Low-Income Children's School Readiness: Parent Contributions Over the First Five Years

Abstract

Early development is likely influenced by quality of early parenting and improvements or declines in quality over time. Little is known about how changes in different dimensions of parenting influence child outcomes, nor the relative sizes of associations when considering several aspects simultaneously. These questions are addressed in the Early Head Start Research and Evaluation Project (N = 1273). Assessments occurred when children were 1, 2, 3, and 5 years old. Parent supportiveness (videotaped play interactions), home learning environment (observed), and depressive symptoms and parenting stress (self-report) were assessed. Children's school readiness at age 5 was assessed via receptive vocabulary, letter–word knowledge, observed emotion regulation, approaches toward learning, and behavior problems. In this low-income sample, early parenting as well as change over time predicted school readiness. Associations mostly followed predictions from the family stress model and cognitive stimulation models; learning environment and maternal supportiveness were most strongly associated with child vocabulary and letter–word knowledge, although supportiveness was also linked with observed emotion regulation, and learning environment early on was also linked with emotion regulation, and early learning environment was also linked with emotion regulation, and early learning environment was also linked with behavior problems and approaches toward learning. Depressive symptoms and parenting stress were more strongly associated with behavior problems, although early parenting stress was also associated with approaches toward learning and emotion regulation.

Notes

¹Compared to the sample at baseline, members of the analytic sample were more likely to be White (χ² = 16.13, p < .001), more likely to be teen moms (χ² = 4.44, p < .05), more likely to be in school or working at enrollment (χ² = 19.27, p < .001), and less likely to have been pregnant at enrollment (χ² = 8.23, p < .01). We conducted regressions in MPlus using maximum likelihood to see whether using the reduced sample influenced findings. Findings were extremely similar. Using the full sample, the slope of depressive symptoms was no longer a significant predictor of emotion regulation. We conclude that the regressions presented in this article were minimally influenced by sample attrition.

^aA different measure of depression was used at 2 years.

^bParenting stress was not assessed at age 5.

***p < .001.

^aSignificant control variables included parent in work/school (β = –0.09**), Black compared to White (β = –0.14**), male child (β = 0.15***), low birth weight (β = 0.06*), and firstborn (β = 0.06^†).

^bSignificant control variables in the final model included male child (β = –0.12***), mother pregnant at enrollment (β = –0.07*), and program status (β = –0.08**).

^cSignificant demographic control variables in the final model included male child (β = –0.19***).

^dSignificant demographic control variables in the final model included parent in work/school (β = 0.07*), education attainment (β = 0.08*), Black compared to White (β = –0.14**), Hispanic compared to White (β = 0.08^†), and low birth weight (β = –0.05*).

^eSignificant demographic control variables in the final model included live with partner (β = 0.06^†), parent in work/school (β = 0.08*), education attainment (β = 0.07*), Hispanic compared to White (β = –0.10*), male child (β = –0.12***), low birth weight (β = –0.05^†), firstborn (β = 0.09**), and child age at pre-kindergarten (β = –0.19***).

^† p < .10.

*p < .05.

**p < .01.

***p < .001.