Parenting Profiles of Young Low-income African American and Latina Mothers and Infant Socioemotional Development

SYNOPSIS

Objective. Parenting styles are complex and have been well studied in parents of children and adolescents; however, less is known about parenting styles in early infancy, especially among ethnic minority groups. This study examines empirically identifiable profiles of early parenting that are associated with later infant socioemotional development. Design. 239 young, low-income, African American (54.8%) and Latina (45.2%) mothers were videorecorded with their 3-month-old infants. At 13-months, mothers reported on their infants’ socioemotional development. Results. Person-oriented latent class analysis was used to identify four parenting styles: Sensitive/Stimulating (25%), Warm/Unstimulating (37%), Engaged/Tough (22%), and Disengaged (16%). The most common style among African American mothers was Engaged/Tough (34.4%), and the most prevalent style among Latina mothers was Warm/Unstimulating (48.2%). Infants of Warm/Unstimulating mothers had the lowest reported levels of problem behavior at 13 months, whereas infants of Sensitive/Stimulating mothers had the highest reported mastery motivation. Infants of Disengaged mothers had the highest reported levels of internalizing and total problem behavior and the lowest reported mastery motivation. Conclusions. Qualitatively distinct styles of early parenting link to different infant socioemotional outcomes in ways not fully captured by single dimensions of parenting. Practitioners working with young mothers from diverse ethnic backgrounds may be more effective at promoting positive parenting and infant development if they understand and can build on the strengths of certain parenting styles.

ADDRESSES AND AFFILIATIONS

Yudong Zhang, School of Social Service Administration, The University of Chicago, 969 E. 60th St. Chicago IL 60637. E-mail: [email protected]. Renee C. Edwards and Sydney L. Hans are also at University of Chicago.

ARTICLE INFORMATION

Conflict of Interest Disclosures: Each author signed a form for disclosure of potential conflicts of interest. No authors reported any financial or other conflicts of interest in relation to the work described.

Ethical Principles: The authors affirm having followed professional ethical guidelines in preparing this work. These guidelines include obtaining informed consent from human participants, maintaining ethical treatment and respect for the rights of human or animal participants, and ensuring the privacy of participants and their data, such as ensuring that individual participants cannot be identified in reported results or from publicly available original or archival data.

Funding: This work was supported by Grant [D89MC23146] from the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) to the State of Illinois Department of Human Services (IDHS).

Role of the Funders/Sponsors: None of the funders or sponsors of this research had any role in the design and conduct of the study; collection, management, analysis, and interpretation of data; preparation, review, or approval of the manuscript; or decision to submit the manuscript for publication.

Acknowledgments: The authors would like to thank their partners at the doula home visiting programs, the Ounce of Prevention Fund, the Illinois Governor’s Office of Early Childhood Development, the Illinois Department of Human Services, and the families who participated in the study. The authors would also like to thank the research team, including Linda Henson and Marianne Brennan, and the staff who conducted interviews, entered data and coded videos, including Tanya Auguste, Melissa Beckford, Ikesha Cain, Adriana Cintron, Daisy Day, Nicole Dosie-Brown, Karen Freel, Lexi Jennings, Morgan Johnson-Doyle, Katarina Klakus, Hallie Kirkley, Nora Medina, Jazmine Nash, Olivia Ndyabagye, Erika Oslakovic, Jillian Otto, Amy Pinkston, Cait Quinlivan, Luz Silva, Ardine Tennial, Yadira Vieyra, Claire Vincent, Lauren Wilder, and Esther Wong. The authors would also like to thank Dr. Stephanie Lanza, Pennsylvania State University, Dr. Robert Gibbons, University of Chicago, Xiang Jiang, Dalhousie University, and Dr. Yao Zheng, University of Alberta, and the Center for Health Administration Studies at the University of Chicago for their help with statistics and access to statistical programs.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Grant [D89MC23146] from the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) to the State of Illinois Department of Human Services (IDHS).

Notes on contributors

Yudong Zhang

Yudong Zhang is a doctoral candidate in the School of Social Service Administration at the University of Chicago. Her research interest focuses on developing and evaluating interventions for low-income families with young children and studying cultural differences of parenting.

Renee C. Edwards

Renee C. Edwards is a researcher at the School of Social Service Administration at the University of Chicago.  Her research interests center on early childhood development, the relationship between parenting values, goals and behaviors, and interventions designed to support parent-child relationships among marginalized families.

Sydney L. Hans

Sydney L. Hans is the Frank P. Hixon Distinguished Service Professor at the School of Social Service Administration at the University of Chicago.  Her research focuses on how family processes are related to infant socioemotional development and on developing interventions to support parents from marginalized populations during the transition to parenthood.