varies based on outcome domain examined, wherein positive parenting interventions are especially effective for early child cognition and language. Positive changes to cognition and language may have positive cascading effects on executive functioning and pre-academics, given the interdependencies of early childhood skills. Furthermore, for language development, developmental timing plays a role, supporting prior claims that ‘earlier is better’ when it comes to parenting interventions. Additional primary studies examining executive functioning and pre-academics are needed to examine moderators of intervention.

Authors

• Heather P Prime, York University
  Presenting Author

• Krysta Andrews, McMaster University

• Alexandra Markwell, York University

• Andrea Gonzalez, McMaster University

• Magdalena Z Janus, McMaster University

• Andrea C Tricco, Unity Health Toronto

• Terry Bennett, McMaster University

• Leslie Atkinson, Ryerson University