Empowering the Parent–Child Relationship in Homeless and Other High-risk Parents and Families

High quality parent–child relations are essential to healthy development and learning in children. Homeless families experience many barriers to realizing the needed bonding and nurturance for having healthy relationships. This article explores the obstacles to the development of nurturing parent–child relations and offers strategies for addressing these issues.     

Parent Involvement as a Predictor of Teacher–Child Relationship Quality in Third Grade

Research Findings: Research on teacher–child relationships is important, as the quality of this relationship is linked to numerous child outcomes in the areas of academic and social functioning. In addition, parent involvement has been identified as a significant factor in the successful development of a child. This study attempted to join these two lines of research by assessing the extent to which teacher–child relationship quality varies as a function of parent involvement. We used a sample of 894 third-grade children, mothers, and teachers from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) Study of Early Child Care. Regression analyses were conducted to examine the relation between teacher–child relationships and parent involvement while controlling for known determinants of teacher–child relationship quality (i.e., gender and income). All variables were significantly related to teacher–child relationship quality. Parent involvement was negatively related to conflict. Furthermore, more parent involvement predicted less teacher–child conflict, but only for children from low-income families. Practice or Policy: The results are discussed in terms of the importance of parent involvement to children's school adjustment, with specific importance for parents of low-income children.     

The Parent–Caregiver Relationship Scale: Rounding Out the Relationship System in Infant Child Care

The Parent–Caregiver Relationship Scale (PCRS) was developed and field tested as a measure of the perceived quality of the relationship between the parent and the child care provider ("caregiver") of an infant or toddler. PCRS items were based on review of the parent–caregiver relations literature and interviews with parents and caregivers. The parent and caregiver forms of the scale were administered to 217 parents and caregivers in child care centers and family child care homes. Analysis of the scale and its psychometric properties resulted in potentially useful subscales with adequate reliability. The PCRS showed predicted correlations with other child care context variables, providing preliminary support for its validity. The PCRS shows promise as a relationship-level measure for studies of infants, parents, and caregivers in the context of full-time child care.     

Father Involvement and Father–Child Relationship Quality: An Intergenerational Perspective

Objective. The present study looks at predictors that may be associated with father–child relationship quality and whether relationship quality appears to be transmitted across generations. Design. This study includes 2,970 U.S. families who participated in the Fragile Families and Child Well-Being Study. Structural equation modeling was used to assess associations between fathers’ relationship with paternal grandfathers (PGF) during their own childhood and when their own children are 1 year old, father involvement at age 1, and child reports of father-child relationship quality at age 9. Results. Paternal grandfathers involvement with fathers during childhood was positively associated with the father-paternal grandfathers relationship at child age 1, which in turn was associated with greater father involvement at age 1. More father involvement at age 1 was associated with child reports of better father-child relationships at age 9. The pathways from paternal grandfathers involvement during fathers’ childhood and father–paternal grandfathers relationships at age 1 to father–child relationship quality at age 9 were fully mediated by father involvement at age 1. Conclusions. Patterns of father involvement and the quality of father–child relationships tend to be passed down across generations. To ensure an active, positive father involvement and its associated benefits for children, parenting interventions should focus promoting positive fathering behaviors to promote positive relationships with children in their own and future generations.     

Embedding Mathematical Dialogue in Parent–Child Shared Book Reading: A Preliminary Investigation

Research Findings: Shared book reading provides a meaningful context for rich conversations to occur between a child and an adult and offers opportunities for children to be exposed to a range of vocabulary and concepts that often extend beyond their everyday experiences. Few studies have examined parent–child shared book reading as a context for embedding mathematical discussion. The purpose of this study was to examine systematically the effect of training parents to focus on mathematical concepts and vocabulary during shared book reading. Specific research questions were as follows: (a) Did parents increase their use of math talk during shared storybook reading following training? (b) Did parents generalize intervention strategies? And (c) did children increase their use of math talk during shared storybook reading? Results from a yoked multiple-baseline design with 6 dyads indicated variability across the dyads with 2 general patterns. Math talk increased following training for 3 of the dyads, whereas verbal mathematical behavior did not show consistent change for the other 3 dyads. Practice or Policy: Results are discussed in the context of home support for early mathematical development.     

