|
|
Received: 26 August 2017 Revised: 7 May 2018 Accepted: 8 May 2018 DOI: 10.1111/sode.12306
ORIGINAL ARTICLE
Parenting beliefs and practices in toddlerhood as precursors to self‐regulatory, psychosocial, and academic outcomes in early and middle childhood in ethnically diverse low‐income families Jeffrey Liew1
| Gustavo Carlo2
1 Department of Educational Psychology, Texas A&M University
2
Department of Human Development and Family Science, University of Missouri 3
Department of Individual, Family, and Community Education, University of New Mexico Correspondence Jeffrey Liew, Department of Educational Psychology, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77845. Email:
[email protected]
| Cara Streit3 | Jean M. Ispa2
Abstract Ethnoracially diverse families living in poverty are vulner‐ able to stress, discrimination, and adversities that can be ‘toxic’ to parenting and to a wide range of psychosocial and academic outcomes in youth. Thus, there is high need to identify malleable protective and promotive factors that may lead to improved developmental trajectories and outcomes for at‐risk youth and families. In this study of 2,233 low‐income families with ethnoracially diverse chil‐ dren (49.5% girls; 42.5% European Americans, 38.4% African Americans, and 19.1% U.S. Latino/as), we tested a model positing that child‐rearing beliefs at 24 months and parenting practices at 36 months are precursors to the de‐ velopment of children’s self‐regulation at pre‐kindergar‐ ten, with self‐regulation as a mediating mechanism between parenting in toddlerhood and psychosocial and academic functioning at fifth grade. Results confirm that child‐rearing beliefs are precursors to parenting practices, and both parenting practices and self‐regulation are medi‐ ating mechanisms by which child‐rearing beliefs are linked to youths’ psychosocial and academic outcomes. The
© 2018 John Wiley & Sons Ltd | 891 Social Development. 2018;27:891–909. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/sode
|
LIEW et al.
892
results have implications for early parent education and parenting interventions, including public health ap‐ proaches that have the potential for positive impacts on vulnerable children, youth, and families. KEYWORDS
academic achievement, internalizing/externalizing, parents/ parenting, prosocial behavior, self‐regulation
1 | I NTRO D U C TI O N A large body of research shows that parenting practices influence children’s and adolescents’ developmental outcomes (e.g., Bugental & Grusec, 2006; Steinberg & Silk, 2002), and a growing body of research shows that parental socialization has influence on children’s self‐regulation and psychosocial adjustment (Eisenberg, Spinrad, & Valiente, 2015; Morris, Michael, Silk, & Houltberg, 2017). Yet, much remains unknown about the precursors of parenting practices and the intervening mechanisms by which parenting in infancy or toddlerhood transmit relatively long‐term influence on self‐regulatory, psychosocial, and academic functioning into early and middle childhood. Thus, the primary aims of this study were to test a theoretical model positing that child‐rearing beliefs and parenting practices in toddlerhood are precursors to the development of children’s self‐regulation in early childhood, with self‐regulation serving as a mediating mechanism between parenting in toddlerhood and psycho‐ social and academic functioning in middle childhood/early adolescence. The model was tested in ethnoracially diverse families living in poverty because economic and acculturative stress and discrimination have adverse ef‐ fects on parenting and on a wide range of childhood psychosocial, behavioral, and academic outcomes (Santiago, Wadsworth, & Stump, 2011). For such high‐need and high‐risk families, it is important to identify malleable pro‐ tective and promotive factors that might be unique to ethnoracial minority and low‐income families. These factors could inform intervention efforts for improved developmental trajectories and outcomes for vulnerable children, youth, and families.
1.1 | Child‐rearing values and parenting practices Parenting practices have been proposed as stemming from parental values and beliefs (Bornstein, Cote, & Venuti, 2001; Kohn, 1979; Okagaki & Sternberg, 1993; Rudy & Grusec, 2001). In particular, traditional (authoritarian/ restrictive) and progressive (democratic) child‐rearing values and beliefs have been identified as linked to parent‐ ing practices (Kohn, 1979). Authoritarian/restrictive child‐rearing values emphasize conformity and obedience in children whereas authoritative/democratic child‐rearing values emphasize independence or autonomy in children (Schaefer & Edgerton, 1985). Parents who value conformity in their children would be expected to emphasize restriction and coercive control whereas parents who value autonomy in their children would be expected to emphasize responsiveness and support (Luster, Rhoades, & Haas, 1989). According to ecocultural theory, child‐rearing values and beliefs that correspond to parenting behaviors can be understood through parents’ historical, socioeconomic, and cultural backgrounds and contexts (Harkness & Super, 1992). Accordingly, in a study on parents from 13 cultural groups in 9 countries in Africa, Asia, Europe, the Middle East, and North and South America, Deater‐Deckard et al. (2011) found differences in not only the levels of parental warmth and control but also how parental warmth and control relate to one another across the cultural groups. Studies have also found differences in parenting across ethnic or education/income groups (e.g., Fuligni & Brooks‐Gunn, 2013; Ispa et al., 2004). Furthermore, gender‐differentiated parenting behaviors have sometimes
LIEW et al.
