Buffering Boys and Boosting Girls: The Protective and Promotive Effects of Early Head Start for Children's Expressive Language in the Context of Parenting Stress

Overview

Journal Early Child Res Q

Date 2012 Nov 21

PMID 23166405

Citations 8

Authors

C D Vallotton

T Harewood

C A Ayoub

B Pan

A M Mastergeorge

H Brophy-Herb

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Children's characteristics, including gender, influence their development by eliciting differential responses from their environments, and by influencing differential responses to their environments. Parenting-related stress, associated with poverty environments, negatively influences children's language, likely through its impact on parent-child interactions, but may impact boys' and girls' development differently. Early intervention represents one tool for supporting development in at-risk toddlers, but gender-differences in effects of intervention are rarely described. The current studies assessed the effects of Early Head Start (EHS) on children's productive vocabulary in the context of parenting stress and examined gender differences in program effects on vocbulary. Data were from the national EHS Research and Evaluation (EHSRE) study (Study 1, N = 3,001), and from a dataset associated with one EHSRE site (Study 2, N = 146) where additional data on productive vocabulary were collected. Study 1 found that at 24 months of age, the EHS program protected girls' productive vocabulary from the negative effects of parenting stress, but had little impact on boys' vocabulary. In Study 2, the local EHS site promoted girls' vocabulary development over time from 14 to 36 months despite the negative effects of parenting stress, and protected boys' vocabulary from the negative parenting stress effects. These results suggest differential ways in which at-risk toddlers are affected by early intervention.

Citing Articles

Explicating Child-Driven Patterns of Parent-Child Responsivity in Fragile Families: A Longitudinal Approach.

Blume J, Park S, Cox M, Mastergeorge A Front Pediatr. 2022; 10:813486.

PMID: 35372155 PMC: 8965445. DOI: 10.3389/fped.2022.813486.

Raising Children in Risk Neighborhoods from Chile: Examining the Relationship between Parenting Stress and Parental Adjustment.

Sandoval-Obando E, Alcaide M, Salazar-Munoz M, Pena-Troncoso S, Hernandez-Mosqueira C, Gimenez-Serrano S Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2022; 19(1).

PMID: 35010304 PMC: 8751053. DOI: 10.3390/ijerph19010045.

Statistical Approaches for Estimating Sex-Specific Effects in Endocrine Disruptors Research.

Buckley J, Doherty B, Keil A, Engel S Environ Health Perspect. 2017; 125(6):067013.

PMID: 28665274 PMC: 5743445. DOI: 10.1289/EHP334.

Late Talkers: A Population-Based Study of Risk Factors and School Readiness Consequences.

Hammer C, Morgan P, Farkas G, Hillemeier M, Bitetti D, Maczuga S J Speech Lang Hear Res. 2017; 60(3):607-626.

PMID: 28257586 PMC: 5962923. DOI: 10.1044/2016_JSLHR-L-15-0417.

Early Vocabulary in Relation to Gender, Bilingualism, Type, and Duration of Childcare.

Stolarova M, Brielmann A, Wolf C, Rinker T, Burke T, Baayen H Adv Cogn Psychol. 2017; 12(3):130-144.

PMID: 28127412 PMC: 5225991. DOI: 10.5709/acp-0192-6.

References

Vallotton C . Do infants influence their quality of care? Infants' communicative gestures predict caregivers' responsiveness. Infant Behav Dev. 2009; 32(4):351-65. PMC: 3312016. DOI: 10.1016/j.infbeh.2009.06.001. View

Deater-Deckard K, Dodge K, Bates J, Pettit G . Multiple risk factors in the development of externalizing behavior problems: group and individual differences. Dev Psychopathol. 1998; 10(3):469-93. PMC: 2776047. DOI: 10.1017/s0954579498001709. View

Bradley R, Corwyn R . Socioeconomic status and child development. Annu Rev Psychol. 2001; 53:371-99. DOI: 10.1146/annurev.psych.53.100901.135233. View

