Parenting Unpredictability, Child Cognitive Abilities, and Socioemotional Functioning

• In Event: Unpredictable Environmental Input and Socioemotional and Cognitive Development

Abstract

The dimensional model of adversity highlighted environmental unpredictability—stochastic variations in resources or mortality over time—being a salient factor that shapes development (Ellis, Figueredo, Brumbach, & Schlomer, 2009). Prior research adopted various operationalizations, among which Young et al (2020) highlighted statistical-learning unpredictability as a critical type that reflects the process in which the developing personal estimate the statistical structure of past experiences to predict the future. Research aligning with this conceptualization used statistical models to derive the random variability in the repeatedly measured family contexts with different time intervals (years vs. moment-to-moment, e.g., Li, Liu, Hartman, & Belsky, 2018). Dynamic system theory highlighted nested time scales (e.g., Garzon et al., 2008), and this study focused on the parenting-behavior unpredictability within the meso-time scale (i.e., fluctuations due to changes in the situation and context, Hollenstein, Lichtwarck-Ashchoff, & Potworowski, 2013). Statistical-learning unpredictability may operate through cognitive and learning mechanisms (Young et al., 2020). Within a three-wave study, we examined maternal and paternal parenting unpredictability across different contexts in association with changes in child adjustment via changes in cognitive development.
Participants are 235 families followed for three annual waves. In wave one (Child Mage=2.97), mothers and fathers each completed three interaction tasks with the child, including the forbidden toy (parents disciplining the child to not touch an attractive toy; Vaughn et al., 1984), the discipline discussion (parents retrospectively discussing the child’s misbehavior; Wieland et al., 2014), and the grocery-shopping (parents scaffolding child for shopping in a miniature store; Gauvain & Rogoff, 1989) tasks. We observed harsh-negative parenting in all tasks, reflecting parents’ critical, harsh, and disapproving behavior towards the child. Parenting unpredictability was operationalized as the coefficients of variation of harsh-negative behavior across contexts, calculated by dividing the cross-context intra-individual standard deviation (ISD) in harsh-negative behavior by the averaged level of harsh-negative behavior. Higher scores indicated greater parenting-unpredictability, accounting for the averaged levels of parenting. Children’s receptive vocabulary, visual-spatial ability, and visual working memory were assessed at waves 1 and 2 via the Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence-Third Edition (Wechsler, 2002). Externalizing problems were assessed via the experimenter-report of the MacArthur Health Behavior Questionnaire (HBQ, Albow et al., 1999) at waves one and three.
Maternal and paternal parenting-unpredictability was moderately correlated (r = 0.16, p =.01), and each correlated with higher averaged harsh-negative parenting (ps <.01). Controlling for relevant covariates (Table & Figure 1), greater maternal parenting unpredictability was associated with lower growth in child receptive vocabulary and visual-spatial abilities over the first two waves. Growths in child receptive vocabulary and visual-spatial ability were both linked to lower increases in child externalizing problems over time. Bootstrapped indirect effects achieved significance (receptive vocabulary: Estimate= 0.53, 95%CI: [0.09, 1.16]; visual-spatial ability: Estimate= 0.38, 95%CI: [0.01, 0.95]), such that greater maternal unpredictability was linked to lower growths in child receptive vocabulary and visual-spatial ability, which were then linked to higher increases in externalizing problems over three waves. In contrast, paternal parenting unpredictability was not significantly linked to child’s cognitive ability.

Authors

• Zhi Li, Peking University
  Presenting Author

• Melissa L Sturge-Apple, University of Rochester

• Patrick Davies, University of Rochester