|
893
been found. Some researchers (e.g., Leaper & Smith, 2004) have suggested that gender‐differentiated parenting behaviors may partly stem from sex‐based biological differences in children that become reinforced and perpet‐ uated by parental socialization. Thus, in the present study, potential effects from sociodemographic factors (child gender, ethnicity, and maternal education) were taken into account in analyses testing for the effects of child‐rear‐ ing values and parenting practices on youths’ psychosocial and academic outcomes. Although studies on relations between parents’ child‐rearing values/beliefs and actual or observed parenting behaviors are somewhat rare, some studies have documented such links. For example, Kochanska, Kuczynski, and Radke‐Yarrow (1989) found that mothers’ authoritarian/restrictive child‐rearing values were associated with direct commands and restrictive parenting behaviors whereas mothers’ authoritative/democratic child‐rearing values were associated with suggestions or scaffolding and positive encouragement. Similarly, Landry et al. (2008) found that mothers’ general beliefs and expectations about child development were linked to mothers’ auton‐ omy‐supportive rather than restrictive/controlling parenting behaviors. In the present study, we expected that mothers’ authoritarian/restrictive child‐rearing values would predict high levels of intrusiveness and low levels of supportiveness. We expected the opposite pattern of relations for mothers’ authoritative/democratic values and their parenting behaviors.
1.2 | Parenting practices and child self‐regulation In early childhood, parental socialization and parenting practices play important roles in shaping children’s self‐ regulatory capacities and skills (Dindo et al., 2017; Karreman, van Tuijl, van Aken, & Dekovic´, 2006; Morris et al., 2017). Emotion‐related self‐regulation (henceforth termed self‐regulation for brevity) “involves the modulation or modification of internal emotion‐relevant states and processes [e.g., attentional, physiological, and motivational states], emotion‐related behavior [including the expression of emotion], and/or situations that have evoked, or are likely to evoke, emotion” (Eisenberg et al., 2015, p. 220). Self‐regulation enables individuals to pursue goal‐di‐ rected activities, and is often reflected in their activity levels or behaviors, affect, and attention as they engage in goal‐directed activities across time and contexts. Morris, Silk, Steinberg, Myers, and Robinson (2007) highlighted the role of parenting on the development of self‐regulation in their tripartite model showing different ways that parenting practices or behaviors can serve as mechanisms that impact the development of self‐regulation in childhood and adolescence (also see Morris et al., 2017). Maternal intrusiveness and supportiveness are of special interest in this regard. Parental intrusiveness is characterized by autonomy‐restriction, and involves behaviors that exert control over the child rather than show‐ ing recognition and respect for the child’s perspective and feelings (Ispa et al., 2004). While intrusiveness may have different meanings for parents and children in different cultural groups (Ispa et al., 2013), in many studies, parental intrusiveness has been consistently linked to high levels of child negative affect and problem behaviors (Egeland, Pianta, & O’Brien, 1993; Pettit, Harrist, Bates, & Dodge, 1991). Consistent with research that has found that maternal autonomy‐restriction is associated with poor child self‐regulation (Grolnick & Ryan, 1989; Liew, Kwok, Chang, Chang, & Yeh, 2014; Morris et al., 2007), we expected that maternal intrusiveness would predict low levels of child self‐regulation. While parental intrusiveness has been linked to children’s poor self‐regulation, parental supportiveness has been linked to children’s competent self‐regulation. In a three‐wave longitudinal study, Eisenberg et al. (2005) found that parents’ warmth and positive expressivity predicted children’s effortful control, an aspect of self‐reg‐ ulation, two years later. In another three‐wave study, Ispa, Su‐Russell, Palermo, and Carlo (2017) showed positive relations between maternal sensitivity when children were a year old and self‐regulation one and two years later. Similarly, Liew, Johnson, Smith, and Thoemmes (2011) found that observations of parents’ warmth and positive expressivity when children were under stress predicted child self‐regulation as indexed by both physiological (i.e., respiratory sinus arrhythmia or RSA) and behavioral measures. Hence, we expected maternal supportiveness would predict children’s self‐regulation.
|
894
LIEW et al.
