Children's Preliteracy Skills: Influence of Mothers' Education and Beliefs About Shared-Reading Interactions

Research Findings: This research investigated the associations among children's preliteracy skills, mothers' education, and mothers' beliefs about shared-reading interactions for 45 Appalachian families. These variables were studied for lower income, primarily European American, families residing in a geographically isolated, small, rural community in the Appalachian Mountains. Children's performance on standardized measures of preliteracy skills pertaining to print concepts and alphabet knowledge was substantially lower than normative references, but their performance on tasks assessing their understanding of environmental print was similar to normative references. The preliteracy skills of children with more educated mothers were significantly better than those of children with less educated mothers. More educated mothers had higher ratings on a measure of parental beliefs about shared reading than less educated mothers had; however, maternal reports of the frequency of home literacy practices were similar for both groups. Mediation analyses indicated that mothers' beliefs about shared-reading interactions served as a mediator for the association between maternal education and children's understanding of reading conventions. Practice or Policy: Future directions for research and implications for practice are discussed.     

Mothers' Acculturation and Beliefs About Emotions,Mother–Child Emotion Discourse,and Children's Emotion Understanding in Latino Families

Research Findings: We examined associations among Anglo acculturation, Latino enculturation, maternal beliefs, mother–child emotion talk, and emotion understanding in 40 Latino preschool-age children and their mothers. Mothers self-reported Anglo acculturation, Latino enculturation, and beliefs about the value/danger of children's emotions and parent/child roles in emotion socialization. Mother–child emotion talk was observed during a Lego storytelling task. Children's emotion understanding was measured using 2 age-appropriate tasks. Correlations showed that mothers' Latino enculturation was associated with mothers' stronger belief in guiding children's emotions and children's lower emotion understanding. Anglo acculturation was associated with mothers' lower belief that emotions can be dangerous and children's better emotion understanding. Mothers with a stronger belief in guiding children's emotions more frequently labeled emotions. Mothers with a stronger belief that emotions can be dangerous less frequently explained emotions. Regressions controlling for child age and maternal education demonstrated that mothers with a stronger belief that children can learn about emotions on their own and mothers with greater Latino enculturation had children with lower emotion understanding, whereas mothers with greater Anglo acculturation had children with better emotion understanding. Practice or Policy: Results suggest that understanding both family acculturation and family enculturation will be helpful for early childhood researchers and educators seeking to assess and promote children's socioemotional development.     

Maternal Literacy Beliefs and the Quality of Mother-Child Book-reading Interactions: Assoications with Children's Early Literacy Development

This study examined the relation among mothers' literacy-related beliefs, the home literacy environment, the quality of mother–child book-reading interactions, and children's development of early literacy skills. The participants of this study were 60 mothers and their 4-year-old children. After controlling for mothers' educational attainment, mothers' literacy beliefs were positively related to the quality of home literacy environments and the instructional and affective quality of joint book-reading interactions. The quality of children's home literacy environments and mother–child joint book-reading interactions was related to children's development of early literacy skills. Findings are discussed in relation to the importance of understanding the connection between parents' literacy beliefs and behaviors in designing effective literacy interventions and creating school and family literacy connections.     

Understanding Associations Between Low-Income Mothers' Participation in Education and Parenting

Maternal education is one of the strongest predictors of children's academic outcomes. One possible explanation for this is that more highly educated mothers more frequently engage in parenting practices that may promote children's later cognitive development; however, most of this evidence is correlational. This study uses Head Start Impact Study data (N = 1,953) to explore whether low-income mothers' participation in education affects their parenting practices and beliefs. Principal scores, which predict maternal educational participation based on covariates, were used for analysis. Principal score matching was used to identify mothers who we predicted participated in education because their children were randomly assigned to Head Start. We compared these mothers' outcomes to those of mothers we predicted would have participated in education if they were assigned to Head Start. For these mothers, participation in maternal education was associated with children watching fewer hours of TV, having more types of printed media at home, and more frequent participation in cultural activities, but it was not associated with a host of other parenting outcomes. Changing parenting is one potential pathway by which maternal educational participation may influence children's later academic outcomes.     

