Early language ability and the trajectory of internalizing problems across childhood: the mediating role of maternal parenting practices
Early language problems and poor parenting practices are associated with more internalizing problems across childhood. However, scant research has directly examined the mediating role of parenting practices. Utilizing a sample of 309 mother-child dyads (49.8% females) from Singapore’s largest...
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Main Authors: | , , , , , , , , |
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Format: | Working Paper |
Language: | English |
Published: |
2024
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Subjects: | |
Online Access: | https://hdl.handle.net/10356/175907 |
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Institution: | Nanyang Technological University |
Language: | English |
Summary: | Early language problems and poor parenting practices are associated with more
internalizing problems across childhood. However, scant research has directly examined the
mediating role of parenting practices. Utilizing a sample of 309 mother-child dyads (49.8%
females) from Singapore’s largest birth cohort study, we investigated whether maternal
parenting practices mediate the association between children’s language abilities and growth
trajectory of internalizing problems.
Child language ability at 2 years was assessed with the Bayley-III Language Scale. Mothers
reported child internalizing problems at 4, 7, and 10.5 years using the Child Behavior Checklist.
When children were 4.5 years old, mothers reported their own use of authoritative (connection,
regulation, and autonomy-granting) and authoritarian parenting (physical coercion, verbal
hostility, and non-reasoning) with the Parenting Styles and Dimensions Questionnaire. Separate
mediation analyses with latent growth curve modeling were conducted for the two parenting
styles, while controlling for child sex.
Better language ability and greater use of authoritative parenting predicted faster decreases in
internalizing problems (Bs = 0.11, 2.42, SEs = 0.04, 0.92, ps < .01). Additionally, there was a
significant indirect effect of language ability on the trajectory of internalizing problems through
mothers’ authoritative parenting (B = 0.02, SE = 0.10, 95% CI [.01, .04], p = .01), but not
through their authoritarian parenting. Findings suggest that support for mothers to adopt more
positive parenting practices aligned with authoritative parenting could expedite the decline in
internalizing problems, which is of particular significance for children with language problems. |
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