The effect of early maternal sensitivity on child academic achievement in primary school

该项目的目的是分析早期母亲敏感性对儿童学业成绩的影响。具体来说，我们想评估早期母亲的敏感性是否是儿童在小学结束时的学业成绩的预测因子，如果是这样，这种关系是否是特定的一个或多个年龄点在儿童的前四年的生活。先前的研究已经报道了母亲的敏感性与儿童的社会，情感和认知发展之间的关系。然而，这些研究大多集中在儿童的早期到学龄前。在拟议的项目中，现有的视频材料显示了5个年龄点的母婴游戏互动（6、12、18个月、3和4年）将使用情绪可用性量表进行编码和分析（EA量表;在小学结束时，将向儿童家长发送调查问卷，以评估儿童在数学、德国和一般研究（第六年龄点）。由于先前的研究表明，儿童的智力和语言发展是其学校成绩的强有力的预测因素，因此将包括前5个年龄点儿童认知和语言发展的现有数据作为控制变量。拟议的项目的另一个目的是纵向评估稳定性和连续性的母亲的敏感性，在第一个四年的儿童的生活中使用的EA量表的敏感性量表，并通过控制儿童的气质。对于后者，父母对相应版本的Rothbart儿童行为问卷的评分（IBQ-R，ECBQ，CBQ）可用于5个年龄点的每一个。总体而言，我们希望拟议的项目将产生进一步的知识，如果，以及在什么时候在早期发展，母亲的敏感性对儿童的学业成绩有长期的影响，以及随着儿童的发展，母亲对不断变化的需求的敏感性的变化。

The aim of the proposed project is to analyze the effect of early maternal sensitivity on children’s academic achievement. Specifically, we want to assess whether early maternal sensitivity is a predictor of children’s academic achievement at the end of primary school, and if so, whether this relation is specific to one or more age points during children’s first four years of life. Previous studies have reported relations between maternal sensitivity and children’s social, emotional and cognitive development. However, most of these studies focus on children’s early years up to preschool age. In the proposed project, already available video material showing mother-infant play interactions at 5 age points (6, 12, 18 months, 3 and 4 years) will be coded and analyzed using the Emotional Availability Scales (EA Scales; Biringen, 2008).Children’s parents will be sent questionnaires to assess children’s grades at the end of primary school in the subjects Mathematics, German and General Studies (6th age point). As previous studies have shown that children‘s intelligence and language development are strong predictors of their school grades, available data on children’s cognitive and language development at the first 5 age points will be included as control variables. A further aim of the proposed project is to longitudinally assess stability and continuity of maternal sensitivity during the first four years of children’s life by using the Sensitivity Scale of the EA Scales, and by controlling for child temperament. For the latter, parental ratings on the respective version of Rothbart’s Child Behavior Questionnaire (IBQ-R, ECBQ, CBQ) are available for each of the 5 age points.Overall, we hope the proposed project will yield further knowledge regarding if, and at what time in early development, maternal sensitivity has long-term effects on children’s academic achievements, and regarding changes in maternal sensitivity in response to changing demands as children develop.