Preschoolers’ Emergent Literacy Skills: The Mediating Role of Maternal Reading Beliefs

Research Findings: The purpose of this paper is to explore the association between maternal reading beliefs and children's emergent literacy outcomes in light of maternal education. Furthermore, I consider whether maternal reading beliefs may mediate the association between maternal education level and children's print knowledge and phonological awareness while classroom quality, maternal literacy practices, gender, and ethnicity are controlled. Data were collected from a socioeconomically diverse population of 92 mothers and their preschool children from 2 demographically different counties in a Mid-Atlantic state. Correlations among all measures were moderate and positive, with higher levels of maternal education associated with higher scores on a maternal beliefs measure and higher child scores on a print knowledge and phonological awareness measure. Maternal reading beliefs mediated the effects of maternal education level on children's print knowledge and phonological awareness. This pathway remained in the presence of the 4 covariates for print knowledge only. Practice or Policy: These findings have important implications for practitioners as they work to involve parents in students’ literacy development by creating parent training programs that not only integrate but also highlight and even shape maternal reading beliefs.     

Mother–Child Referencing of Environmental Print and Its Relationship With Emergent Literacy Skills

Research Findings: Environmental print provides children with their earliest print experiences. This observational study investigated the frequency of mother–child environmental print referencing and its relationship with emergent literacy. A total of 35 mothers and their children (ages 3–4 years) were videotaped interacting in an environmental print–rich play setting. The frequency of environmental print referencing of letters and words was measured. Children were assessed on emergent literacy skills (letter name and sound knowledge, print concepts, phonological awareness, name and letter writing, environmental print reading). In all, 69% of mothers referenced environmental print. After child age, home literacy teaching, and maternal education were controlled for, greater maternal referencing of environmental print was positively related to print concepts and name and letter writing. Child environmental print referencing was positively related to name and letter writing as well as to maternal environmental print referencing. Mothers used a range of mediation strategies to support children's interactions with environmental print. Practice or Policy: Maternal referencing of environmental print may be a useful way to scaffold emergent literacy in young children.     

Two Are Better Than One: The Joint Influence of Maternal Preparedness for Parenting and Children's Self-Esteem on Academic Achievement and Adjustment

Research Findings: This study investigated the joint influence of maternal cognitive readiness to parent and children's self-esteem on children's academic achievement and behavioral adjustment in the classroom at age 10. Participants were 153 adolescent mothers and their firstborn children. Findings indicated that low levels of prenatal maternal cognitive readiness to parent were associated with impairments in children's achievement and adjustment at age 10, regardless of the children's level of self-esteem. Among dyads in which mothers were more cognitively prepared for the parenting role, however, children with higher self-esteem showed notably better achievement and adjustment compared to those with lower self-esteem. These results illustrate the joint influence of mothers' preparedness for parenting and children's self-esteem on the school performance of children who are generally considered to be at high risk for impairments in achievement and adjustment. Practice or Policy: Findings are discussed in terms of the enduring impact of cognitive readiness to parent and self-esteem on the academic achievement and behavioral adjustment of at-risk children, with a focus on implications for intervention and prevention based on the specific findings from this study.     

Preschoolers' Communicative Functions During Shared Book Reading With Mothers and Fathers

Research Findings: This study examined whether the communicative behaviors of preschoolers during shared-reading interactions differ according to child age or parent gender. Twenty Italian preschoolers (from 3.1 to 5.11 years) were observed during book reading with each parent separately. Communicative behaviors were analyzed according to the speech act theory. The findings showed that older children produced significantly more requests with fathers than with mothers but significantly more assertions with mothers than with fathers. Sequential analysis showed that only the fathers' reading utterances were significantly followed by older children's requests. These results suggest that older children adjusted their communicative functions to elicit richer conversations from their fathers. Practice or Policy: These findings have implications for the assessment and support of preschoolers' conversational skills.     