Parent–Child Book-Reading Styles,Emotional Quality,and Changes in Early Head Start Children’s Cognitive Scores

Research Findings: The objective of this study was to understand how instructional book-reading style and emotional quality of reading interact and relate to cognitive skills in a sample of at-risk infants and toddlers. Participants were 81 parents and their children participating in Early Head Start programs in the rural Midwest. Correlation and multiple regression analyses were used to test the hypothesis that parental book-reading instructional style and emotional quality interact and relate to changes in children’s cognitive scores for culturally and linguistically diverse families. Results included that there were variations in how book-reading qualities interacted and related to changes in child cognitive scores for families whose primary home languages were either English or Spanish. Practice or Policy: The results of this study are discussed in conjunction with findings from a previous study published in this journal that examined concurrent relationships in the same sample of Early Head Start families. Combined, findings of these studies underscore a need to further explore potentially complex patterns of relationships among parental literacy behaviors and child knowledge, concurrently and across time, for culturally and linguistically diverse families. Better understanding these patterns could inform the development and implementation of culturally sensitive intervention approaches designed to support high-quality parent–child book reading.     

Parents’ Metacognitive Knowledge: Influences on Parent–Child Interactions in a Science Museum Setting

Despite science learning in settings such as science museums being recognized as important and given increasing attention in science education circles, the investigation of parents’ and their children’s metacognition in such settings is still in its infancy. This is despite an individual’s metacognition being acknowledged as an important influence on their learning within and across contexts. This research investigated parents’ metacognitive procedural and conditional knowledge, a key element of their metacognition, related to (a) what they knew about how they and their children thought and learned, and (b) whether this metacognitive knowledge influenced their interactions with their children during their interaction with a moderately complex simulation in a science museum. Parents reported metacognitive procedural and conditional knowledge regarding their own and their children’s thinking and learning processes. Further, parents were aware that this metacognitive knowledge influenced their interactions with their children, seeing this as appropriate pedagogical action for them within the context of the particular exhibit and its task requirements at the science museum, and for the child involved. These findings have implications for exhibit and activity development within science museum settings.     

The Role of Parent,Provider, and Child Characteristics in Parent–Provider Relationships in Infant and Toddler Classrooms

Research Findings: This study examined how characteristics of parents, providers, and children contribute to the quality of parent–provider relationships in infant and toddler classrooms. Parents (n = 192) and providers (n = 95) from 14 child care centers in a large metropolitan area participated by completing questionnaires about the nature of their relationships and communication, as well as other aspects of the child care experience. Although the study did not examine causal relations between variables, characteristics of parent–provider relationships were correlated with parents’ anxiety about placing their children in care, with providers’ knowledge of child development, and with whether parents and providers had worked together in the past. Parents’ views of their relationships with providers were more positive when they had worked with them before and when they were less anxious about placing their children in care. Providers who had worked with parents before had less favorable views of their relationships when parents were more anxious about placing their children in care; however, this was not the case when providers and parents were in more recent relationships. Providers who had never worked with parents before viewed relationships more positively when they had more knowledge of child development. The opposite was true for providers who had worked with parents before. Providers with more knowledge of child development reported communicating more frequently with parents. Providers reported communicating more frequently with parents of children with easier temperaments. Practice or Policy: Implications for transition practices in early care and education settings, in-service training, and teacher education programs are discussed.     

To Involve Parents in the Assessment of the Child in Parent–Teacher Conferences: A Case Study

This article explores the face-to-face interactions between parents and teachers in parent–teacher conferences in the Swedish preschool. The article highlights how the preschool teacher introduces the conference by using a specific artifact, so-called “strength cards” with words relating to characteristic behaviour and qualities. The theoretical framework is adopted from research of institutional talk and discourse analysis. The empirical material consists of two cases included in a larger study of parent–teacher conferences. The analysis reveals that the talk not only focuses on the assessment of the individual child but also is directed at the cards, the procedure, and the importance of parents being active and involved in learning the procedure. In addition, the cards are used by the teacher as a tool that governs parents towards becoming ‘good enough preschool parents’ who are cooperative and able to categorise and label their own children, that is, follow the institutional discourse. The analysis also shows that parents take control in order to overcome institutional barriers to parents’ involvement.     

