Authoritative Parenting of Chinese Mothers of Children with and without Intellectual Disability

The present study examined authoritative parenting and associations with parenting sense of competence and social support in Chinese mothers of children with intellectual disability and mothers of typically developing children. One hundred and sixty-seven mothers of children with intellectual disability with a mean age of 10.89 years (SD?=?1.74) and 119 mothers of typically developing children with a mean age of 10.55 years (SD?=?1.10) participated in a survey. Mothers of children with intellectual disability reported similar levels of parental warmth, and less use of reasoning and autonomy support compared with mothers of typically developing children. Parenting efficacy contributed uniquely to three dimensions of authoritative parenting for mothers of children with intellectual disability. By comparison, parenting efficacy did not contribute to use of reasoning and autonomy support for mothers of typically developing children. Social support made a unique but small contribution to parental warmth but not to parental reasoning and autonomy support for mothers of children with intellectual disability. For mothers of typically developing children, social support was associated with both parental warmth and autonomy support. This study suggests that child disability status is related to maternal authoritative parenting, and additionally, parenting efficacy plays a more critical role in predicting authoritative parenting of Chinese mothers of children with intellectual disability than mothers of typically developing children.     

The impact of maternal schooling and occupation on child-rearing attitudes and behaviours in low income neighbourhoods in Cairo,Egypt

This study evaluated how Cairene mothers of low-income neighborhoods with different levels of education and occupational status prepare their preschoolers for the cognitive demands of school. It was hypothesized that educated working mothers act as mediators of their children's learning; endorse less traditional socialization values, believe in earlier developmental timetables, and more frequently show child-rearing behaviors which have been associated with intellectual development in children. Interviews and intelligence tests concerning socialization values and practices were administered to 30 mothers. Overall, the respondents were found to emphasize a controlling, restricting, and protecting style of child rearing. They adopted ideals that include moral education, compliance, agreeableness, passivity, and loyalty. Observation revealed little verbal interaction or stimulation of children. In contrast, educated working mothers expressed belief in earlier developmental timetables and endorsed the less traditional values of stimulating and interacting, subsequently supporting the hypothesis. They were also more positively verbally interacting with their children during the interview compared to nonworking low-educated mothers. Findings underscore the potential benefit of investing in girls' education for the future of their children.     

The relationship between quality of attachment in infancy and IQ in kindergarten

In this study, we hypothesized that securely attached infants would in kindergarten perform better on an intelligence test than anxiously attached children. No difference was expected between children of working mothers (working more than 15 hours outside the home) and children of full-time homemakers. Mother-child pairs (N = 77; average age of child was 24 months) were observed during the Strange Situation procedure; three years later, 65 children completed the Leiden Diagnostic Test for measuring intelligence level. Results showed that the securely attached reference group attained the highest IQ. The working status of the mother did not appear to make a difference.     

Reliability and validity of mothers' developmental estimates for children between 4 and 41 months

The feasibility of mothers estimating their own children's development is explored in this paper. Construction, reliability and validity of a mothers' developmental inventory for children from 4 months to 41 months is described. The inventory consists of six subtests: Gross Motor, Fine Motor, Language Expression, Language Comprehension, Personal-Social Competence and Self Help. A preliminary version of the inventory was item analyzed on a sample of 105 mothers of 4 to 37 months old children. This reduced the inventory to 164 items with satisfactory reliability and age discrimination on half-year intervals. The list was cross-validated on a sample of 275 mothers, for which medians of alpha coefficients for the six subtests ranged from 0.69 to 0.96, with most (26 out of 36) coefficients being 0.77 or higher. Again, the age discrimination was satisfactory, although floor effects appeared on four subtests for children younger than 12 months and ceiling effects on two subtests for children older than 24 months.     

A COMPARISON OF VIETNAMESE-AUSTRALIAN AND ANGLO-AUSTRALIAN MOTHERs' BELIEFS ABOUT INTELLECTUAL DEVELOPMENT*

Vietnamese- and Anglo-Australian mothers' beliefs about intelligence and its development were obtained through a structured interview. Twenty-five working-class Vietnamese, 32 working-class and 39 upper-middle-class Anglo mothers of five-year-old children were asked about the heritability and stability of intelligence, its importance in different life domains and the roles of parents and teachers in developing intelligence. Developmental timetables for the acquisition of certain intellectual abilities were also elicited. Culture emerged as a significant influence on mothers' beliefs considerably more than did social class or sex of their child. Vietnamese mothers perceived intelligence as more important than did Anglo mothers, had a more narrowly focused view of education and intellectual development, and expected later acquisition of intellectual abilities. These differences are consistent with traditional Vietnamese values.     