Sharing Books and Learning Language: What do Latina Mothers and Their Young Children Do?

This study examined low-income, Spanish-speaking, immigrant Latina mothers' book sharing behaviors in relation to their children's vocabulary. Participants were 47 3-year-old children and their mothers. We addressed two research questions: (a) What interactive behaviors are evident when low-income immigrant Latina mothers and their 3-year-old children look at books together? (b) For these children and their mothers, which book-sharing behaviors are related to children's expressive language? Overall, our results indicated that mothers were involved in several kinds of interactions with the books. They enhanced their children's attention to the printed text, promoted interaction or conversation with their children about what was in the books, and somewhat less often, used more complex literacy strategies. Mothers who did these things most had children with the largest vocabularies even when mothers' vocabulary was taken into account. Implications for designing interventions for similar families are discussed.     

Early Maternal Employment and Children's Academic and Behavioral Skills in Australia and the United Kingdom

This study assessed the links between early maternal employment and children's later academic and behavioral skills in Australia and the United Kingdom. Using representative samples of children born in each country from 2000 to 2004 (Australia N = 5,093, U.K. N = 18,497), OLS regression models weighted with propensity scores assessed links between maternal employment in the 2 years after childbearing and children's skills in first grade. There were neutral associations between maternal employment and children's first‐grade skills in both countries. However, there was a slight indication that more time away from parenting was negatively linked to children's behavioral functioning in Australia and employment begun between 9 and 24 months was positively linked to cognitive skills for U.K. children of low‐wage mothers.     

Parental Conceptions of School Readiness: Relation to Ethnicity,Socioeconomic Status,and Children's Skills

Research Findings: This study analyzed the school readiness beliefs of parents of 452 children from public pre-kindergarten and the relations of these beliefs to socioeconomic status and children's readiness skills. Parents conceived readiness largely in terms of the ability to name objects, letters, or numbers, but few included inferential skills. Readiness beliefs were related not to socioeconomic status but to ethnicity. Readiness beliefs about the importance of independence, social competence, nominal knowledge, and inferential skills were related in expected ways to children's skills. Practice or Policy: Infrequent inclusion of inferential skills among parents' readiness beliefs may not bode well for children. Informational programs for parents about the critical role of higher order cognitive skills and ways to promote them are needed.     

Mutual Relations Between Mothers' Depressive Symptoms and Hostile-Controlling Behavior and Young Children's Externalizing and Internalizing Behavior Problems

Objective. This study considered the role of mothers' depressive symptoms and hostile-controlling behavior in young children's externalizing and internalizing behavior problems. Pathways of influence between mothers' depressive symptoms and hostile-controlling behavior and children's externalizing and internalizing behavior problems also were examined. Design. Data were collected at child ages 4 and 6 years from a nonclinical, community sample of 51 mothers and their children. At both assessments, mothers' behavior was observed during a structured mother - child play activity, and mothers completed questionnaires to assess their depressive symptoms and children's externalizing and internalizing symptoms. Results. Hierarchical regression analyses revealed different patterns of findings across the 2 assessments as well as different patterns of findings for children's externalizing versus internalizing behaviors. At age 4, mothers' depressive symptoms and hostile-controlling behavior predicted children's externalizing behaviors; at age 6, only mothers' hostile-controlling behavior predicted children's externalizing behaviors. Regarding children's internalizing behaviors, mothers' depressive symptoms were significant predictors at child age 4; however, by age 6, mothers' depressive symptoms were no longer significant predictors. When longitudinal modeling was applied to the data, some support for both maternal and child effects was found. Conclusions. Findings highlight the importance of considering mothers' depressive symptoms and hostile-controlling behavior in predicting children's externalizing and internalizing behavior problems and suggest different etiological pathways for externalizing versus internalizing expressions of dysfunction.     

