How can parental self-efficacy support children’s early language development? Review of preliminary research and future perspectives

ABSTRACT

Parental cognitions are considered to have a strong influence on parental behaviours that, in turn, shape children’s development. Among these parental cognitions, parental self-efficacy (PSE) represents the parents’ confidence about their ability to successfully raise their children. Although PSE can explain the quality of parent-child interactions and their impact on the children’s general development, the relations between PSE and children’s development of language has been rarely studied. In this paper, we review the studies that explore some facets of the relationships between parenting (parental cognition, PSE, and parental behaviours) and children’s early language development. Our main objective is to highlight the relevance of considering PSE in relation to children’s early language development. Consequently, we suggest several future research directions to explore the processes relating these two constructs and a model where the PSE is a transactional variable.

KEYWORDS:

• Parental self-efficacy
• children’s language development
• parental practice

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.