Examining the Effects of Changes in Classroom Quality on Within-Child Changes in Achievement and Behavioral Outcomes.

This study examines whether changes in classroom quality predict within-child changes in achievement and behavioral problems in elementary school (ages spanning approximately 6-11 years old). Drawing on data from a longitudinal study of children in predominantly low-income, nonurban communities (n = 1,078), we relied on child fixed effects modeling, which controlled for stable factors that could bias the effects of classroom quality. In general, we found that changes in classroom quality had small and statistically nonsignificant effects on achievement and behavior. However, we found that moving into a high-quality classroom, particularly those rated as high in Classroom Organization, had positive effects on achievement and behavior for children with significant exposure to poverty in early life.

How Early Maternal Language Input Varies by Race and Education and Predicts Later Child Language.

The maternal language input literature suggests that mothers with more education use a greater quantity and complexity of language with their young children compared to mothers with less education although race and socioeconomic status have been confounded in most studies because of small sample sizes. The current Family Life study included a representative sample of 1,292 children, oversampling for poverty and African American, followed from birth. This study found no race differences within maternal education levels on five measures of maternal language input from 6 to 36 months. Maternal language input variables of number of different words, mean length of utterance and number of wh-questions were partial mediators of the relationship between maternal education and later child language at school age.

Infant and Toddler Child-Care Quality and Stability in Relation to Proximal and Distal Academic and Social Outcomes.

This study considered the quality and stability of infant and toddler nonparental child care from 6 to 36 months in relation to language, social, and academic skills measured proximally at 36 months and distally at kindergarten. Quality was measured separately as caregiver-child verbal interactions and caregiver sensitivity, and stability was measured as having fewer sequential child-care caregivers. This longitudinal examination involved a subsample (N = 1,055) from the Family Life Project, a representative sample of families living in rural counties in the United States. Structural equation modeling revealed that children who experienced more positive caregiver-child verbal interactions had higher 36-month language skills, which indirectly led to higher kindergarten academic and social skills. Children who experienced more caregiver stability had higher kindergarten social skills.

Latent Class Growth Trajectories of Letter Name Knowledge During Pre-Kindergarten and Kindergarten.

A major developmental task for young children in the United States involves the acquisition of knowledge about the letters in the English alphabet. In the current study, we examined the growth trajectories of children's letter name knowledge (LNK) during pre-kindergarten and kindergarten. A diverse sample of 1,015 children was drawn from the National Center for Early Development and Learning Multi-State Study of Pre-Kindergarten. Latent class growth analyses were used to identify three heterogeneous classes of children based on their LNK growth trajectories. Children's fall-of-pre-kindergarten language skills were associated with trajectory class membership, which in turn was associated with children's spring-of-kindergarten literacy skills. We also found that the association between children's fall-of-pre-kindergarten language skills and spring-of-kindergarten literacy skills was partially mediated by trajectory class membership. These findings point to the importance of LNK skill development as a marker variable to monitor and support children's emergent literacy development.

Rural Families' Use of Multiple Child Care Arrangements from 6 to 58 Months and Children's Kindergarten Behavioral and Academic Outcomes.

Non-parental child care prior to kindergarten is a normative experience for the majority of children in the United States, with children commonly experiencing multiple arrangements, or more than one concurrent child care arrangement. The experience of multiple arrangements has predominantly been shown to be negatively related to young children's health and behavioral outcomes. The present study examined the use of multiple concurrent arrangements for children in the Family Life Project, a representative sample of families living in six high-poverty rural counties. Using the full sample of 1,292 children who were followed from six months to kindergarten, this study examined the associations between the number of child care arrangements averaged across six time points and children's behavioral and academic outcomes in kindergarten. After including a number of control variables, regression results suggested that a greater number of arrangements prior to kindergarten were related to higher levels of teacher-reported negative behaviors, but not positive behaviors, and letter-word decoding skills, but not mathematics skills, though effect sizes were small. Moderation analyses by child care type and quality were conducted, with no evidence emerging that findings varied by type or quality of care.

The interplay among socioeconomic status, household chaos, and parenting in the prediction of child conduct problems and callous-unemotional behaviors.