Ethnic group differences in early head start parents’ parenting beliefs and practices and links to children's early cognitive development

Data from the Early Head Start Research and Evaluation study were used to examine the extent to which several factors mediate between- and within-ethnic-group differences in parenting beliefs and behaviors, and children's early cognitive development (analysis sample of 1198 families). The findings indicate that Hispanic-, European-, and African-Americans differ significantly in their parenting beliefs and behaviors. Children also evidence significant ethnic group differences in 24-month cognitive development; these differences were fully accounted for by controlling for maternal cognitive skills, as measured by lexical knowledge. In comparison, maternal parenting behaviors were only a partial mediator of ethnic group differences in children's cognitive development. Structural equation modeling was used to examine, within each ethnic group, the extent to which measured parenting beliefs and behaviors mediate the effect of maternal cognitive skills on children's early cognitive development. Analyses show that the mediated path from maternal cognitive skills to child cognitive development, via “mainstream” parenting beliefs and behaviors, was stronger for European-American families than for Hispanic- and African-American families. The policy implications of increasing the schooling-related cognitive skills of low-educated parents are discussed.     

Socioeconomic Status and Preschoolers' Mathematical Knowledge: The Contribution of Home Activities and Parent Beliefs

Research Findings: Children from families of lower socioeconomic status (SES) enter kindergarten with less developed mathematical knowledge compared to children from middle SES families. This discrepancy is present at age 3 years and likely stems from differences in the home learning environment. This study reports SES-related differences both in the quantity and quality of mathematical support children receive in the home and in parent beliefs about early mathematical development and then compares both with children's performance on a comprehensive mathematics assessment. Participants included 90 children in their 1st year of preschool (2 years before kindergarten entry) and 88 children in their prekindergarten year (the year just prior to kindergarten entry). Both cohorts were balanced for SES and gender. The results suggested minimal SES-related variation in mathematical support received in either cohort but clear SES differences in parents’ beliefs about early mathematical development. Middle SES parents of children in both cohorts held higher expectations in terms of skills they expected children to possess by age 5, as well as a more accurate understanding of which skills are within the developmental range of most children by age 5. These differences accounted for unique variance in children's scores on the mathematics assessment. Practice or Policy: Implications are discussed.     

Mothers' Cognitive References to 2‐Year‐Olds Predict Theory of Mind at Ages 6 and 10

Mothers' mental‐state references predict individual differences in preschoolers' false‐belief (FB) understanding; less is known about the origins of corresponding variation in school‐age children. To address this gap, 105 children completed observations with their mothers at child ages 2 and 6, three FB tasks and a verbal comprehension test at age 3, and five FB tasks at age 6. Seventy‐seven of these children completed five Strange Stories at age 10. Individual differences in mothers' cognitive references at child age 2 predicted variation in children's FB understanding at age 6 and Strange Stories scores at age 10 (controlling for number of mothers' turns and children's mental‐state references, verbal comprehension and FB understanding at age 3, and mothers' cognitive references at child age 6).     

Associations of Warmth and Control of Filipina Domestic Helpers and Mothers to Hong Kong Kindergarten Children's Social Competence

Research Findings: Across 63 Hong Kong families, both Filipina domestic helpers and mothers separately rated their own caregiving style (warmth and control) and kindergarten children's social competence. Results indicated that Filipina helpers rated themselves as higher in warmth than mothers did. In addition, self-rated warmth of both caregivers, and Filipina domestic helpers' self-perceived control were correlated with children's social competence. With ratings of warmth and control from both Filipina helpers and mothers included in separate regression equations, mothers' warmth was a strong unique correlate of all measures of children's social competence. However, Filipinas' warmth was uniquely associated with children's responsibility only, whereas their control was uniquely associated with children's assertion and responsibility. Practice or Policy: Results extend previous research on the importance of nonparental caregivers for children's social development in a new cultural context.     

