CHILD AND FAMILY DEVELOPMENT ACROSS THE FIRST TWO DECADES OF LIFE
, Head, Section on Child and Family Research
Linda Cote, PhD, Research Scientist
Chun-Shin Hahn, PhD, Research Fellow
Nanmathi Manian, PhD, Research Fellow
Maurice Haynes, PhD, Staff Scientist
Charlie Hendricks, PhD, Statistician
Diane Putnick, PhD, Statistician
Clay Mash, PhD, Research Psychologist
Kathy Painter, MS, Research Psychologist
Joan Suwalsky, MS, Research Psychologist
Elisabeth Conradt, BA, Postbaccalaureate Fellow
Mark Cusick, BA, Postbaccalaureate Fellow
Blake Harrington, BA, Postbaccalaureate Fellow
Sarah Jones, BA, Postbaccalaureate Fellow
Jennie Kim, BA, Postbaccalaureate Fellow
Liz Kuttler, BA, Postbaccalaureate Fellow
Lily May, BA, Postbaccalaureate Fellow
Erica Moran, BA, Postbaccalaureate Fellow
Maria Sumaroka, BA, Postbaccalaureate Fellow
Anne Waring, BA, Postbaccalaureate Fellow
Deborah Zlotnik, BA, Postbaccalaureate Fellow
Child development and parenting
Parenting constitutes an all-encompassing ecology of child development. We are broadly concerned with the roles of parenting in human development. In one study of 254 European American mothers and their firstborn 20-month-olds, we examined unique associations of several distal context variables, such as family socioeconomic status (SES), maternal employment, paternal parenting, and proximal maternal (personality, intelligence, and knowledge; behavior, self-perceptions, and attributions) and child (age, gender, representation, language, and sociability) characteristics, with maternal sensitivity and child responsiveness. Specific unique relations emerged in hierarchical regression analyses. We observed that mothers who worked fewer hours per week and reported less dissonance in their husband’s didactic parenting, who reported less limit setting in their parenting and attributed their parenting failures to internal causes, and whose children spoke with more vocabulary were more sensitive in their interactions with their children. In higher SES families, we observed that children who themselves used more vocabulary and whose mothers worked fewer hours and attributed their parenting failures to internal causes demonstrated more responsiveness in their interactions with their mothers. Although potential associations are many, when considered together, unique associations with maternal sensitivity and child responsiveness are few, with some shared and others unique.
Responsiveness defines the prompt, contingent, and appropriate reactions that parents display to their children in the context of everyday exchanges. Theoretically, maternal responsiveness occupies a central position in developmental science and possesses meaningful predictive validity over diverse domains of children’s development, yet basic psychometric features of maternal responsiveness are still poorly understood. In a prospective longitudinal study, we examined structure, individual variation, and continuity of several dimensions of responsiveness in mothers to their infants’ activities at 10, 14, and 21 months during natural home-based play interactions. Both age-general and age-specific patterns emerged in maternal responding. Our developmental results support the multidimensionality, modularity, and specificity of responsiveness as a central parenting construct.
Two additional studies examined childcare. We studied the long-term cumulative effects of two common indices of childcare—the total number of hours of nonmaternal care and the mean hour-weighted child-to-caregiver ratio per caregiving situation—on mental development and socioemotional adjustment from birth to four years in a non-risk middle-class sample of girls and boys after taking into consideration child (gender and sibling status), maternal (education and concepts of child development), and family selection (SES) factors. Childcare indices did not differ in girls and boys year by year. Children experienced less nonmaternal care in their first year of life but thereafter encountered more children in their caregiving situations in proportion to the number of caregivers. At four years, girls scored higher on cognitive and language measures than boys, and boys exhibited more externalizing problem behaviors than girls—whereas hours of nonmaternal care were not a predictor, the child-to-caregiver ratio was. For cognitive outcomes, the ratio exerted a positive effect on children from higher SES backgrounds versus no effect on children from average or lower SES backgrounds. For adjustment outcomes, a higher ratio was associated with fewer behavioral problems in girls and more behavioral problems in boys. Different basic indices of childcare appear to have different long-term cumulative effects for different domains of development in girls and boys. In a complementary childcare study, we defined three distinct groups of infants based on the infant’s principal childcare experience: infants reared exclusively at home by their mothers, infants reared in their own homes but by a nonfamilial childcare provider, and infants reared in nonfamilial homes in group care. At four and a half years of age, we compared mothers’ and teachers’ independent views of the communication, daily living, socialization, and motor adaptive behaviors of girls and boys with these different infant childcare histories, after taking into consideration several family selection factors. Compared with girls, boys who had other-home group care in infancy expressed lower levels of overall adaptive functioning and lower levels of communication, daily living, and socialization skills. Girls with other-home group care in infancy exhibited better adaptive daily living and socialization skills than girls who had maternal care only. Different infant childcare experiences appear to predict different adaptive behaviors in boys and girls.
