Effects of parenting style and preschool experience on children's verbal attainment: Results of a British longitudinal study

In order to assess the relative strengths of mothers' education, parenting styles, and children's experience of preschool in predicting children's verbal attainment scores, this study made use of data derived from a cohort of children born in England, Wales, and Scotland in March of 1946 (N = 5,362). The parenting styles of cohort members have been studied from the time members' firstborn children were 4 years old. Tests administered when these second-generation children were 8 years old assessed children's abilities in vocabulary, reading, and sentence completion. Although preschool experience was an independent and significant predictor of verbal attainment scores, its power was small when compared with mothers' education. In addition, preschool attendance had no significance in predicting the scores of children whose mothers were relatively understimulating.