Mother–child joint writing in Chinese kindergarteners: metalinguistic awareness,maternal mediation and literacy acquisition

The present study examined the relations of Chinese word reading and writing to both maternal mediation of writing and a number of metalinguistic and cognitive skills in 63 Hong Kong Chinese kindergarteners. The whole process of maternal mediation of writing, in which mothers individually facilitated their children's writing of 12 two‐character words in their own ways, was videotaped. This study replicated and extended previous work on the cognitive strategies mothers use to help children in writing Chinese words. Mothers' typical mediation strategies were positively and significantly associated with both children's independent word reading and writing. In addition, maternal mediation of writing was uniquely associated with Chinese word reading, but not word writing, even with metalinguistic and cognitive skills, including phonological awareness, morphological awareness, orthographic processing and visual knowledge, statistically controlled. Findings underscore the importance of mothers' early scaffolding in facilitating children's literacy acquisition.     

A Little Bit of the Blues: Low-Level Symptoms of Maternal Depression and Classroom Behavior Problems in Preschool Children

Research Findings: The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between low-level depressive symptoms in mothers and teacher-reported child behavioral outcomes. Participants included 442 low-income mothers of preschool-age children who were screened for maternal depression by their child's preschool teacher. Teacher reports of child behavior problems were collected on a random sample of the children (n = 264). Of mothers screened for depression, 16.7% reported low-level depressive symptoms (below the cutoff on the screener indicating clinically elevated symptoms). Analyses revealed that children of mothers with low-level depressive symptoms had significantly greater problems with externalizing behavior compared to children of mothers with no depressive symptoms. Practice or Policy: Results suggest that children whose mothers experience even low-level depressive symptoms are at risk for problems with behavior, pointing to the need for screening and interventions to address maternal depression at all levels of severity. Early childhood education providers are in an excellent position to support families impacted by symptoms of maternal depression through screening and education, supportive daily interactions, and referrals for services if needed. Teachers can also provide direct support for high-risk children's social and emotional skill development through the provision of sensitive, nurturing care.     

Low-Income Central American Immigrant Mothers' Goals and Their Children's Classroom Competencies in Preschool

Research Findings: Unlike other Latino groups, there is little information about the early socialization of children from Central American (CA) immigrant families. This study examined CA immigrant mothers' short-term goals and the implications of these goals for children's behavior in preschool. A total of 47 low-income mothers described their goals for their children's behavior at home/with family and at school. Nearly all mothers described relatedness-oriented goals for their children at home and at school. Mothers emphasized autonomy-oriented goals predominantly for the school context. Mothers' emphases on certain goals in the home, but not goals for school, predicted teacher reports of children's social cooperation and approaches to learning in the classroom. Practice or Policy: Educators should be aware that relatedness-oriented goals are highly salient for CA immigrant parents. Immigrant parents might benefit from more information regarding the general goals of preschool. Educators should encourage mothers to set multiple early goals for their children, including learning-related goals for home. Educators and CA immigrant parents may support home–school continuity for children through mutual understanding of goals and values.     

Increasing opportunities to respond to print during storybook reading: Effects of evocative print-referencing techniques

This study employed a multiple baseline design to determine whether brief training and observational learning enabled teachers to increase their use of evocative references to print during whole-class storybook reading. Evocative print references require children to respond to teachers’ questions or directives about print and, as such, were conceptualized as opportunities to respond (OTRs). Framed within this conceptualization, the study examined whether teachers’ use of print-focused OTRs increased children's engagement during book reading and accelerated acquisition of print awareness skills. Book reading was observed twice weekly during baseline and intervention phases and coded for teachers’ use of print-referenced OTRs and children's level of engagement. Print-knowledge skill probes were administered weekly to 33 children from low-income backgrounds. Results showed gains from baseline to intervention in teachers’ use of evocative print references, children's engagement, and performance on skill probes. Findings are discussed in terms of using book reading to promote development of print awareness in children who are behind their peers in early literacy skills.