Bornstein MH, Hahn C-S. Infant childcare settings and the development of gender-specific adaptive behaviors. Early Child Dev Care 2007;177:15-41.
Bornstein MH, Hahn C-S, Gist NF, Haynes OM. Long-term cumulative effects of childcare on children’s mental development and socioemotional adjustment in a non-risk sample: the moderating effects of gender. Early Child Dev Care 2006;176:129-56.
Bornstein MH, Hendricks C, Haynes OM, Painter KM. Maternal sensitivity and child responsiveness: associations with social context, maternal characteristics, and child characteristics in a multivariate analysis. Infancy 2007, in press.
Bornstein MH, Tamis-LeMonda CS, Hahn C-S. Maternal responsiveness to very young children at three ages: longitudinal analysis of a multidimensional modular and specific parenting construct. Dev Psychol 2007, in press.
Cognition in childhood
We investigated the antecedents and status of cognition in childhood from several perspectives. In one study, we examined whether fetal cardiac patterns are stable indicators of individual differences and prognostic of variation in postnatal development. We measured fetal heart rate and variability longitudinally from 20 through 38 weeks gestation and again at age two. We demonstrated significant within-individual stability during the prenatal period and into childhood. We showed fetal heart rate variability at or after 28 weeks gestation and observed that steeper developmental trajectories were significantly associated with mental and psychomotor development at two years and language ability at two and a half years. The data suggest that the foundations of individual differences in autonomic control originate during gestation and that the developmental momentum of the fetal period continues after birth.
In a second study, we investigated mother-child interaction and its associations with play in Down syndrome (DS) children. There is consensus that mother-child interaction during play represents an important determinant of typical children’s play development. Concerning DS children in terms of the overall emotional quality of dyadic interaction, few studies have investigated mother-child interaction and its effect on child play. A sample of DS children (mean age three years) took part in our study. We verified that the presence of the mother in an interactional context affects DS children’s exploratory and symbolic play and that the children’s level of play and dyadic emotional availability were interrelated. The children showed significantly more exploratory play during collaborative play with mothers than during solitary play. However, the maternal effect on children’s symbolic play was higher in children of highly sensitive mothers than in children whose mothers showed lower sensitivity, the former displaying more symbolic play than the latter in collaborative play. Dyadic emotional availability and children’s play level are associated in DS children, consistent with the hypothesis that dyadic interactions based on a healthy level of emotional involvement may lead to enhanced cognitive functioning.
In a third study, we investigated the contributions of sociodemographic factors, literacy experiences, and child attention in predicting two- to five-year-olds’ adaptive communication. In infancy, children participated in a habituation procedure, and we used the length of their first look at a novel stimulus as an index of information processing. When children were two to five years of age, we gathered information about children’s literacy experiences and assessed communication by using the Communication Domain of the Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scales. Path analyses revealed direct effects for first look, reading per week, and number of trips to the library for adaptive communication and the subdomain of expressive communication. Indirect effects of mothers’ education through first look, reading per week, and child educational experiences also emerged. Path analyses revealed direct effects for amount of reading per week and number of trips to the library for the subdomain of receptive communication.
Arterberry ME, Midgett C, Putnick DL, Bornstein MH. Early attention and literacy experiences predict adaptive communication. First Language 2007;27:175-89.
DiPietro JA, Bornstein MH, Hahn C-S, Costigan K, Achy-Brou A. Fetal heart rate and variability: stability and prediction to developmental outcomes in early childhood. Child Dev 2007;78:1788-98.
Venuti P, de Falco F, Giusti Z, Bornstein MH. Play and emotional availability in young children with Down syndrome. Infant Mental Health J 2007, in press.
Acculturation in children and parents in contemporary America
We examined the acculturation of mothers’ parenting cognitions and practices at individual and group levels; at the individual level by looking at whether immigrant mothers’ acculturation level predicted their parenting cognitions and practices; and at the group level by comparing immigrant mothers’ parenting cognitions and practices to those of mothers in the cultures of origin and destination. Acculturation at the group level was more robust than acculturation at the individual level. Parenting practices acculturated more readily than parenting cognitions. South American immigrant mothers’ parenting cognitions more closely resembled those of mothers in the United States, whereas Japanese immigrant mothers’ cognitions tended to be similar to those of Japanese mothers or intermediate between Japanese and U.S. mothers, suggesting that Japanese mothers’ parenting cognitions acculturate more slowly than do those of South American mothers.