Spira E, Fischel J . The impact of preschool inattention, hyperactivity, and impulsivity on social and academic development: a review. J Child Psychol Psychiatry. 2005; 46(7):755-73. DOI: 10.1111/j.1469-7610.2005.01466.x. View

Pan B, Rowe M, Singer J, Snow C . Maternal correlates of growth in toddler vocabulary production in low-income families. Child Dev. 2005; 76(4):763-82. DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-8624.2005.00876.x. View

Crnic K, Greenberg M, Ragozin A, Robinson N, Basham R . Effects of stress and social support on mothers and premature and full-term infants. Child Dev. 1983; 54(1):209-17. View

Conger R, Ge X, Elder Jr G, Lorenz F, Simons R . Economic stress, coercive family process, and developmental problems of adolescents. Child Dev. 1994; 65(2 Spec No):541-61. View

Nair P, Schuler M, Black M, Kettinger L, Harrington D . Cumulative environmental risk in substance abusing women: early intervention, parenting stress, child abuse potential and child development. Child Abuse Negl. 2003; 27(9):997-1017. DOI: 10.1016/s0145-2134(03)00169-8. View

Blatt-Eisengart I, Drabick D, Monahan K, Steinberg L . Sex differences in the longitudinal relations among family risk factors and childhood externalizing symptoms. Dev Psychol. 2009; 45(2):491-502. PMC: 3776310. DOI: 10.1037/a0014942. View

10.

Fagot B, Kavanagh K . Parenting during the second year: effects of children's age, sex, and attachment classification. Child Dev. 1993; 64(1):258-71. DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-8624.1993.tb02908.x. View

11.

Vallotton C, Ayoub C . Symbols Build Communication and Thought: The Role of Gestures and Words in the Development of Engagement Skills and Social-Emotional Concepts during Toddlerhood. Soc Dev. 2010; 19(3):601-626. PMC: 2914350. DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-9507.2009.00549.x. View

12.

Weinberg M, Tronick E, Cohn J, Olson K . Gender differences in emotional expressivity and self-regulation during early infancy. Dev Psychol. 1999; 35(1):175-88. DOI: 10.1037//0012-1649.35.1.175. View

13.

Love J, Kisker E, Ross C, Raikes H, Constantine J, Boller K . The effectiveness of early head start for 3-year-old children and their parents: lessons for policy and programs. Dev Psychol. 2005; 41(6):885-901. DOI: 10.1037/0012-1649.41.6.88. View

14.

Williford A, Calkins S, Keane S . Predicting change in parenting stress across early childhood: child and maternal factors. J Abnorm Child Psychol. 2006; 35(2):251-63. DOI: 10.1007/s10802-006-9082-3. View

15.

Hoff E . The specificity of environmental influence: socioeconomic status affects early vocabulary development via maternal speech. Child Dev. 2003; 74(5):1368-78. DOI: 10.1111/1467-8624.00612. View

16.

Shaw D, Vondra J . Infant attachment security and maternal predictors of early behavior problems: a longitudinal study of low-income families. J Abnorm Child Psychol. 1995; 23(3):335-57. DOI: 10.1007/BF01447561. View

17.

Noel M, Peterson C, Jesso B . The relationship of parenting stress and child temperament to language development among economically disadvantaged preschoolers. J Child Lang. 2008; 35(4):823-43. DOI: 10.1017/S0305000908008805. View

18.

Rowe M, Goldin-Meadow S . Differences in early gesture explain SES disparities in child vocabulary size at school entry. Science. 2009; 323(5916):951-3. PMC: 2692106. DOI: 10.1126/science.1167025. View

19.

Vallotton C, Ayoub C . Use Your Words: The Role of Language in the Development of Toddlers' Self-Regulation. Early Child Res Q. 2011; 26(2):169-181. PMC: 3184006. DOI: 10.1016/j.ecresq.2010.09.002. View

20.

Vaughn B, Kopp C, Krakow J . The emergence and consolidation of self-control from eighteen to thirty months of age: normative trends and individual differences. Child Dev. 1984; 55(3):990-1004. View