Adult–Child Relationship Processes and Early Schooling

This paper highlights the importance of social processes in early school outcomes. Child-adult relationships are a social context with particular salience for the development of a number of social and academic outcomes in early childhood. Research on both child–parent and child–teacher relationships is reviewed. Measurement technologies are described and conceptual perspectives based on dyadic systems models are advanced as heuristics for future research. Practice implications are drawn with respect to assessment of relationships and implications for conceptualization of early childhood outcomes.     

The Role of Child Interests and Collaborative Parent–Child Interactions in Fostering Numeracy and Literacy Development in Canadian Homes

Children’s involvement in home literacy and numeracy activities has been linked to school achievement, but the subtleties in the home environment responsible for these gains have yet to be thoroughly investigated. The purpose of this study was to determine how children’s interests and collaborative parent–child interactions affect exposure to home literacy and numeracy activities. Parents of 170 four-to-five year old children completed a survey about their child’s home learning environment. They rated their children’s interests in 14 activities, and the extent of parent–child collaboration on a cooking and card-making task. Follow up interviews were also initiated with four mothers to provide validation of the survey data in numeracy. Factor analyses reduced the number of survey items. Parents whose children preferred exploratory, active or crafts activities reported frequent engagement in literacy and numeracy activities. Parents seeking a collaborative approach during activities reported increased exposure to home literacy and numeracy activities than families with less collaborative involvement. Interview data confirmed that parents of children with high numeracy scores were exposing their children to rich numeracy activities during play. The findings suggest that children’s interests and collaborative parent–child involvement impact literacy and numeracy exposure in the home.     

Explain This,Explore That: A Study of Parent–Child Interaction in a Children's Museum

Parents visiting a gear exhibit at a children's museum were instructed to encourage their children (N = 65; ages 4–6) to explain, explore, or engage as usual. Instructions led to different patterns of play at the exhibit: Encouragement to explain led to greater discussion of gear mechanisms, whereas encouragement to explore led to more time connecting gears. In the explain condition, parents’ questions predicted their children's discussion and further testing of gears. Questions also predicted the amount of time children spent on a follow-up task. Parents’ exploration predicted an increase in exploration by their children. These data indicate that minimal interventions impact parent–child interaction at a museum exhibit and that prompts to explore or explain uniquely influence parent and child behavior.     

Whitewashing Nature: Sanitized Depictions of Biology in Children’s Books and Parent–Child Conversation

The biological world includes many negatively valenced activities, like predation, parasitism, and disease. Do children’s books cover these activities? And how do parents discuss them with their children? In a content analysis of children’s nature books (Study 1), we found that negatively valenced concepts were rarely depicted across genres and reading levels. When parents encountered negative information in books (Studies 2–3), they did not omit it but rather elaborated on it, adding their own comments and questions, and their children (ages 3–11) were more likely to remember the negative information but less likely to generalize that information beyond the animal in the book. These findings suggest that early input relevant to biological competition may hamper children’s developing understanding of ecology and evolution.     

The Instructional and Emotional Quality of Parent–Child Book Reading and Early Head Start Children's Learning Outcomes

Research Findings: The objective of this study was to understand how two dimensions of parent–child book-reading quality—instructional and emotional—interact and relate to learning in a sample of low-income infants and toddlers. Participants included 81 parents and their children from Early Head Start programs in the rural Midwest. Correlation and multiple regression analyses were used to test the hypothesis that parental book-reading qualities interact and relate to children's concurrent cognitive and language scores. Exploratory analyses examined if patterns of relationships varied for families who had different home languages (i.e., English, Spanish). Results included that book-reading qualities and home language interacted to predict child scores. Practice or Policy: Findings suggest a need to further explore potentially complex patterns of relationships among parental book-reading behaviors and child learning for diverse families. Understanding these patterns could inform the development of culturally-sensitive intervention approaches designed to support high-quality shared book reading.     