1.3 | Parenting practices and youth adjustment In addition to examining links between maternal intrusiveness and supportiveness and children’s self‐ regulation, we also investigated the links between these parenting constructs and youths’ psychosocial and academic out‐ comes. Specifically, we examined youths’ internalizing problems, externalizing problems, prosocial behaviors, and academic performance as four broad adjustment outcomes that represent psychosocial and academic functioning.
1.3.1 | Parenting practices and youths’ internalizing and externalizing problems Scholars have long asserted that overly controlling parenting with low warmth or support may predispose chil‐ dren to maladjustment (Barber, Stolz, Olsen, Collins, & Burchinal, 2005; Lansford, Laird, Pettit, Bates, & Dodge, 2014). In general, parental intrusiveness has been associated with children’s internalizing and externalizing prob‐ lems while low levels of parental supportiveness have been associated with children’s externalizing problems (Eisenberg & Valiente, 2002; Lansford et al., 2014). Weiss and Schwarz (1996) found that parental supportiveness was consistently associated with positive adolescent outcomes and low levels of internalizing and externalizing problems. However, several studies have failed to find a link between young children’s or adolescent’s problem behaviors and parental supportiveness (e.g., Galambos, Barker, & Almedia, 2003) or maternal intrusiveness (e.g., Eisenberg et al., 2015). While findings are somewhat mixed and longitudinal studies spanning early childhood to adolescence are rare, we nevertheless expected links between parenting practices in toddlerhood (supportive‐ ness and intrusiveness) and internalizing and externalizing symptoms in middle childhood/early adolescence based the overall pattern of prior research findings.
1.3.2 | Parenting practices and youths’ prosocial behaviors Studies show that parenting practices (e.g., parental control and supportiveness) are linked to adolescents’ proso‐ cial behaviors (e.g., Carlo, Mestre, Samper, Tur, & Armenta, 2011; Eisenberg & Valiente, 2002; Padilla‐Walker, Carlo, Christensen, & Yorgason, 2012; Streit, Carlo, Ispa, & Palermo, 2017). In early childhood, Newton, Laible, Carlo, Steele, and McGinley (2014) found that parental sensitivity predicted children’s later prosocial behaviors. And in middle childhood and early adolescence, Carlo et al. (2011) found that maternal supportiveness predicted youths’ later prosocial behaviors whereas maternal strict control/restriction was generally negatively related to prosocial behaviors. Similarly, Padilla‐Walker et al. (2012) found that authoritative mothering (a combination of moderate behavioral control and high supportiveness) predicted adolescents’ prosocial behaviors one year later. However, few studies have examined the long‐term influence of maternal intrusiveness and supportiveness in toddlerhood on prosocial behaviors in middle childhood/early adolescence.
1.3.3 | Parenting practices and youths’ academic achievement In addition to psychosocial outcomes such as problem or prosocial behaviors, studies have indicated that parent‐ ing influences youths’ academic outcomes. Generally, parental autonomy support is associated with children’s academic achievement and school grades (Grolnick & Ryan, 1989). By contrast, parental intrusive or restrictive control is linked to children’s endorsement of performance‐oriented goals rather than mastery or learning goals (Gurland & Grolnick, 2005). Children who endorse performance goals focus on outperforming others and often feel pressured to avoid failure or looking worse than others, placing them at risk for internalizing symptoms such as anxiety (Covington, 2000). Longitudinal relations have also been found between parental autonomy sup‐ port and achievement. For example, Joussemet, Koestner, Lekes, and Landry (2005) found that maternal au‐ tonomy support when children were in the age of 5 years predicted children’s reading achievement 3 years later. Overall, the pattern of results suggests that intrusive and controlling parenting may be linked with children’s
LIEW et al.
|
895
performance‐oriented achievement goals, which over time, may result in anxiety, avoidance, and introjected or externally regulated behavior that negatively impacts learning and achievement.
