Caregivers' Executive Function and Negative Childrearing Practices: The Moderating Role of Authoritarian Childrearing Beliefs.

In accord with social information processing theory, executive function and childrearing beliefs may play significant roles in preventing negative childrearing practices. Still, the interplay of these two components is not well understood. The current study tested the moderating role of authoritarian childrearing beliefs in the relation between caregiver executive function and negative childrearing practices. The sample included 50 predominantly low-income caregivers of children between 3 and 5 years of age. The results indicated that executive function was significantly and inversely related to inconsistent and hostile childrearing practices only among caregivers who reported high levels of authoritarian childrearing beliefs. Executive function and childrearing practices were unrelated among caregivers who reported low levels of authoritarian childrearing beliefs. The findings suggest that intervention programs for caregivers may need to target childrearing beliefs.

African American mothers talk to their preadolescents about honesty and lying.

Objectives: While existing work points to the ways parenting behaviors and specific value socialization approaches influence children's internalization of moral values (Baumrind, Child Development 43, 261-267, 1972; Hoffman, Empathy and moral development: Implications for caring and justice, 2001; Grusec & Davidov, Child Development, 81, 687-709, 2010), little work has considered the experiences of African American and lower-income families. The current study capitalized on the availability of 53 video-recorded mother-preadolescent conversations about their disagreements from the Early Head Start Research and Evaluation Project (Vogel et al., Early head start children in grade 5: Long-term follow-up of the early head start research and evaluation study sample. OPRE Report # 2011-8, 2010). Methods: Using inductive analysis, we assessed mothers' affective tone, communication styles, and message content during the discussion of problems involving honesty and lying. Results: Mothers tended to display warm yet firm affect, incorporate both autonomy-supportive and dominant-directive communication styles, assert that lying is never acceptable, and explain why lying is problematic. Conclusions: Mothers' affect, communication styles, and message content reflected a no-nonsense approach to transmitting values about honesty to their children. To our knowledge, the current study is the first qualitative observational investigation of low-income African American mothers' conversations regarding honesty with their children. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

Conversations between African American mothers and children about school and education.

OBJECTIVES: This study investigated what low-income, African American mothers say to their children about the value of education and how children respond to these messages. METHOD: Qualitative methods were used to analyze 43 videotaped mother-child conversations about disagreements regarding school and education. The conversations had been videotaped for the Early Head Start Research and Evaluation Project when children were in fifth grade. RESULTS: The majority of discussions about school and education were initiated by mothers, not children. Mothers' reasons concerning the importance of education mostly reflected utility values. No mother criticized teachers or accepted children's attempts to blame external factors for poor performance. Children were open with their mothers and seemed to accept their standards. CONCLUSIONS: The findings underscore the sincerity of most mothers' communications to children about the importance of education and their children's receptivity to these messages. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

Economic hardship during infancy and U.S. Latino preschoolers' sociobehavioral health and academic readiness.

We tested a culturally integrative model examining the associations among economic hardship during infancy and Latino children's later sociobehavioral problems and academic skills prior to kindergarten entry, whether mothers' mental health problems and positive parenting behaviors mediated those associations, and whether they varied by mothers' acculturation levels. Participants were 714 low-income Latino mothers (M age at enrollment = 24 years; 82% Mexican American; 59% foreign-born) and children (M age at enrollment = 4 months; 53% boys) in the Early Head Start Research and Evaluation Project (EHSREP). Data were gathered across five time points: when the families enrolled in the EHSREP, when the children were 14, 24, and 36 months of age, and just prior to their kindergarten entry. The results revealed an inverse relation between economic hardship during infancy and academic skills prior to kindergarten entry, with the association mediated through maternal mental health problems and positive parenting behaviors. The association between economic hardship and children's sociobehavioral problems via maternal mental health problems and positive parenting behaviors, however, was not statistically significant. Instead, the positive relation between mothers' mental health problems and children's sociobehavioral problems was mediated by maternal positive parenting behaviors. The findings highlight key family processes by which economic hardship in infancy may be associated with Latino preschoolers' academic skills prior to entering school. (PsycINFO Database Record

Negative emotionality and discipline as long-term predictors of behavioral outcomes in African American and European American children.

The present study examined the early parenting and temperament determinants of children's antisocial and positive behaviors in a low-income, diverse ethno-racial sample. Participants were from the Early Head Start Research and Evaluation Project, which included 960 European American (initial M age = 15.00 months; 51.2% female) and 880 African American mothers and their children (initial M age = 15.10 months; 49.2% female) followed from 15 months of age to 5th grade. For European American children, findings showed direct and indirect effects (via self-regulation) of early negative emotionality on later behaviors. For African American children, discipline practices in infancy had direct long-term implications for behaviors in 5th grade. Discussion highlights the interplay of parenting, temperament, and culture from infancy to late childhood. (PsycINFO Database Record

The interplay of maternal sensitivity and toddler engagement of mother in predicting self-regulation.

