Article
Parenting Mediates the Effects of Income and Cumulative Risk on the Development of Effortful Control
Liliana J. Lengua,
Cara Kiff, Lyndsey Moran, Maureen Zalewski, Stephanie Thompson, Rebecca Cortes, Erika Ruberry,
Corresponding Author
Liliana J. Lengua
University of Washington
Correspondences should be addressed to Liliana Lengua, Department of Psychology, University of Washington, Box 351525, Seattle, WA 98195, USA. Email: [email protected]Search for more papers by this authorLiliana J. Lengua,
Cara Kiff, Lyndsey Moran, Maureen Zalewski, Stephanie Thompson, Rebecca Cortes, Erika Ruberry,
Corresponding Author
Liliana J. Lengua
University of Washington
Correspondences should be addressed to Liliana Lengua, Department of Psychology, University of Washington, Box 351525, Seattle, WA 98195, USA. Email: [email protected]Search for more papers by this authorAbstract
This study tested the hypothesis that the effects of income and cumulative risk on the development of effortful control during preschool would be mediated by parenting. The study utilized a community sample of 306 children (36–40 months) representing the full range of family income, with 29 percent at or near poverty and 28 percent lower income. Two dimensions of effortful control (executive control and delay ability) were assessed at four time points, each separated by nine months, and growth trajectories were examined. Maternal warmth, negativity, limit setting, scaffolding, and responsiveness were observed. Above the effects of child cognitive ability, income, and cumulative risk, scaffolding predicted higher initial levels of executive control that remained higher across the study, and limit setting predicted greater gains in executive control. Parenting did not predict changes in delay ability. Significant indirect effects indicated that scaffolding mediated the effects of income and cumulative risk on growth in executive control. The findings suggest that parenting behaviors can promote effortful control in young children and could be targets of prevention programs in low-income families.
References
- Ackerman, B., Kogos, J., Youngstrom, E., Schoff, K., & Izard, C. (1999). Family instability and the problem behaviors of children from economically disadvantaged families. Developmental Psychology, 35, 258–268.
- Ackerman, B., Brown, E., & Izard, C. (2004). The relations between contextual risk, earned income and the school adjustment of children from economically disadvantaged families. Developmental Psychology, 40, 204–216.
- Allan, N., & Lonigan, C. (2011). Examining the dimensionality of effortful control in preschool children and its relation to academic and socioemotional indicators. Developmental Psychology, 47, 905–915.
- Bernier, A., Carlson, S., & Whipple, N. (2010). From external regulation to self-regulation: Early parenting precursors of young children's executive functioning. Child Development, 81, 326–339.
- Blair, C., & Raver, C. C. (2012). Individual development and evolution: Experiential canalization of self-regulation. Developmental Psychology, 48, 647–657.
- Blair, C., & Razza, R. (2007). Relating effortful control, executive function, and false belief understanding to emerging math and literacy ability in kindergarten. Child Development, 78, 647–663.
- Blair, C., Granger, D. A., Willoughby, M., Mills-Koonce, R., Cox, M., Greenberg, M. T., et al. (2011). Salivary cortisol mediates effects of poverty and parenting on executive functions in early childhood. Child Development, 82, 1970–1984.
- Braungart-Rieker, J., Garwood, M., Powers, B., & Wang, X. (2001). Parental sensitivity, infant affect, and affect regulation: Predictors of later attachment. Child Development, 72, 252–270.
- Brock, L., Rimm-Kaufman, S., Nathanson, L., & Grimm, K. (2009). The contributions of ‘hot’ and ‘cool’ executive function to children's academic achievement, learning-related behaviors, and engagement in kindergarten. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 24, 337–349.
- Bronfenbrenner, U., & Morris, P. A. (2006). The bioecological model of human development. In R. M. Lerner (Ed.), Handbook of child psychology: Vol. 1. Theoretical models of human development ( 6th ed., pp. 993–1028). New York: Wiley.
- Brooks-Gunn, J., & Duncan, G. (1997). The effects of poverty on children. The Future of Children: Children and Poverty, 7, 55–71.