Child conduct problems (CP) reflect a heterogeneous collection of oppositional, aggressive, norm-violating, and sometimes violent behaviors, whereas child callous-unemotional (CU) behaviors reflect interpersonal styles of interactions reflecting a lack of guilt and empathy as well as uncaring and shallow emotional responses to others. Taken together, high levels of child CP and CU behaviors are thought to identify a relatively homogenous group of children at elevated risk for persistent and more severe problem behaviors across childhood and into adulthood. Although a large body of research has examined the developmental etiology of CP behaviors, only recently has a developmental psychopathology approach been applied to early CU behaviors. The current study examines multiple levels of contextual influences during the first years of life, including family socioeconomic status, household chaos, and parenting behaviors, on CP and CU behaviors assessed during the first-grade year. Whereas previous studies found associations between parenting behaviors and child problem behaviors moderated by household chaos, the current study found no evidence of moderation. However, path analyses suggest that the associations between child CP and CU behaviors and the contextual variables of socioeconomic status (family income and parental education) and household chaos (disorganization and instability) were mediated by maternal sensitive and harsh-intrusive parenting behavior. Analyses are presented, interpreted, and discussed with respect to both bioecological and family stress models of development.

The contribution of children's time-specific and longitudinal expressive language skills on developmental trajectories of executive function.

To investigate whether children's early language skills support the development of executive functions (EFs), the current study used an epidemiological sample (N=1121) to determine whether two key language indicators, vocabulary and language complexity, were predictive of EF abilities over the preschool years. We examined vocabulary and language complexity both as time-varying covariates that predicted time-specific indicators of EF at 36 and 60 months of age and as time-invariant covariates that predicted children's EF at 60 months and change in EF from 36 to 60 months. We found that the rate of change in children's vocabulary between 15 and 36 months was associated with both the trajectory of EF from 36 to 60 months and the resulting abilities at 60 months. In contrast, children's language complexity had a time-specific association with EF only at 60 months. These findings suggest that children's early gains in vocabulary may be particularly relevant for emerging EF abilities.

The role of household chaos in understanding relations between early poverty and children's academic achievement.

The following prospective longitudinal study used an epidemiological sample (N = 1,236) to consider the potential mediating role of early cumulative household chaos (6-58 months) on associations between early family income poverty (6 months) and children's academic achievement in kindergarten. Two dimensions of household chaos, disorganization and instability, were examined as mediators. Results revealed that, in the presence of household disorganization (but not instability) and relevant covariates, income poverty was no longer directly related to academic achievement. Income poverty was, however, positively related to household disorganization, which was, in turn, associated with lower academic achievement. Study results are consistent with previous research indicating that household chaos conveys some of the adverse longitudinal effects of income poverty on children's outcomes and extend previous findings specifically to academic achievement in early childhood.

Household Chaos and Children's Cognitive and Socio-Emotional Development in Early Childhood: Does Childcare Play a Buffering Role?

Evidence suggests that household chaos is associated with less optimal child outcomes. Yet, there is an increasing indication that children's experiences in childcare may buffer them against the detrimental effects of such environments. Our study aims were to test: (1) whether children's experiences in childcare mitigated relations between household chaos and children's cognitive and social development, and (2) whether these (conditional) chaos effects were mediated by links between chaos and executive functioning. Using data from The Family Life Project (n = 1,235)-a population-based sample of families from low-income, rural contexts-our findings indicated that household disorganization in early childhood was predictive of worse cognitive and social outcomes at approximately age five. However, these relations were substantially attenuated for children attending greater childcare hours. Subsequent models indicated that the conditional associations between household disorganization and less optimal outcomes at age five were mediated by conditional links between disorganization and less optimal executive functioning.

Early communicative gestures prospectively predict language development and executive function in early childhood.

Using an epidemiological sample (N = 1,117) and a prospective longitudinal design, this study tested the direct and indirect effects of preverbal and verbal communication (15 months to 3 years) on executive function (EF) at age 4 years. Results indicated that whereas gestures (15 months), as well as language (2 and 3 years), were correlated with later EF (φs ≥ .44), the effect was entirely mediated through later language. In contrast, language had significant direct and indirect effects on later EF. Exploratory analyses indicated that the pattern of results was comparable for low- and not-low-income families. The results were consistent with theoretical accounts of language as a precursor of EF ability, and highlighted gesture as an early indicator of EF.

The Family Life Project: an epidemiological and developmental study of young children living in poor rural communities.

About 20% of children in the United States have been reported to live in rural communities, with child poverty rates higher and geographic isolation from resources greater than in urban communities. There have been surprisingly few studies of children living in rural communities, especially poor rural communities. The Family Life Project helped fill this gap by using an epidemiological design to recruit and study a representative sample of every baby born to a mother who resided in one of six poor rural counties over a 1-year period, oversampling for poverty and African American. 1,292 children were followed from birth to 36 months of age. This monograph described these children and used a cumulative risk model to examine the relation between social risk and children's executive functioning, language development, and behavioral competence at 36 months. Using both the Family Process Model of development and the Family Investment Model of development, observed parenting was examined over time in relation to child functioning at 36 months. Different aspects of observed parenting were examined as mediators/moderators of risk in predicting child outcomes. Results suggested that cumulative risk was important in predicting all three major domains of child outcomes and that positive and negative parenting and maternal language complexity were mediators of these relations. Maternal positive parenting was found to be a buffer for the most risky families in predicting behavioral competence. In a final model using both family process and investment measures, there was evidence of mediation but with little evidence of the specificity of parenting for particular outcomes. Discussion focused on the importance of cumulative risk and parenting in understanding child competence in rural poverty and the implications for possible intervention strategies that might be effective in maximizing the early development of these children.