We also investigated mothers’ perceptions of their own and their spouses’ engagement in social, didactic, and limit-setting interactions with their toddlers. Mothers of 20-month-old children from five cultural groups participated: Tokyo, Japan; Buenos Aires, Argentina; and Japanese immigrant, South American immigrant, and European American mothers from the Washington, DC, area. Immigrant mothers tended to report that they and their husbands engaged in and value behaviors important in their culture of origin, such as social exchanges, and behaviors valued in their culture of destination, such as didactic interactions. The pattern of results for limit setting differed such that Japanese immigrant mothers, like mothers in Japan, reported less actual and ideal engagement in childrearing than European American mothers; however, South American immigrant mothers, like European American mothers, reported more actual and ideal limit setting than mothers in their country of origin. Immigrant mothers reported that they or their spouses would actually or ideally engage in more social and didactic behavior than mothers in their country of origin or destination, suggesting that immigrant mothers emphasize parenting styles valued both in their culture of origin (social exchanges) and their culture of destination (didactic interactions), perhaps in an effort to merge two cultural traditions.
We investigated mothers’ knowledge of child development among 100 Japanese, Korean, and South American immigrant mothers. Immigrant mothers’ knowledge of child development was similar, but immigrant mothers knew less about child development than European American mothers whose families had lived in the United States for at least four generations. Specifically, immigrant mothers had difficulty answering questions about normative infant development. Furthermore, mothers’ knowledge about child development was related to their parenting behavior. For example, immigrant mothers with realistic expectations for infant crying expressed negative affect less frequently when they were with their baby than mothers with inaccurate or no knowledge of the amount of time newborns cry. Immigrant mothers who understood that a baby of six months responds differently to people based on people’s emotions displayed less negative affect when with their infants than immigrant mothers who were not aware that infants are sensitive to the emotions of those around them. As a final example, mothers with higher overall knowledge of child development were more likely to engage in activities that enhanced their children’s development (they talked to their babies more frequently).
Parents’ knowledge of child development is important for physician-patient interactions because pediatricians assume that parents share the physician’s knowledge base. Moreover, given the large influx of new immigrants to the United States, physicians are increasingly likely to see immigrant families in their practice. However, resident physicians report that they lack the skills necessary to interact with patients from different cultures. Increasing physicians’ knowledge of parents’ cultural beliefs and increasing parents’ knowledge of child development are essential for creating parent-physician partnerships that will ensure the well-being of all children.
Bornstein MH, Cote LR. Acculturation and Parent-Child Relationships: Measurement and Development (Monographs in Parenting, Volume 4). Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 2006.
Bornstein MH, Cote LR. Knowledge of child development and family interactions among immigrants to America: perspectives from developmental science. In: Lansford JE, Deater-Deckard K, Bornstein MH, eds. Immigrant Families in Contemporary Society. Guilford Press, 2007;121-36.
Bornstein MH, Cote LR. Parenting cognitions and practices in the acculturative process. In: Bornstein MH, Cote LR, eds. Acculturation and Parent-Child Relationships: Measurement and Development. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 2006;173-96.
Lansford J, Deater-Deckard KK, Bornstein MH, eds. Immigrant Families in Contemporary Society. Guilford Press, 2007.
COLLABORATOR
Jeffrey J. Arnett, PhD, University of Maryland, College Park, MD
Martha E. Arterberry, PhD, Gettysburg College, Gettysburg, PA
Giovanna Axia, PhD, Università degli Studi di Padova, Padua, Italy
Hiroshi Azuma, PhD, Shirayuri College, Tokyo, Japan
Roger Bakeman, PhD, University of Georgia, Athens, GA
Sashi Bali, PhD, Kenyatta University, Nairobi, Kenya
Laura Caulfield, PhD, The Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD
W. Andrew Collins, PhD, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN
Annik de Houwer, PhD, Universiteit Antwerp, Antwerp, Belgium
Janet A. DiPietro, PhD, The Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD
Margaret Kabiru, PhD, Kenya Institute of Education, Nairobi, Kenya
Shagufa Kapadia, PhD, University of Baroda, Baroda, India
Keumjoo Kwak, PhD, Seoul National University, Seoul, Korea
Sharone Maital, PhD, University of Haifa, Haifa, Israel
A. Bame Nsamenang, PhD, The Institute of Human Sciences, Bameda, Cameroon
Liliana Pascual, PhD, Universidad de Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires, Argentina
Marie-Germaine Pêcheux, PhD, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Paris, France
Rodolfo de Castro Ribas Jr., PhD, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Catherine Tamis-LeMonda, PhD, New York University, New York, NY
Suedo Toda, PhD, Hokkaido University of Education, Hokkaido, Japan
Paola Venuti, PhD, Scienze e Tecniche di Psicologia Cognitiva Applicata, Treneto, Italy
Celia Zingman de Galperín, PhD, Universidad de Belgrano, Buenos Aires, Argentina
For further information, contact bornstem@cfr.nichd.nih.gov.