- Buckner, J., Mezzacappa, E., & Beardslee, W. (2003). Characteristics of resilient youths living in poverty: The role of self-regulatory processes. Development and Psychopathology, 15, 139–162.
- Buckner, J., Mezzacappa, E., & Beardslee, W. (2009). Self-regulation and its relations to adaptive functioning in low income youths. The American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 79, 19–30.
- Carlson, S. (2005). Developmentally sensitive measures of executive function in preschool children. Developmental Neuropsychology, 28, 595–616.
- Clark, C., Woodward, L., Horwood, L., & Moor, S. (2008). Development of emotional and behavioral regulation in children born extremely preterm and very preterm: Biological and social influences. Child Development, 79, 1444–1462.
- Collins, L., Schafer, J., & Kam, C. (2001). A comparison of inclusive and restrictive strategies in modern missing data procedures. Psychological Methods, 6, 330–351.
- Colman, R., Hardy, S., Albert, M., Raffaelli, M., & Crockett, L. (2006). Early predictors of self-regulation in middle childhood. Infant and Child Development, 15, 421–437.
- Conger, R., & Elder, G. (1994). Economic stress, coercive family process, and developmental problems of adolescents. Child Development, 65, 541–561.
- Conger, R. D., Wallace, L. E., Sun, Y., Simons, R. L., McLoyd, V. C., & Brody, G. H. (2002). Economic pressure in African American families: A replication and extension of the family stress model. Developmental Psychology, 38, 179–193.
- Cowan, P., & Cowan, C. (1992). Parenting style ratings: School children and their families project. Berkeley: University of California.
- de Boo, G., & Kolk, A. (2007). Ethnic and gender differences in temperament, and the relationship between temperament and depressive and aggressive mood. Personality and Individual Differences, 43, 1756–1766.
- Dennis, T. (2006). Emotional self-regulation in preschoolers: The interplay of child approach reactivity, parenting, and control capacities. Developmental Psychology, 42, 84–97.
- Dixon, M. (2010). Uncovering the neural basis of resisting immediate gratification while pursuing long-term goals. The Journal of Neuroscience, 30, 6178–6179.
- Duncan, G., Ziol-Guest, K., & Kalil, A. (2010). Early-childhood poverty and adult attainment, behavior, and health. Child Development, 81, 306–325.
- Eiden, R., Edwards, E., & Leonard, K. (2004). Predictors of effortful control among children of alcoholic and nonalcoholic fathers. Journal of Studies on Alcohol, 65, 309–319.
- Eisenberg, N., Cumberland, A., Spinrad, T., Fabes, R., Shepard, S., Reiser, M., et al. (2001). The relations of regulation and emotionality to children's externalizing and internalizing problem behavior. Child Development, 72, 1112–1134.
- Eisenberg, N., Valiente, C., Fabes, R., Smith, C., Reiser, M., Shepard, S., et al. (2003). The relations of effortful control and ego control to children's resiliency and social functioning. Developmental Psychology, 39, 761–776.
- Evans, G. (2003). A multimethodological analysis of cumulative risk and allostatic load among rural children. Developmental Psychology, 39, 924–933.
- Evans, G., & English, K. (2002). The environment of poverty: Multiple stressor exposure, psychophysiological stress, and socioemotional adjustment. Child Development, 73, 1238–1248.
- Evans, G. W., & Kim, P. (2012). Childhood poverty and young adults' allostatic load: The mediating role of childhood cumulative risk exposure. Psychological Science, 23, 979–983.
- Gerstadt, C., Hong, Y., & Diamond, A. (1994). The relationship between cognition and action: Performance of children 3.5–7 years old on a Stroop-like day-night test. Cognition, 53, 129–153.
- Hammond, S. I., Muller, U., Carpendale, J. I., & Bibok, M. B. (2011). The effects of parental scaffolding on preschools' executive function. Developmental Psychology, 48, 271–281.
- Hongwanishkul, D., Happaney, K., Lee, W., & Zelazo, P. (2005). Assessment of hot and cool executive function in young children: Age-related changes and individual differences. Developmental Neuropsychology, 28, 617–644.
