The Effects of Parenting Stress Between Poverty and Language Outcomes at One and Two Years

• In Event: Poster Session 06
  In Poster Session: PS 06 Topic - Family Context & Processes

Abstract

Background: Poverty and parenting stress are associated with well-established impairments on language development, which predicts academic success throughout school. The Family Stress Model has been proposed as a mechanism linking socioeconomic adversities to early language skills, with parenting stress moderating this relationship. However, most prior studies sample school-age children and are not enriched for low-income families, potentially underestimating the effects of poverty on emerging language skills in infancy. It remains unclear how poverty and parenting stress may affect child language learning in the earliest stages of development.

Sample: A cross-sectional cohort was recruited to form well-characterized groups of 1-year-olds (n=129) and 2-year-olds (n=139). Healthy term-born (>36 weeks gestation) 1-year-olds were recruited from the Early Life Adversity and Biological Embedding study, which oversampled urban St. Louis families in poverty through the March of Dimes 1000 Women Cohort. Two-year-olds were recruited from the Washington University Neonatal Developmental Research study. Groups were similar in social diversity, socioeconomic disadvantage, and delivery hospital.

Methods: At birth, maternal social risk sums (race, age, and education) were calculated as a proxy for family-level poverty, as systemic inequalities disproportionately impose financial hardships on African Americans, teenagers, and mothers who did not graduate high school. The Area Deprivation Index (ADI) quantified community-level poverty, which aggregates local family incomes, housing quality, and employment opportunities into national percentiles of neighborhood disadvantage (Neighborhood Atlas, 2018). Principal component analysis (PCA) computed composites of socioeconomic adversity. At subsequent 1- and 2-year assessments, mothers reported general parenting stress (Parenting Stress Index, 3rd Edition) and child receptive, expressive, and overall language abilities were assessed (Bayley Scales of Infant and Toddler Development, 3rd Edition). Stepwise linear regression models assessed the independent and interactive effects of poverty and parenting stress on children’s language outcomes at ages 1- and 2-years after adjustment for child sex, preterm birth, and infant temperament.

Results: Socioeconomic adversity at birth and parenting stress did not predict language outcomes at age 1. However, by age 2, higher socioeconomic adversity composites at birth (p=.005) predicted worse overall language ability. Receptive language skills were most impacted, as community-level poverty (p=.002), family-level poverty (p=.01), and parenting stress (p=.04) had significant main effects. Interaction terms with socioeconomic adversity composites (p=.02) and community-level poverty (p=.02) revealed significant moderating effects of parenting stress between socioeconomic adversity and receptive language skills at age 2. As shown in Figure 1, high parenting stress (≥ 85th percentile) predicted impaired receptive language irrespective of disadvantage. Low/normal parenting stress was not a significant buffer against the effects of poverty on language development.

Discussion: This study suggests that socioeconomic adversity at birth, particularly living in a disadvantaged neighborhood, is a significant risk factor for impaired language development by age 2. General parenting stress is also of concern, but only regarding receptive language. It may be too early to observe these effects at age 1, as language is less typically developed. By identifying disadvantaged mothers at birth, interventionalists will narrow persisting achievement gaps by helping socially disadvantaged infants master emerging language skills before the effects of poverty begin.

Authors

• Jake Bjork, Washington University in St. Louis
  Presenting Author

• Rachel E. Lean, Washington University School of Medicine
  Non-Presenting Author

• Cynthia E. Rogers, Washington University School of Medicine
  Non-Presenting Author

• Christopher D. Smyser, Washington University School of Medicine
  Non-Presenting Author

• Barbara Warner, Washington University in St. Louis
  Non-Presenting Author

• Joan L Luby, Washington University in St. Louis
  Non-Presenting Author

• Tara Smyser, Washington University in St. Louis
  Non-Presenting Author

• Deanna Barch, Washington University in St. Louis
  Non-Presenting Author