Work Characteristics and Fathers' Vocabulary to Infants in African American Families.

Fathers' vocabulary to infants has been linked in the literature to early child language development, however, little is known about the variability in fathers' language behavior. This study considered associations between fathers' work characteristics and fathers' vocabulary among a sample of employed African American fathers of 6-month old infants who were living in low-income rural communities. After controlling for family and individual factors, we found that fathers who worked nonstandard shifts and reported more job flexibility used more diverse vocabulary with their infants.

Nonstandard Maternal Work Schedules: Implications for African American Children's Early Language Outcomes.

In this study, observed maternal positive engagement and perception of work-family spillover were examined as mediators of the association between maternal nonstandard work schedules and children's expressive language outcomes in 231 African American families living in rural households. Mothers reported their work schedules when their child was 24 months of age and children's expressive language development was assessed during a picture book task at 24 months and with a standardized assessment at 36 months. After controlling for family demographics, child, and maternal characteristics, maternal employment in nonstandard schedules at the 24 month timepoint was associated with lower expressive language ability among African American children concurrently and at 36 months of age. Importantly, the negative association between nonstandard schedules and children's expressive language ability at 24 months of age was mediated by maternal positive engagement and negative work-family spillover, while at 36 months of age, the association was mediated only by negative work-family spillover. These findings suggest complex links between mothers' work environments and African American children's developmental outcomes.

Caregiver-Child Verbal Interactions in Child Care: A Buffer against Poor Language Outcomes when Maternal Language Input is Less.

Recent research has suggested that high quality child care can buffer young children against poorer cognitive and language outcomes when they are at risk for poorer language and readiness skills. Most of this research measured the quality of parenting and the quality of the child care with global observational measures or rating scales that did not specify the exact maternal or caregiver behaviors that might be causally implicated in the buffering of these children from poor outcomes. The current study examined the actual language by the mother to her child in the home and the verbal interactions between the caregiver and child in the child care setting that might be implicated in the buffering effect of high quality childcare. The sample included 433 rural children from the Family Life Project who were in child care at 36 months of age. Even after controlling for a variety of covariates, including maternal education, income, race, child previous skill, child care type, the overall quality of the home and quality of the child care environment; observed positive caregiver-child verbal interactions in the child care setting interacted with the maternal language complexity and diversity in predicting children's language development. Caregiver-child positive verbal interactions appeared to buffer children from poor language outcomes concurrently and two years later if children came from homes where observed maternal language complexity and diversity during a picture book task was less.

Rural Neighborhood Context, Child Care Quality, and Relationship to Early Language Development.

RESEARCH FINDINGS: Prior research with older urban children indicates that disadvantaged neighborhood context is associated with poorer early development, including poorer verbal ability, reading recognition, and achievement scores among children. Neighborhood disadvantage in rural communities and at younger age levels may also be related to development; however this relationship has received little examination. In this study we utilize data from the Family Life Project, a representative sample of babies born to mothers in poor rural counties in North Carolina and Pennsylvania, to address questions related to the relationship between neighborhood context (disadvantage and safety) and children's early language development. We examine mediation of this relationship by child care quality. We also examine geographic isolation and collective socialization as moderators of the relationship between neighborhood context and child care quality. Results indicated that while neighborhood disadvantage did not predict children's development or child care quality, neighborhood safety predicted children's receptive language, with child care quality a partial mediator of this relationship. Collective socialization but not geographic isolation moderated the relationship between neighborhood safety and child care quality. PRACTICE OR POLICY: Implications for policy, practice, and future research are discussed, including improving community safety through community policing, neighborhood watch, and social networks and increasing access to quality child care.

Chaos, Poverty, and Parenting: Predictors of Early Language Development.

