Low-income mothers' and fathers' parenting practices and toddlers' self-regulation

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Project Summary (30 lines max) Across early childhood, children show great improvements in their self-regulation (SR: e.g., persisting on a task), which enables them to regulate their thoughts, behaviors, and emotionsm (McClelland et al., 2010). SR skills are critical for later academic achievement, mental and physical health (Robson et al., 2020). Researchers have observed individual differences as early as 4 (Kochanska & Knaack, 2003). As a group, children from low-income backgrounds are at greater risk for exhibiting poor SR (Wanless et al., 2011). Yet, many of these children perform as well as their wealthier peers on tests of SR (Raikes et al., 2007). One source of this variability is caregivers’ parenting behaviors, including the quality of parenting (sensitivity, intrusiveness and dyadic interaction) and parenting practices (compliance), predict SR (Bronfenbrenner & Morris, 2006). Highly sensitive parents who use gentle control (e.g., reasoning) and help their children regulate their emotions have stronger SR skills than parents who are intrusive, use more power- assertive compliance (e.g., threatening punishment), and do not help their children regulate their emotions (Kopystynska et al., 2016). However, with few exceptions, these studies have been primarily based on White middle-class mothers. Less is known about the parenting behaviors of low-income ethnic minority parents, particularly fathers, and how they are longitudinally related to SR. To address these gaps, this proposal examines the heterogeneity in low-income ethnic minority mothers’ and fathers’ levels and changes in parenting behaviors (quality of parenting and parenting practices) from 9 thru 30 months; (2) demographic and psychological predictors as well as treatment effects of changes in parenting behaviors; and (3) the associations between mothers’ and fathers’ change in parenting behaviors from 9 thru 30 months and toddlers’ SR at 24 and 30 months, controlling for demographic factors. The analytic sample consists low-income ethnic minority parents (N = 281) participating in the Baby Books 2 Project, a NICHD-funded RCT of a parenting intervention for first-time parents with infants. The levels and change in the quality of parent interactions and parenting practices will be assessed during a semi-structured task when children are 9 and 18 months. Toddlers’ SR performance and strategies during a snack-delay task will be assessed at 24 and 30 months. This research will inform normative patterns of development in underrepresented groups and mechanisms that intervention programs can target to support low-income ethnic minority children’s SR, which can help to narrow achievement-related gaps at school entry.