Family SES and Pre-schoolers’ Achievement Gaps: the Role of Parental Attitudes, Parenting and Children’s Self-regulation

• In Event: Poster Session 10
  In Poster Session: PS 10 Topic - Family Context & Processes

Abstract

Family socioeconomic status (SES) is shown to be highly predictive of children’s achievement (Dearden, Sibieta, & Sylva, 2011; Duncan & Brooks-Gunn, 1999; Lopez Boo, 2016). Several mechanisms have been identified to explain the association. The family investment model (Guo & Harris, 2000; Yeung, Linver, & Brooks-Gunn, 2002) which evaluates the impact of parenting behavior, such as parental investment in a stimulating learning environment, is widely used. Some researchers focused on family stress and specific parenting practices, including parental warmth and harsh discipline (Conger et al., 1992; Linver, Brooks-Gunn, & Kohen, 2002; Yeung et al., 2002). Others have suggested parental beliefs and expectations as mediators between family SES and achievement (Davis-Kean, 2005; Halle, Kurtz-Costes, & Mahoney, 1997). Much of the literature on early childhood development regarded young children as passive recipients of environmental influences, few studies have incorporated children's agency into the analysis framework. Moreover, the association between parental beliefs, parenting behavior, and, subsequently, children’s agency, has not been well examined.

We examine the extent to which parents’ education and income contribute to the achievement gap in Singaporean preschool children through parenting beliefs and behaviors and children’s agency. Data were drawn from a sample of 2,168 children aged 4 to 6 years in a new national survey - Singapore Longitudinal Early Development Study (SG LEADS). The dependent variables include preschool children’s verbal and numeracy z-scores measured by Woodcock-Johnson IV Tests of Achievement IV. The main independent variable is family SES measured by parental education and family income. Three sets of mediators were constructed and evaluated: 1) parental attitudes and plans, which include parental instrumental value of children, educational expectation on children, rule settings on children’s activities and savings for children’s education. 2) family economic pressure and investment, including family economic hardship, physical environment of the home and cognitive stimulation (number of books, child’s access to a computer and frequency of library visits). 3) children’s self-regulation is measured by a delay of gratification choice paradigm adopted from Prencipe and Zelazo’s (2005).

Using the structural equation modeling, we find that parents with different SESs hold varying values and educational expectations on their children, and have different practices of socialization, plans, and investment behavior in children. Children in different families also vary in their self-regulation behavior. Furthermore, parental attitudes influence parenting behaviors, such as providing a stimulating home environment and their rule settings on children’s activities. Parental rule settings, in turn, are associated with children’s self-regulation. This study establishes an association between parental beliefs, parenting behaviors, and children’s agency and underscores the importance of the early home environment and the intergenerational roots of the achievement gaps. These results can inform policy interventions that aim to reduce the intergenerational transmission of disadvantages through narrowing the achievement gaps in early childhood. Interventions should involve both child-based and parent-based programs that improve parents’ human capital, relieve financial deprivation, promote parenting knowledge and behaviors, and enhance children’s self-regulation ability.

Authors

• Jean Yeung, National University of Singapore
  Non-Presenting Author

• Xuejiao Chen, National University of Singapore
  Presenting Author