Studies have shown that distal family risk factors like poverty and maternal education are strongly related to children's early language development. Yet, few studies have examined these risk factors in combination with more proximal day-to-day experiences of children that might be critical to understanding variation in early language. Young children's exposure to a chronically chaotic household may be one critical experience that is related to poorer language, beyond the contribution of SES and other demographic variables. In addition, it is not clear whether parenting might mediate the relationship between chaos and language. The purpose of this study was to understand how multiple indicators of chaos over children's first three years of life, in a representative sample of children living in low wealth rural communities, were related to child expressive and receptive language at 36 months. Factor analysis of 10 chaos indicators over five time periods suggested two factors that were named household disorganization and instability. Results suggested that after accounting for thirteen covariates like maternal education and poverty, one of two chaos composites (household disorganization) accounted for significant variance in receptive and expressive language. Parenting partially mediated this relationship although household disorganization continued to account for unique variance in predicting early language.

Early maternal language input and classroom instructional quality in relation to children's literacy trajectories from pre-kindergarten through fifth grade.

Both early childhood maternal language input and the quality of classroom instruction in elementary school have been shown to be important environmental supports in predicting children's literacy skill development. However, no studies have simultaneously examined these two environmental supports in relation to children's early language skills and later literacy skills across elementary school. The current study examined how multiple years of early maternal language input from 6 to 36 months and later classroom instructional quality from pre-kindergarten (pre-K) through fifth grade were related to children's early language at 36 months and later literacy trajectories in word recognition and reading comprehension across elementary school. The study included a diverse, population-representative sample of 1,292 children who were born in low-wealth rural communities and followed through fifth grade. Video recordings and subsequent transcripts of mother-child shared picture book tasks in the home at four timepoints during early childhood were used to assess maternal diversity of vocabulary, utterance complexity, and engagement (wh-questions) during book sharing. The quality of instruction in elementary school was assessed using classroom observations from pre-K through fifth grade. Maternal complexity and engagement were indirectly related to children's literacy trajectories across pre-K to fifth grade through effects on early child language at 36 months. Higher-quality classroom instruction was not reliably related to concurrent literacy skills in pre-K through fifth grade. Findings suggested the enduring importance of early maternal language input in predicting children's early language and later literacy skill development during elementary school. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Elementary Teachers' Intervention Fidelity in Relation to Reading and Vocabulary Outcomes for Students at Risk for Reading-Related Disabilities.

Teachers' implementation of differentiated supplemental instruction is critical to help students with or at risk for reading-related disabilities acquire early reading and vocabulary skills. This study represents an initial investigation of whether classroom teachers' intervention fidelity (exposure, adherence, and quality) of targeted reading instruction (TRI, formerly called targeted reading intervention), a professional development program with embedded student intervention and weekly webcam literacy coaching support, was related to spring reading and oral vocabulary gains for students at risk for reading-related disabilities. The study also examined whether teachers' years of participation in TRI (1 year vs. 2 years) moderated associations between intervention fidelity and students' reading and oral vocabulary outcomes. Findings suggested that teachers' adherence to TRI strategies was directly associated with students' vocabulary gains as well as word reading skills for teachers in their second year of participation. Furthermore, when teachers provided students with more TRI exposure during their second year of participation, students made greater gains in word reading and reading comprehension.

Fathers' Early Contributions to Children's Language Development in Families from Low-income Rural Communities.

This study utilized a large sample of two-parent families from low-income rural communities to examine the contributions of father education and vocabulary, during picture book interactions with their infants at 6 months of age, to children's subsequent communication development at 15 months and expressive language development at 36 months. After controlling for family demographics, child characteristics, as well as mother education and vocabulary, father education and father vocabulary during the picture-book task were related to more advanced language development at both 15 and 36 months of age. Only mother education, but not vocabulary during book-reading was related to children's later language. These findings support the growing evidence on the importance of fathers in understanding children's early communication and language development.

Early student (dis)engagement: Contributions of household chaos, parenting, and self-regulatory skills.

Previous studies suggest that the roots of school dropout (a) can be established early in life, (b) are likely to involve multilevel factors (home, child, classroom) operating prior to and during the elementary school years, and (c) can be identified by 3rd grade. The decision to drop out of school is thus a dynamic developmental process that can begin with disengagement in elementary school. Yet few studies have examined the multilevel factors that might contribute to children's early disengagement from school. In the present study, we examined associations between household chaos (i.e., disorganization and instability) from birth to age 5 and student (dis)engagement in third grade. We also examined positive parenting in early childhood (6-60 months) and child self-regulatory skills at kindergarten as potential mediators in this pathway. Participants were 1,097 children who participated in the Family Life Project, a longitudinal study of the development of children living in underresourced high poverty rural areas. Study questions were addressed using structural equation models. Results indicated that, even after taking into account a considerable number of covariates, early positive parenting and children's self-regulatory skills were viable process mechanisms through which early household disorganization, but not instability, was linked to student (dis)engagement in third grade. Findings are discussed with respect to the multilevel proximal forces at play in children's risk for early disengagement from school. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).