1.4 | Children’s self‐regulation and youths’ adjustment and academic outcomes A sizable body of research shows that self‐regulation is associated with psychosocial and academic outcomes in early childhood and middle childhood/early adolescence (e.g., Eisenberg, Spinrad, & Valiente, 2016; Liew et al., 2014). While the majority of such studies have been cross‐sectional, longitudinal relations have been found between early self‐regulation and future psychosocial and academic functioning (e.g., Brody, McBride‐Murry, Kim, & Brown, 2002; Eisenberg et al., 2005; Eisenberg, Liew, & Pidada, 2004). For example, in a study on African American single‐mother‐headed families, self‐regulation predicted cognitive and social competence and psy‐ chological adjustment one year later in early adolescence (Brody et al., 2002). In a different study conducted on Indonesian children, self‐regulation at third grade predicted prosocial behaviors, social competence, and low aggression in sixth grade, particularly for boys (Eisenberg et al., 2004). In another longitudinal study on North American children, self‐regulation mediated the relation between parental supportiveness/warmth and child ex‐ ternalizing problems (Eisenberg et al., 2005). There is also emerging evidence showing that children’s self‐regulation is associated with school readiness and academic achievement (e.g., Blair & Raver, 2015; Harmeyer, Ispa, Palermo, & Carlo, 2016). In early childhood, Graziano, Reavis, Keane, and Calkins (2007) found that kindergarteners’ emotion regulation predicted their aca‐ demic competence and standardized measures of mathematics and early literacy skills. Other studies on young children show that behavioral and attentional or neurocognitive aspects of self‐regulation are predictive of math‐ ematics, literacy, and vocabulary skills or achievement (e.g., Best, Miller, & Naglieri, 2011; Bull & Scerif, 2001; Ponitz, McClelland, Matthews, & Morrison, 2009). Given the established links between early parenting, self‐regulation, and adjustment or academic outcomes, we examine self‐regulation in early childhood as a mediating mechanism by which parenting practices in toddler‐ hood transmit influence on psychosocial and academic outcomes in middle childhood/early adolescence. Several studies, although sparse, have shown support for the mediating influence of self‐regulation in the relations be‐ tween parenting and prosocial or aggressive/disruptive behaviors (e.g., Chang, Olson, Sameroff, & Sexton, 2011; Valiente, Lemery‐Chalfant, & Reiser, 2007; Wong, 2008). And to date, a few studies have demonstrated that self‐ regulation serves as a mediating mechanism by which parenting practices exert influence on academic achieve‐ ment (Liew et al., 2014; Weis, Trommsdorff, & Muñoz, 2016; Wong, 2008). To our knowledge, the present study is one of the first to use a longitudinal design to examine self‐regulation (at pre‐kindergarten) as mediating the influence between parenting practices (at 36 months) and psychosocial and academic adjustment (in fifth grade) in ethnoracially diverse families living in poverty.
2 | M E TH O DS 2.1 | Participants This study uses data from a study of 3,001 mothers and children enrolled in the Early Head Start Research and Evaluation Project (EHSREP). Participants had family incomes at or below the federal poverty level, which was a requirement for eligibility for Early Head Start services. At study enrollment, participants were randomly assigned to receive Early Head Start services or to a comparison group. Families in the comparison group had the option to access other community services. Data were collected from 17 sites across the United States, with urban and rural locations represented. The present sample is restricted to 2,233 participants (49.5% female) who identified as European American, African American, or U.S. Latino/a. Those who identified as
|
896
LIEW et al.
Asian, as Black, but born in the Caribbean Islands or in Africa, or as White, but born in Europe, were not included in this study because the numbers of these groups were very small and their childhood and family experiences likely differed from those of European Americans, African Americans, or U.S. Latino/as. The resultant sample consisted of 950 (42.5%) European American participants, 857 (38.4%) African American participants, and 426 (19.1%) U.S. Latino participants. The current study used data from four measurement points: at Time 1, children were on average 25.12 months old (SD = 1.46 months), at Time 2, children were on average 37.40 months old (SD = 1.55 months), at Time 3, children were on average 5.26 years old (SD = .35 years), and at Time 4, children were on average 10.58 years old (SD = .51 years). At Time 1, mothers re‐ ported an average of 11.48 (SD = 2.34) years of education. Approximately 50.92% of participants had been randomly assigned to receive Early Head Start Services. This study involved secondary analysis of de‐identi‐ fied data collected as part of EHSREP, and was therefore exempt from, or did not require, IRB review at the institutions of the authors.
