Parenting, childcare, and children’s pre-kindergarten skills: exploring moderation by race and ethnicity

ABSTRACT

This study evaluated whether parenting and childcare experience across infancy and toddlerhood were associated with children’s reading, math, and social–behavioural skills prior to kindergarten entry. Analyses also examined whether race or ethnicity moderated associations. A representative sample of Hispanic, Black, and White children from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study – Birth Cohort (N = 4550) was used. Parents’ responsiveness in infancy and supportiveness in toddlerhood, as well as the home learning environment in toddlerhood, related to academic and social–emotional and behavioural readiness. Associations between certain parenting behaviours and child outcomes varied as a function of race. Additionally, compared to parent-only childcare, attendance in centre-based care at two years of age related to higher early math skills. Findings highlight the need for culturally specific early intervention to support parents in shaping early social–emotional skills in children, and suggest that exposure to centre-based childcare in the toddler years may benefit math readiness.

KEYWORDS:

• Childcare
• School readiness
• Parenting
• Race
• ECLS-B

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Kristin M. Rispoli, Ph.D. is an Assistant Professor of School Psychology in the Department of Counseling, Educational Psychology and Special Education at Michigan State University. She is a licensed psychologist and a nationally certified school psychologist. Dr. Rispoli’s research interests are focused on the engagement of families in children’s educational experiences and parenting approaches that support school readiness. She also studies parent-focused intervention to address social-emotional skill development in young children with or at risk for developmental disabilities.

Natalie A. Koziol, Ph.D. is a Postdoctoral Research Associate for the Nebraska Academy for Methodology, Analytics and Psychometrics, housed within the Nebraska Center for Research on Children, Youth, Families and Schools at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. She is a quantitative methodologist by training, where her research focuses on the application, evaluation, and improvement of statistical methods in the social sciences.

Kara E. McGoey, Ph.D. is a Professor of School Psychology at Duquesne University where she teaches courses on behavioral assessment and intervention, child and adolescent development, and early childhood assessment and intervention. Her research interests include translating scientifically sound interventions into the school setting to improve the social emotional functioning of children, reducing the barriers to intervention fidelity, and preschool mental health. Dr. McGoey is the author of over 35 published journal articles and book chapters and over 75 scholarly presentations given at international, national, regional, and local conferences.

James B. Schreiber, Ph.D. is a Professor of Epidemiology/Statistics in the School of Nursing at Duquesne University. He has published over 60 articles, chapters, and reviews along with over 120 national and international presentations. He is the former Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Educational Research, The Journal of Experimental Education, and Genetic, Social, and General Psychology Monographs, and currently sits on 12 editorial boards. Dr. Schreiber has been awarded six teaching awards at both the high school and university levels and was nominated for the Council for Advancement and Support of Education Professor of the Year.

Notes

1 Item-level data were not available for the reading and math skills outcomes, so we did not perform invariance tests for these constructs.