Using data from the Early Head Start Research and Evaluation Project, a cross-lag mediation model was tested to examine longitudinal relations among low-income mothers' sensitivity; toddlers' engagement of their mothers; and toddler's self-regulation at ages 1, 2, and 3 years (N = 2,958). Age 1 maternal sensitivity predicted self-regulation at ages 2 and 3 years, and age 2 engagement of mother mediated the relation between age 1 maternal sensitivity and age 3 self-regulation. Lagged relations from toddler self-regulation at ages 1 and 2 years to later maternal sensitivity were not significant, suggesting stronger influence from mother to toddler than vice versa. Model fit was similar regardless of child gender and depth of family poverty. (PsycINFO Database Record

Mothers' physical interventions in toddler play in a low-income, African American sample.

This mixed method study examined 28 low-income African American mothers' physical interventions in their 14-month-old toddlers' play. Inductive methods were used to identify six physical intervention behaviors, the affect accompanying physical interventions, and apparent reasons for intervening. Nonparametric statistical analyses determined that toddlers experienced physical intervention largely in the context of positive maternal affect. Mothers of boys expressed highly positive affect while physically intervening more than mothers of girls. Most physically intervening acts seemed to be motivated by maternal intent to show or tell children how to play or to correct play deemed incorrect. Neutral affect was the most common toddler affect type following physical intervention, but boys were more likely than girls to be upset immediately after physical interventions. Physical interventions intended to protect health and safety seemed the least likely to elicit toddler upset.

Mothers' online message board questions about parenting infants and toddlers.

AIM: To report a study conducted to explore childrearing concerns through an analysis of online parenting message boards managed by popular parenting magazines. Background. Increasingly, mothers appear to be turning to the Web for childrearing advice and support. However, no previous studies have examined the childrearing concerns of mothers of infants and toddlers through the analysis of online message board postings. DESIGN: Ethnographic content analysis methods were used to analyse the online postings. METHODS: A total of 120 messages posted in 2007 by mothers of 0-2 year olds on the websites of two best-selling parenting magazines in the United States were submitted to ethnographic content analysis. Each message pertained to one or more of six childrearing domains: Feeding/Eating, Sleep, Development, Discipline, Toilet-Training and Mother-Child Relationships. RESULTS: Questions and pleas for support were most prominently centred on feeding/eating and sleep issues. Mothers expressed concerns about when and how their children should begin to sleep and eat independently. In addition to the themes specific to particular domains, across-domain themes were identified involving mothers' parenting stress, questioning of advice from families/paediatricians and worries that children were not developing normally. CONCLUSION: Online forums have become a space where mothers can openly describe their own negative emotions towards parenting and ask questions or gain reassurance to resolve mixed messages about how one should rear infants and toddlers. Paediatric nurses should be aware that mothers are confused about conflicting messages, especially in the domains of sleeping and eating. Reviewing parenting message boards occasionally would give nurses continuing insight into common parenting concerns.

Correlates and consequences of spanking and verbal punishment for low-income white, african american, and mexican american toddlers.

This study examined the prevalence, predictors, and outcomes of spanking and verbal punishment in 2,573 low-income White, African American, and Mexican American toddlers at ages 1, 2, and 3. Both spanking and verbal punishment varied by maternal race/ethnicity. Child fussiness at age 1 predicted spanking and verbal punishment at all 3 ages. Cross-lagged path analyses indicated that spanking (but not verbal punishment) at age 1 predicted child aggressive behavior problems at age 2 and lower Bayley mental development scores at age 3. Neither child aggressive behavior problems nor Bayley scores predicted later spanking or verbal punishment. In some instances, maternal race/ethnicity and/or emotional responsiveness moderated the effects of spanking and verbal punishment on child outcomes.

Parental control in Latino families: an integrated review of the literature.

Using social information processing and cultural change models as explanatory frameworks, this article reviews the literature on Latino parental control and its implications for child development. It is argued that the use of parental control in Latino families may have motivational roots in cultural childrearing goals such as familismo (familism), respeto (respect), and educación (moral education). Consideration of these underpinnings, in conjunction with psychological and methodological issues, helps to explain variability in the use of Latino parental control and its effect on child development. Recommendations for future research include refinement of control and acculturation instruments, and attention to both contextual and individual variables.

Maternal intrusiveness, maternal warmth, and mother-toddler relationship outcomes: variations across low-income ethnic and acculturation groups.

The present study investigated the extent to which maternal intrusiveness and warmth during play, observed in 579 European American, 412 African American, and 110 more and 131 less acculturated Mexican American low-income families when children were approximately 15 months old, predicted 3 dimensions of the mother-toddler relationship 10 months later. Intrusiveness predicted increases in later child negativity in all 4 groups. Among African Americans only, this association was moderated by maternal warmth. Intrusiveness predicted negative change in child engagement with mothers only in European American families. Finally, near-significant trends suggested that intrusiveness predicted later decreased dyadic mutuality in European American and more acculturated Mexican American families, but not in African American or less acculturated Mexican American families.