Poster #136 - Emerging Verbal Ability in a Low-Income Sample: Examining Maternal Cognitive Stimulation and Cool Self-Regulation

• In Event: 2-110 - Poster Session 07
  In Poster Session: PS 07 Section - Parenting & Parent-Child Relationships

Integrative Statement

Children from low-income households score lower on measures of verbal ability than their more affluent counterparts (Berger, Paxson, & Waldfogel, 2010), which may lead to impaired academic achievement and increased behavioral problems (Petersen et al, 2013). However, consistent parenting behaviors and exposure to stimulating environments partially explain the income gap in verbal ability (Kohen & Guevremont, 2014). Maternal cognitive stimulation (MCS), meaning how mothers foster child cognitive and mental development, and child self-regulation have both been linked to emerging verbal ability (Tucker-Drob & Harden, 2011; Blair & Razza, 2007). While aspects of parenting, including positive control, negative control, and responsiveness, predict early self-regulation (Karreman, van Tuijl, van Aken, & Dkeovic, 2006), the relation between MCS and child self-regulation has not yet been examined. Moreover, cool self-regulation (CSR), a component of self-regulation referring to cognitive and goal-directed processes associated with academic achievement (Willoughby, Kupersmidt, Voegler-Lee, & Bryant, 2011), has not specifically been examined in relation to verbal ability. However, as executive function, an overlapping construct sometimes used interchangeably with CSR, is indeed related to verbal ability (Carlson, Davis, & Leach, 2005), it reasonably follows that CSR may impact verbal development. Consequently, we hypothesized that CSR will mediate the association between MCS and child verbal ability.
Participants were 87 biological mother-child dyads, oversampled for trauma exposure as part of the larger study. Children were aged 3-5 (M=4.40 years) and 47.5% female. All families were low-income (≤100-130% of federal poverty guidelines), and mothers predominately self-identified as Black/African American (89.7%). The Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test (PPVT-4) assessed child verbal ability, and the Preschool Self-Regulation Assessment (PSRA) assessed child cool self-regulation. Maternal cognitive stimulation was observationally coded during a dyadic free-play task using the Parent-Child Interaction Rating Scales (PCIRS). Mothers also reported on their child’s violence exposure using a modified version of the Exposure to Violence Inventory (EVI), which was included as a covariate because violence exposure is associated with impaired cool self-regulation in children.
We examined cool self-regulation as a mediator of the relation between maternal cognitive stimulation and child verbal ability using Hayes’ PROCESS macro. After controlling for maternal and child age, child sex, and child violence exposure, both MCS and CSR were directly related to verbal ability (b=2.80, p=.012; b=2.79, p=.002, respectively). However, contrary to our hypotheses, MCS was not directly related to CSR (b=0.04, p=.802); further, CSR did not mediate the relation between MCS and verbal ability, b =0.10, SE=0.39, 95% CI [-0.64, 0.91]. The full model, including covariates, MCS, and CSR, explained 20.2% of the variance in child verbal ability.
These findings indicate that both maternal cognitive stimulation and child cool self-regulation directly impact verbal ability among preschoolers from low-income families. However, CSR does not mediate the association between MCS and child verbal ability. Tasks used to measure CSR vary across study designs, which may explain why we did not find the expected mediation. Even so, identifying factors that influence emerging verbal ability in early childhood is essential to improving later academic and behavioral outcomes among children from low-income families.

Authors

• Hannah Grace Swerbenski, Tulane University
  Presenting Author

• Erin Glackin, Tulane University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Justin T Carreras, Tulane University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Elsia Obus, Tulane University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Sarah A Gray, Tulane University
  Non-Presenting Author