Links Among Italian Preschoolers’ Socioemotional Competence,Teacher–Child Relationship Quality,and Peer Acceptance

Research Findings: The purpose of the present study was to examine the relations among teacher–child relationship quality (close, conflictive, and dependent), children's social behavior, and peer likability in a sample of Italian preschool-age children (46 boys, 42 girls). Preschool teachers evaluated the quality of the teacher–child relationship and children's social behaviors (i.e., social competence, anger-aggression, and anxiety-withdrawal). Peer-rated likability was measured using a sociometric procedure. Results indicated that conflictual teacher–child relationships were related to high aggressive behavior, and dependent teacher–child relationships were positively associated with children's anxiety-withdrawal. Moreover, we found an indirect association between close teacher–child relationship quality and peer likability through children's social competence. Practice or Policy: The findings provide evidence that the teacher–child relationship is critical for children's social behaviors and that social competence is uniquely related to peer likability.     

Do Stability of Care and Teacher–Child Interaction Quality Predict Child Outcomes in Early Head Start?

Research Findings: This study examined whether children’s outcomes at age 3 were predicted by their experiences in Early Head Start (EHS), focusing on 2 key features of infant and toddler care: (a) stability of care and (b) teacher–child interactions. This study further explored potential interaction effects between stability of care and teacher–child interactions in predicting child outcomes. Three main results were found from secondary analyses of the recently released EHS longitudinal data set the EHS Family and Child Experiences Study (Vogel & Boller, 2009–2012). First, children who had stability of care (no teacher change) were rated as having fewer behavior problems and higher social competence. Second, children were rated as demonstrating better orientation/engagement and emotional regulation when they were in EHS classrooms observed to have higher emotional and behavioral support. Third, teacher–child interactions that are emotionally and behaviorally supportive may mitigate the potential drawbacks of experiencing instability of care on early social-emotional development. Study implications are discussed. Practice or Policy: Both stability and quality teacher–child interactions are important in center-based infant and toddler care, and ensuring quality teacher–child interactions is particularly important for children who experience teacher changes during their infant and toddler years.     

School–Parent Partnerships in Singapore

In an era of rapid global economic and social change, educational institutions like schools and universities are struggling to keep their curricula and programs relevant. Singapore’s schools are no exception, especially when education is viewed as the essential element for maintaining the nation’s global competitiveness in ways that are totally disproportionate to its size. The current shift from an ‘efficiency-’ to an ‘ability-’ driven paradigm in education, however, is increasing uncertainty and raising the stakes in an already pressurized system where schools, educators and students constantly compete for top academic awards and rewards. The concept of “partnership” in Singapore education is a significant, relatively new, trend that has caught on among local schools only since the late-1990s, with the focus on creating better “total” learning environments for students. This paper analyses the challenges of matching rhetoric with professional practice with regard to school–home partnerships in Singapore, and concludes that the key to authentic collaboration lies in the mutual appreciation and valuing of diversity as well as a deep sense of shared responsibility by all parties concerned.     

Quality Child Care: At Whose Expense?

Quality child care is related to the number of adequately prepared practitioners who are available to children on a long-term basis. Unfortunately, child care practitioners subsidize the true cost of quality child care by working for substandard wages, few benefits, and little recognition of their true worth. The need for adequate compensation for qualified caregivers is the most critical issue facing the profession, because adequate compensation enables trained and educated caregivers to remain in the field, invest in professional development, and it also attracts new students into the field. The true cost of quality should be shared by all members of society, for everyone benefits from investing in the citizens of the future.     

Explicit and Implicit Dimensions of Adult–Child Interactions in a Quality Childcare Center

The case study presented in this article is designed to provide an in-depth understanding of how a highly trained and experienced early childhood educator thinks about her interactions with children within the context of a setting identified as providing quality childcare for 3-, 4-, and 5-year-olds. Qualitative research methods are used, including interviews, participant observation, videotaping, and the teacher's reflections on interactions with children. Verbal and nonverbal patterns emerging from videotaped observations demonstrate how the teacher integrates information about specific children into these interactions. Although children's conceptions of time and space are consistently embedded in her thinking and reflected in her behavior, she never explicitly acknowledges these dimensions. The paper concludes with a discussion of the implications of the discrepancy between the teacher's implicit and explicit understanding of her interactions with children to childcare and the preparation and development of early childhood practitioners.