2.2 | Procedure Demographic information was collected from mothers upon enrollment in the EHSREP between July 1996 and September 1998. This study relied on information collected during home visits at four time points: when children were approximately 24 months old, 36 months old, pre‐kindergarten, and in fifth grade. When children were 24 months old, mothers completed the Parental Modernity Survey (Schaefer & Edgerton, 1985) to assess parent‐ ing values. When children were 36 months old, maternal supportiveness and intrusiveness were rated based on video‐recordings of mother‐child semi‐structured play episodes. During the spring and summer before children entered kindergarten, children were administered a battery of assessments, including the Leiter International Performance Scale‐Revised (Roid & Miller, 1997), which assesses several aspects of children’s self‐regulation via observer ratings. When children were in fifth grade, parents reported on children’s aggressive and anxious/depressive behaviors via the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL; Achenbach & Rescorla, 2000). In addition, children’s fifth grade teachers reported on children’s prosocial behaviors using the Social Skills Rating System (Gresham & Elliot, 1990). Academic achievement in fifth grade was assessed through performance on three tasks: the ECLS‐K Reading Assessment, the routing test of the ECLS‐K Math Assessment (see Pollack, Atkins‐Burnett, Najarian, & Rock, 2005), and the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test (PPVT‐III; Dunn & Dunn, 1997).
2.3 | Measures 2.3.1 | Parenting values When children were 24 months old, mothers reported on their traditional (e.g., ‘Child should always obey par‐ ents’) and progressive (e.g., ‘Child’s idea should be considered in family decisions’) childrearing values using 10 items (5 items for each type of value; as = .70 and .67, respectively) from the Parental Modernity Scale (Schaefer & Edgerton, 1985). Mothers responded to items on a 5‐point Likert scale (1 = strongly disagree; 5 = strongly agree). Scores for each subscale were averaged to arrive at scores for traditional and for progressive parenting values, with higher values indicating greater endorsement of those values.
2.3.2 | Maternal supportiveness and intrusiveness When children were 36 months old, mothers and children participated in a 10‐minute videotaped semi‐struc‐ tured play task (i.e., the Three Bag play task; see Fuligni & Brooks‐Gunn, 2013). Mothers’ positive regard, sensi‐ tivity, cognitive stimulation, and intrusiveness during play were rated according to 7‐point scales based on the
LIEW et al.
|
897
quality and quantity of their behavior with their children (1 = very low; 7 = very high). Mothers who scored high on the positive regard scale expressed love, respect, and/or admiration for the child. High scores for sensitivity reflected child‐centered awareness of children’s needs, moods, interests, and abilities, along with flexible bal‐ ancing of support and limit‐setting. High scores for cognitive stimulation indicated effortful teaching to enhance children’s language, cognitive, and perceptual understanding. High scores for intrusiveness reflected high control and restriction of children’s play behaviors. Given that the maternal sensitivity, positive regard, and cognitive stimulation scores were highly intercorrelated (rs > .92), they were averaged to create a composite score for a construct labeled maternal supportiveness (α = .98). All parenting dimensions were coded from the videotapes by a multiethnic team of coders. Coders were trained to a reliability standard of 85% agreement (exact or within 1 point) with a ‘gold standard coder’. After initial reliabil‐ ity was achieved, intermittent reliability checks were performed on 15–20% of each coder’s weekly assignments. All coders consistently maintained reliability scores of 85% or higher. Numerous studies using these parenting con‐ structs from the EHSREP data set have demonstrated their validity through theory‐consistent associations with child behaviors (e.g., Ayoub, Vallotton, & Mastergeorge, 2011; Cook, Roggman, & D’zatko, 2012; Ispa et al., 2013).
2.3.3 | Self‐regulation Children’s self‐regulation skills at pre‐kindergarten were assessed using the Leiter‐R International Performance Scale–Examiner Report (Roid & Miller, 1997). The Leiter‐R scales have been widely used in evaluation research, and their validity has been supported in numerous studies demonstrating relations with self‐regulation, attention, and activity level, for example, (Campbell, Brown, Cavanagh, Vess, & Segall, 2008; Tsatsanis et al., 2003). Trained observers were instructed to rate children on a 1 (rarely never—less than 10% of the time) to 4 (usually al‐ ways—more than 90% of the time) scale based on four activity level (e.g., ‘focuses without fidgeting, restlessness, or gazing elsewhere’; α = .77), six mood/regulation items (e.g., ‘stable disposition; no lability or mood swing’; α = .80), and 10 attention items (e.g., ‘pays attention to details within tasks’; α = .93). To reduce the number of variables, a latent self‐regulation factor was constructed, with activity, mood/regulation, and attention included as indicators. All indicators loaded significantly onto the latent factor with standardized estimates ranging from .74 to .85.
