Maternal knowledge and the relationship between home environment and child development
Date
2013
Authors
Donnalley, Grace E., author
MacPhee, David, advisor
Barrett, Karen C., committee member
Mallette, Dawn M., committee member
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Abstract
Research has identified parenting abilities and the home environment as two of the most important contributors to a child's kindergarten abilities. However, little is understood about how these predictors, which contribute to school readiness, are formed, and even less is understood about how they interact with each other. This study explores the relation between socioeconomic status (SES) and maternal knowledge of child development; the relation between maternal knowledge of child development and age-appropriate stimulation in the home; if the relation between SES and cognitive stimulation in the home is mediated by mothers' accurate knowledge of development; and whether cognitive stimulation in the home mediates the relation between accurate developmental knowledge and child cognitive developmental level. Data collected from 1,387 families who participated in the Early Head Start study, from 1996 to 2010, were used. For the present study, each of these families' scores from the 14-month KIDI, 36-month Bayley MDI, 36-month PPVT, and 24-month HOME were used. Each mother was tested. Propensity scores were examined to account for attrition. Mediation was tested using multiple regression analysis.
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Subject
child development
school readiness
maternal knowledge