Poster #140 - Considering the Longitudinal Links Between Parenting Profiles and Children’s School Readiness among U.S. Latino/a Families

• In Event: 2-055 - Poster Session 06
  In Poster Session: PS 06 Section - Parenting & Parent-Child Relationships

Integrative Statement

Increasingly, scholars have suggested that the traditional parenting styles (e.g., authoritarian, authoritative) may not capture the full range of parenting styles and practices used by parents from ethnically diverse groups (Domenech Rodriguez et al., 2009; White et al., 2016). One means of addressing this diversity, is to use person-centered analytic techniques, which allow researchers to consider the simultaneous interplay of different parenting practices. For example, using person-centered approaches, researchers have found that some U.S. Mexican parents combine warmth with harshness (i.e., no-nonsense parenting; White et al., 2013). Therefore, rather than assume that the traditional parenting styles frameworks adequately capture the full range of parenting styles employed by Latina mothers, in the present study, we examined person-centered parenting style typologies with a sample of low-income Latino families.
There is prior conceptual and empirical work linking parenting styles and practices to children’s academic outcomes (Dumka et al., 2009). Specifically, there is evidence that high levels of responsiveness and demandingness typically positively predict high levels of academic achievement in children, while authoritarian parenting is associated with lower academic achievement (Steinberg et al., 1992). However, we know little about how Latina mothers’ unique parenting profiles may be longitudinally linked to children’s academic skills (see Carlo et al., in press, for an exception), or how these relations may function in a low-income sample.
Participants included 692 Latino mothers and children (46.1% female) enrolled in the Early Head Start Research and Evaluation Project and uses data from two measurement points: when children were 14 months and within a half-year prior to kindergarten entry. At the 14 month assessment, mothers’ supportiveness and intrusiveness was assessed via an observed task (Fuligni & Brooks-Gunn, 2013) and mothers reported on discipline techniques they would use in response to hypothetical scenarios. At the pre-kindergarten assessment, children’s academic skills were assessed using the Woodcock-Johnson Achievement III (or Spanish equivalent; Woodcock et al., 2001) and the PPVT-III.
Latent profile analysis was used to identify profiles of Latina mothers’ parenting practices based on maternal intrusiveness, supportiveness, and discipline severity when children were 14 months old. Based on fit indices, a three-profile solution was selected as the final model (see Figure 1). The majority of mothers (46.5%) were high in supportiveness and low in intrusiveness and severe discipline (high support). A substantial portion of mothers (30.4%), were classified as highly intrusive in addition to highly supportive (high intrusiveness/supportiveness). Finally, 23.1% of mothers were classified as highly supportive, in addition to using severe discipline strategies (severe discipline/high supportiveness).
We next examined associations between these profiles and children’s later academic skills (see Table 1). In pre-k, significant differences emerged between profiles, such that children with mothers who were highly intrusive (but also supportive) scored lower on academic skill assessments than children with mothers who were supportive and used severe discipline or supportive (and low in discipline severity and intrusiveness). Discussion will focus on the role early maternal parenting practices on Latino/a children’s later academic skills and will consider the role of gender in these associations.

Authors

• Cara Streit, University of New Mexico
  Presenting Author

• Alexandra N Davis, University of New Mexico
  Non-Presenting Author