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: Ting, Sharon, Kyeong, Yena, Kee, Michelle, Law, Evelyn, Rifkin-Graboi, Anne, Lourdes, Mary Daniel, Eriksson, Johan, Chen, Helen, Setoh, Peipei
Other Authors: School of Social Sciences
Format: Working Paper
Language:English
Published: 2024
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Online Access:https://hdl.handle.net/10356/175907
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Institution: Nanyang Technological University
Language: English
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spelling sg-ntu-dr.10356-1759072024-05-12T15:31:38Z Early language ability and the trajectory of internalizing problems across childhood: the mediating role of maternal parenting practices Ting, Sharon Kyeong, Yena Kee, Michelle Law, Evelyn Rifkin-Graboi, Anne Lourdes, Mary Daniel Eriksson, Johan Chen, Helen Setoh, Peipei School of Social Sciences National Institute of Education Division of Psychology National University of Singapore KK Women's and Children's Hospital Singapore Institute for Clinical Sciences, A*STAR Social Sciences 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. Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR) Ministry of Education (MOE) Ministry of Health (MOH) National Medical Research Council (NMRC) National Research Foundation (NRF) 2024-05-09T02:38:10Z 2024-05-09T02:38:10Z 2024 Working Paper Ting, S., Kyeong, Y., Kee, M., Law, E., Rifkin-Graboi, A., Lourdes, M. D., Eriksson, J., Chen, H. & Setoh, P. (2024). Early language ability and the trajectory of internalizing problems across childhood: the mediating role of maternal parenting practices. Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. https://hdl.handle.net/10356/175907 https://hdl.handle.net/10356/175907 en NUHSRO/2021/093/NUSMed/13/LOA RG39/22 OF-LCG; MOH-000504 © 2024 The Author(s). All rights reserved. application/pdf
institution Nanyang Technological University
building NTU Library
continent Asia
country Singapore
Singapore
content_provider NTU Library
collection DR-NTU
language English
topic Social Sciences
spellingShingle Social Sciences
Ting, Sharon
Kyeong, Yena
Kee, Michelle
Law, Evelyn
Rifkin-Graboi, Anne
Lourdes, Mary Daniel
Eriksson, Johan
Chen, Helen
Setoh, Peipei
Early language ability and the trajectory of internalizing problems across childhood: the mediating role of maternal parenting practices
description 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.
author2 School of Social Sciences
author_facet School of Social Sciences
Ting, Sharon
Kyeong, Yena
Kee, Michelle
Law, Evelyn
Rifkin-Graboi, Anne
Lourdes, Mary Daniel
Eriksson, Johan
Chen, Helen
Setoh, Peipei
format Working Paper
author Ting, Sharon
Kyeong, Yena
Kee, Michelle
Law, Evelyn
Rifkin-Graboi, Anne
Lourdes, Mary Daniel
Eriksson, Johan
Chen, Helen
Setoh, Peipei
author_sort Ting, Sharon
title Early language ability and the trajectory of internalizing problems across childhood: the mediating role of maternal parenting practices
title_short Early language ability and the trajectory of internalizing problems across childhood: the mediating role of maternal parenting practices
title_full Early language ability and the trajectory of internalizing problems across childhood: the mediating role of maternal parenting practices
title_fullStr Early language ability and the trajectory of internalizing problems across childhood: the mediating role of maternal parenting practices
title_full_unstemmed Early language ability and the trajectory of internalizing problems across childhood: the mediating role of maternal parenting practices
title_sort early language ability and the trajectory of internalizing problems across childhood: the mediating role of maternal parenting practices
publishDate 2024
url https://hdl.handle.net/10356/175907
_version_ 1800916345530875904