Poster #85 - Associations in maternal mental state language, working memory, and socioeconomic adversity in diverse Early Head Start sample

• In Event: Poster Session 09

Abstract

Background:
Parental mental state language (MSL: labeling internal states, linking behaviors with emotion, cognition, intentions) during parent-child interactions scaffolds toddlers' understanding of mental states in self and others and is linked to greater social-emotional competence in toddlers. Supportive caregiving, which encompasses MSL, may be negatively impacted by parents experiencing socioeconomic adversity via compromised executive function (EF). While evidence suggests that maternal mentalization supports EF development in children, little work has examined links between MSL and EF in mothers, specifically maternal working memory. Likewise, most research on MSL has been conducted with white, upper-class samples, and some evidence supports inverse associations between MSL and socioeconomic adversity. The relative effect of EF on variations in MSL is unknown and may be especially important for families facing socioeconomic (SES) adversity. We examined associations of family SES adversity and maternal working memory (WM) on variations in MSL in a diverse Early Head Start sample experiencing low income.

Methods
Participants were 66 low-income mothers (Mage = 30.99, SDage = 6.28 years) and their toddlers (Mage = 24.60, SDage = 9.60 months). Socioeconomic adversity was the sum score of teen pregnancy, welfare receipt, less than high school education, unemployment, and single parenting (M = 2.15, SD = .98). Research visits were completed in English (n= 33) or Spanish (n=33). To assess maternal WM, the Single Task Letter N-Back test was administered to the parents with four trial types: 0-, 1-, 2-, and 3-back. The N-Back score for the total percent of correct trials across all N trials (0-3 back) was used for all analyses. Mother-child dyads participated in videotaped book-share interactions at home. Maternal MSL was coded using transcriptions and calculated as the sum of total modulation, emotion, cognition, desire, physiological states, causal explanations (e.g., he is crying because he misses his dog), and links to a child’s life (e.g., you love your dog too).

Results
WM was positively correlated with MSL (r = .27, p <.05) and negatively correlated with SES adversity (r = -.35, p <.01). Independent samples t-test showed no significant differences between English and Spanish-speaking families for variables of interest (MSL, SES adversity, or WM). For English-speaking participants, there was a significant main effect of SES adversity on MSL (b = 5.12, p = .04) and an interaction effect between SES adversity and WM on MSL (b = -.06, p = .04). There were no significant main or interaction effects for Spanish-speaking participants.

Discussion
For English-speaking parents with low SES adversity, greater working memory was associated with higher MSL during parent-child book-share. But not between parents with high SES adversity (Figure 1). These associations were not significant for Spanish-speaking families (Figure 2). Other aspects of EF or stress may account for variation in MSL usage during relational teaching tasks in stressed, underserved populations. While tentative due to sample size, these findings align with other research highlighting the differential impact of risk factors on parenting and child outcomes in Spanish v. English-speaking families, offering unique and culturally specific angles for parenting support.

Authors

• Alexandria Stansell, University of Denver
  Presenting Author

• Andrew (Drew) B. McGee, University of Denver

• Neda Senehi, United States Office of Planning, Research & Evaluation (OPRE)

• April R Vollmer

• Liliana M Bolton

• Jazmín Gómez

• Sarah E Watamura, University of Denver