- Hughes, C., & Ensor, R. (2009). Independence and interplay between maternal and child risk factors for preschool problem behaviors? International Journal of Behavioral Development, 33, 312–322.
- Hughes, C., Ensor, R., Wilson, A., & Graham, A. (2010). Tracking executive function across the transition to school: A latent variable approach. Developmental Neuropsychology, 35, 20–36.
- Karreman, A., van Tuijl, C., van Aken, M. A. G., & Dekovic, M. (2008). Parenting, coparenting, and effortful control in preschoolers. Journal of Family Psychology, 22, 30–40.
- Kerig, P., & Lindahl, K. (2001). Family observational coding systems: Resources for systemic research. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
- Kidd, C., Palmeri, H., & Aslin, R. N. (2013). Rational snacking: Young children's decision-making on the marshmallow task is moderated by beliefs about environmental reliability. Cognition, 126, 109–114.
- King, K., Lengua, L., & Monahan, K. (2011). Differentiating executive and motivational components of self-regulation: Differences in trajectories, predictors and adjustment. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology.
- Kochanska, G., & Knaack, A. (2003). Effortful control as a personality characteristic of young children: Antecedents, correlates, and consequences. Journal of Personality, 71, 1087–1112.
- Kochanska, G., Murray, K., Jacques, T., Koenig, A., & Vandegeest, K. (1996). Inhibitory control in young children and its role in emerging internalization. Child Development, 67, 490–507.
- Kochanska, G., Askan, N., Prisco, T., & Adams, E. (2008). Mother-child and father-child mutually responsive orientation in the first 2 years and children's outcomes at preschool age: Mechanisms of influence. Child Development, 79, 30–44.
- Korkman, M., Kirk, U., & Kemp, S. (1998). NEPSY: A developmental neuropsychological assessment, manual. San Antonio, TX: Psychological Corporation.
- Lengua, L. (2006). Growth in temperament and parenting as predictors of adjustment during children's transition to adolescence. Developmental Psychology, 42, 819–832.
- Lengua, L., Honorado, E., & Bush, N. (2007). Cumulative risk and parenting as predictors of effortful control and social competence in preschool children. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 28, 40–55.
- Lengua, L., Moran, L., Zalewski, M., Cortes, R., Ruberry, E., Kiff, C., et al. (2013). Relations of growth in effortful control to family income and adjustment in preschool age children. Unpublished manuscript.
- Lengua, L. J., Zalewski, M., Fisher, P., & Moran, L. (in press). Does HPA-axis dysregulation account for the effects of income on effortful control and adjustment in preschool children? Infant and Child Development.
- Li-Grining, C. (2007). Effortful control among low-income preschoolers in three cities: Stability, change, and individual differences. Developmental Psychology, 43, 208–221.
- Lindahl, K., & Malik, N. (2000). System for coding interactions and family functioning (SCIFF): A coding system for family problem discussions. Unpublished manuscript, University of Miami.
- Linver, M., Brooks-Gunn, J., & Kohen, D. (2002). Family processes as pathways from income to young children's development. Developmental Psychology, 38, 719–734.
- McLoyd, V. (1990). The impact of economic hardship on black families and children: Psychological distress, parenting, and socioemotional development. Child Development, 61, 311–346.
- Meich, R., Essex, M., & Goldsmith, H. (2001). Socioeconomic status and the adjustment to school: The role of self-regulation during early childhood. Sociology of Education, 74, 102–120.
- Mezzacappa, E. (2004). Alerting, orienting, and executive attention: Developmental properties and sociodemographic correlates in an epidemiological sample of young, urban children. Child Development, 75, 1373–1386.
- Mischel, W., Shoda, Y., & Peake, K. (1988). The nature of adolescent competencies predicted by preschool delay of gratification. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 54, 687–696.
- Mistry, R., Vandewater, E., Huston, A., & McLoyd, V. (2002). Economic well-being and children's social adjustment: The role of family process in an ethnically diverse low-income sample. Child Development, 73, 935–951.
- Mistry, R., Benner, A., Biesanz, J., Clark, S., & Howes, C. (2010). Family and social risk, and parental investments during the early childhood years as predictors of low-income children's school readiness outcomes. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 25, 432–449.