2.3.4 | Aggression At fifth grade, children’s aggressive behaviors were assessed via parent responses to the 18‐item Aggressive Behavior subscale of the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL; Achenbach & Rescorla, 2000; sample item: ‘Gets in many fights’). Parents used a 3‐point Likert scale ranging from 1 (very true) to 3 (not true) to indicate how well each attribute described their children. Items were reverse‐scored and shifted to 0, 1, and 2, and then summed so that higher values indicated more aggressive behaviors (α = .89).
2.3.5 | Anxiety/depression Using the CBCL with the response options, 1 (very true) to 3 (not true), at fifth grade, parents rated their children’s anxiety and depressive symptoms on 13 items (e.g., ‘Nervous, high‐strung, or tense’ and ‘Worries’; α = .77). Higher values indicated more anxiety/depressive symptoms.
2.3.6 | Prosocial behaviors At fifth grade, teachers rated children’s prosocial behaviors (i.e., actions intended to benefit others) on a 3‐point Likert scale ranging from 1 (Never) to 3 (Very often) using nine items (e.g., ‘Comforts or helps other children’; ‘Is sensitive to the feelings of others’; α = .93) from the Social Skills Rating System (SSRS; Gresham & Elliot, 1990).
|
898
LIEW et al.
The SSRS has demonstrated reliability and convergent validity, correlating with many other measures of positive adjustment (see Hamre & Pianta, 2005).
2.3.7 | Academic achievement At fifth grade, children’s academic achievement was assessed through the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test (PPVT‐III; Dunn & Dunn, 1997) and the ECLS‐K math and reading assessments (see Pollack et al., 2005). The PPVT‐III measures children’s knowledge of the meaning of spoken words and concepts, and is normed by age with a standard mean score of 100 (SD = 15). For the ECLS‐K math assessment, only the 18‐item routing section was administered. A latent factor of academic achievement was constructed, with the PPVT, math assessment, and reading assessment included as indicators. All loaded significantly onto one latent factor with standardized estimates ranging from .65 to .94.
3 | R E S U LT S 3.1 | Analysis plan Preliminary and descriptive analyses were conducted prior to the testing of a model to examine parenting prac‐ tices and child self‐regulation as mediating mechanisms between child‐rearing values in toddlerhood and psycho‐ social or academic functioning in middle childhood/early adolescence. To test the proposed model, structural equation modeling analyses were conducted using full information maximum likelihood (FIML) to account for missing data in Mplus version 7.2 (Muthén & Muthén, 2010). In all anal‐ yses, self‐regulation and academic achievement were treated as latent variables; the factor loadings on all items on each subscale were significant and above .50. Model fit is considered good if the Comparative Fit Index (CFI) is greater than or equal to .95 (adequate if greater than or equal to .90), the Root Mean Square Error of Approximation (RMSEA) is less than or equal to .06 (adequate if less than or equal to .08), and the Standardized Root Mean Squared Residual (SRMR) is less than or equal to .08 (Hu & Bentler, 1999). Mothers’ reports of their progressive and traditional parenting values at 24 months were modeled to predict their parenting behaviors at 36 months, self‐regulation at pre‐kindergarten, and psychosocial and academic outcomes at fifth grade. Additionally, maternal parenting behaviors at 36 months were modeled to predict self‐regulation at pre‐kindergarten, and psychosocial and academic outcomes at fifth grade. Finally, self‐regulation at pre‐kindergarten was modeled to predict psycho‐ social and academic outcomes at fifth grade. Variables measured at the same time point were allowed to correlate in the model (e.g., progressive and traditional parenting values). In the initial model, child gender, ethnicity, mater‐ nal education, and program assignment were included as covariates or controls.
3.2 | Preliminary analysis 3.2.1 | Attrition and missing data analyses Analyses were conducted to examine whether there were differences on the demographic and main study vari‐ ables between participants with and without data at fifth grade. A multivariate main effect [F(12, 769) = 2.40, p
