Serve and Return among low-income fathers, mothers, and their children

项目摘要 2017年，20%的美国儿童生活在收入低于联邦贫困线的家庭中，其中， 和西班牙裔儿童所占比例最高（分别为29%和25%）。儿童趋势2019）。 到2岁时，在贫困中长大的孩子的语言能力就比富裕的孩子差。 peers，2，3，随着时间的推移，这种差距越来越大（Fernald等人，2013;霍夫，2013）。语言的一个强有力的预测 间隙是儿童早期的家庭环境，它与儿童语言的形成有着独特的联系 超越人口统计学特征的技能（Reynolds等人，2019; Rodriguez & Tamis-LeMonda，2011）。 通过与照顾者的社会互动，儿童学会有效地沟通， 文化上适当的方式（Vygotsky，1978）。具体来说，对儿童敏感的社会交往 语言和非语言线索（也称为“发球和回球”; Fisher等人，2017年，有利于语言的发展。 婴儿通过眼睛凝视、手势、物体探索和发声来服务，当父母回报这些时， 服务的方式是连续的（在时间上接近）和偶然的（有意义的），他们更有可能促进 婴儿的语言技能（Tamis-LeMonda等人，2014）。这些类型的社会互动通常被检查 白色中产阶级家庭的母亲和孩子之间的关系。尽管它们的重要性，然而，我们知道 几乎没有关于低收入家庭之间的“服务和回报”互动， 父亲和孩子这一点尤其重要，因为积极参与的低收入父亲 语言成绩优于同龄人的儿童（Cabrera等人，2007年）。了解程度 低收入父亲和母亲在婴儿期参与“服务和回报”， 这增强了家庭中已有的保护因素，并降低了入学风险。解决这些 问题，我们研究：（1）低收入父亲和母亲的异质性的“服务和回报”的互动 与9个月和18个月的孩子;（2）父母的人口统计学和心理因素的贡献 低收入父亲对子女的“服务和回报”投入的频率;（3）低收入父亲对子女的“服务和回报”之间的关联 母亲在9个月和18个月时与孩子的“服务和回报”互动以及儿童的语言 在24个月和30个月的技能，控制重要的背景因素和数量的父母说话？我们 建议制定一个编码方案，以评估“服务和回报”的互动在420个低收入的样本 父母和他们的孩子在9和18个月，也将转录所有的亲子视频。 数据来自婴儿书籍2项目，这是一个NICHD资助的纵向育儿干预 针对第一次，低收入的父母，包括英语和西班牙语的种族多样化的样本， 说话的父母这项研究将支持早期干预计划，以确定具体的机制 与来自弱势背景的儿童的学业成绩长期不足有关， 作为磨练干预措施，导致更有效和持续的积极成果。

Project Summary In 2017, 20% of U.S. children lived in families with incomes below the federal poverty line, among which Black and Hispanic children represent the highest proportions (29% and 25%, respectively. Child Trends 2019). Already by 2 years of age, children growing up in poverty have worse language skills than their wealthier peers,2,3 with this gap growing over time (Fernald et al., 2013; Hoff, 2013). A strong predictor of the language gap is children’s early home environment, which has unique associations with children’s emerging language skills beyond a host of demographic characteristics (Reynolds et al., 2019; Rodriguez & Tamis-LeMonda, 2011). Through social interactions with their caregivers, children learn to communicate effectively and behave in culturally appropriate ways (Vygotsky, 1978). Specifically, social interactions that are sensitive to children’s verbal and nonverbal cues (aka “serve and return”; Fisher et al., 2017) are beneficial for language development. Infants serve through eye gaze, gestures, object exploration, and vocalizations, and when parents return those serves in a way that is contiguous (close in time) and contingent (meaningful), they are more likely to foster infants’ language skills (Tamis-LeMonda et al., 2014). These types of social interactions are typically examined between children and mothers in white middle-class families. Despite their significance, however, we know almost nothing about “serve and return” interactions among low-income families, and even less between fathers and children. This is especially important given that positively engaged low-income fathers have children with better language scores than their matched peers (Cabrera et al., 2007). Understanding the degree to which low-income fathers and mothers engage in “serve and return” during infancy can inform interventions that augment protective factors already existing at home and reduce risk at school entry. To address these issues, we examine: (1) the heterogeneity of low-income fathers’ and mothers’ “serve and return” interactions with their children at 9 and 18 months; (2) the contribution of parents’ demographic and psychological factors to the frequency of their “serve and return” input to children; (3) the associations between low-income fathers’ and mothers’ “serve and return” interactions with their children at 9 and 18 months and children’s language skills at 24 and 30 months, controlling for important background factors and quantity of parental speech? We propose to develop a coding scheme to assess “serve and return” interactions in a sample of 420 low-income fathers and mothers and their children at 9 and 18 months and will also transcribe all the parent-child videos. Data are drawn from the Baby Books 2 Project, which is a NICHD-funded longitudinal parenting intervention targeting first-time, low-income parents and includes an ethnically diverse sample of English- and Spanish- speaking parents. This research will support early intervention programs to identify specific mechanisms associated with long-term deficits in academic outcomes of children from disadvantaged backgrounds, as well as hone interventions that result in more effective and sustained positive outcomes.