- Muris, P., van der Pennen, E., Sigmond, R., & Mayer, B. (2008). Symptoms of anxiety, depression, and aggression in non-clinical children: Relationships with self-report and performance-based measures of attention and effortful control. Child Psychiatry and Human Development, 39, 455–467.
- Muthen, L., & Muthen, B. (2010). Mplus user's guide ( 6th ed.). Los Angeles, CA: Muthen & Muthen.
- Olson, S., Bates, J., & Bayles, K. (1990). Early antecedents of childhood impulsivity: The role of parent-child interactions, cognitive competence, and temperament. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 18, 317–334.
- Ponitz, C., McClelland, M., Jewkes, A., Connor, C., Farris, C., & Morrison, F. (2008). Touch your toes! Developing a direct measure of behavioral regulation in early childhood. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 23, 141–158.
- Radloff, L. (1977). The CES-D Scale: A self-report depression scale for research in the general population. Applied Psychological Measurement, 1, 385–401.
- Raver, C. (2004). Placing emotional self-regulation in sociocultural and socioeconomic contexts. Child Development, 75, 346–353.
-
Raver, C. C., Blackburn, E. K., Bancroft, M., & Torp, N. (1999). Relations between effective emotional self-regulation, attentional control, and low-income preschoolers' social competence with peers. Early Education and Development, 10, 333–350.
10.1207/s15566935eed1003_6 Google Scholar
- Raver, C., Jones, S., Li Grining, C., Zhai, F., Bub, K., & Pressler, E. (2011). CRSP's impact on low-income preschoolers' preacademic skills: Self-regulation as a mediating mechanism. Child Development, 82, 362–378.
- Rothbart, M., & Bates, J. (2006). Temperament. In N. Eisenberg, N. Damon, & R. Lerner (Eds.), Handbook of child psychology: Vol. 3, Social, emotional, and personality development ( 6th ed., pp. 99–166). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.
- Rothbart, M., Ahadi, S., & Evans, D. (2000). Temperament and personality: Origins and outcomes. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 78, 122–135.
- Rubin, K., & Cheah, C. (2000). Parental warmth and control scale—revised. University of Maryland.
- Sandler, I., Ramirez, R., & Reynolds, K. (1986). Life stress for children of divorce, bereaved, and asthmatic children. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Psychological Association, Washington, D.C.
- Sektnan, M., McClelland, M., Acock, A., & Morrison, F. (2010). Relations between early family risk, children's behavioral regulation, and academic achievement. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 25, 464–479.
- Valiente, C., Lemery-Calfant, K., & Castro, K. (2007). Children's effortful control and academic competence: Mediation through school liking. Merrill-Palmer Quarterly, 53, 1–25.
- Valiente, C., Lemery-Chalfant, K., & Reiser, M. (2007). Pathways to problem behaviors: Chaotic homes, parent and child effortful control, and parenting. Social Development, 16, 249–267.
-
Wadsworth, M., Raviv, T., Compas, B., & Connor-Smith, J. (2005). Parent and adolescent responses to poverty-related stress: Tests of mediated and moderated coping models. Journal of Child and Family Studies, 14, 283–298.
10.1007/s10826-005-5056-2 Google Scholar
- Wiebe, S., Sheffield, T., Nelson, J., Clark, C., Chevalier, N., & Espy, K. (2011). The structure of executive function in 3-year-olds. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 108, 436–452.
- Zalewski, M., Lengua, L. J., Kiff, C., & Fisher, P. (2012). Understanding the relation of low income to HPA-axis functioning in preschool children: Cumulative family adversity and parenting as pathways to disruptions in cortisol. Child Psychiatry and Human Development, doi: 10.1007/s10578-012-0304-3
- Zelazo, P., Muller, U., Frye, D., & Marcovitch, S. (2003). The development of executive function in early childhood. Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development, 68, 11–27. Serial no. 274.
- Zhou, Q., Chen, S., & Main, A. (2011). Commonalities and differences in the research on children's effortful control and executive function: A call for an integrated model of self-regulation. Child Development Perspectives, 5, 112–121.