Joint roles of parenting and nutritional status for child development: Evidence from rural Cambodia

Substantial work has demonstrated that early nutrition and home environments, including the degree to which children receive cognitive stimulation and emotional support from parents, play a profound role in influencing early childhood development. Yet, less work has documented the joint influences of parenting and nutritional status on child development among children in the preschool years living in low‐income countries. Using panel data from 2016 to 2017 on the parenting, nutritional status, and early developmental outcomes (executive function, language, early numeracy, and socioemotional problems) of 6,508 Cambodian children ages 3–5 years, our findings demonstrate that inequities in early development associated with family wealth are evident at age 3 and increase among children ages 4 and 5 years. Using hierarchical regression analysis, a significant share of these inequalities is explained by differences in parenting and early nutritional status, measured by stunting. Better‐educated parents engage in more stimulating and supportive parenting practices. However, the positive association between parenting and language and early numeracy outcomes is 35–54% stronger for non‐stunted children, and parental activities explain only about 8–14% of the cognitive gap between the lowest and highest wealth quintiles. The results highlight the need for additional research outlining interactions between environmental factors that link family wealth and child development.     

II. The comparability of the WISC-R and WAIS among 16-year-old EMR children

Thirty 16-year-old EMR children were administered the WAIS and WISC-R in counterbalance order to determine the comparability of the two assessment instruments. The WAIS was found to yield significantly higher Verbal, Performance, and Full Scale IQ scores. The comparisons of corresponding subtests indicate that all WAIS subtests were significantly higher than the WISC-R except Picture Completion. Correlations between corresponding WAIS and WISC-R IQ scales and subtests, however, were significant. The results suggest differences between the two instruments among children of subnormal intelligence, thus presenting the possibility that a child may be differentially classified based on the selection of the intelligence test.     

A longitudinal intergenerational analysis of executive functions during early childhood

Despite the importance of executive function (EF) in both clinical and educational contexts, the aetiology of individual differences in early childhood EF remains poorly understood. This study provides the first longitudinal intergenerational analysis of mother–child EF associations during early childhood. A group of children and their mothers (n = 62) completed age‐appropriate EF tasks. Mother and child EFs were modestly correlated by 24 months of age, and this association was stable through 48 months. Importantly, maternal–child EF associations were still robust after controlling for verbal ability (potential indicator of verbal/crystallized intelligence) and maternal education (correlate of socio‐economic status and verbal intelligence). Potential implications of these findings as well as underlying mechanisms of the maternal–child EF association (gene–environment interplay) are discussed.     

The Relation Between Mothers’ Attitudes Toward Maternal Employment and Social Competence of 36-Month-Olds: The Roles of Maternal Psychological Well-Being and Sensitivity

The relation of mothers’ attitudes on the effects of maternal employment on children, psychological well-being, sensitivity of the mother, and children’s socioemotional development were examined in mothers who worked full time (consistently) and mothers who were unemployed during their children’s early years of growth from 6 months of age. Longitudinal observations of 1,213 mothers and children from age 1 to 36 months from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) Study of Early Child Care were analyzed using structural equation models. Mothers and children benefited when maternal attitudes were consistent with the mothers’ actual employment status. Among consistently employed mothers, those with positive attitudes about employment had better psychological well-being. When mothers who were unemployed, they believed that maternal employment would have positive consequences for their children’s development, they preferred working outside home and they were more likely to show a low level of psychological well-being and poor quality of mother-child relation. Additionally, maternal well-being mediated the relation between a mother’s attitudes and a child’s social competence. For both groups, better psychological well-being of mothers was positively related to better child’s socioemotional outcome. Maternal sensitivity, however, did not mediate the relation between maternal attitudes and child’s social outcomes. The findings shed light on the need for a sensitive measure of characterizing mothers who work versus those who stay at home in order to better understand the effects on a child’s development.     

Sur la différenciation des aptitudes cognitives de l'enfant

Data from the standardization sample of a French intelligence scale for children aged from 4 to 9 years (Échelles Différentielles d'Efficiences Intellectuelles) were examined to verify the ability differentiation hypothesis. The whole sample (n = 574) was divided into three age groups (4–5, 6–7 and 8–9 years) and multisample confirmatory factor analyses were performed. Results showed that correlations between subtests, factor loadings, correlation between factors, and residual variance of subtests were similar across age groups. This finding doesn't seem to be the consequence of a sampling bias or a positive correlation between age and reliability or variability of subtest scores. Like results of other recent research on this question, it challenges the hypothesis of a differentiation of abilities during childhood, at least when studies are conducted with intellectual composite scales applied to unselected samples of participants.     

Teenage parenting and child development: a literature review

Research on teenage parenting together with medical and behavioral research related to child development is reviewed in an effort to determine causal factors related to reported developmental deficits among children of teenage parents. 4 general conclusions are suggested: 1) several researchers agree that children of teenage parents show poor social and intellectual competence when compared with children on non-teen parents. However, the amount of sound empirical data to support this view is minimal. For example, there are few published studies of the longterm effects of teenage parenting or of actual behavioral interactions of teenage mothers and their children. 2) It is unlikely that research along the lines of the "continuum of reproductive casualty" will lead to identification of causal factors sufficient to account for developmental deficits in children of teenage mothers. 3) Research along the lines of "the continuum of caretaking casualty" suggest numerous behavioral and environmental variables that may be related to the development of children of teenage mothers. 4) Research designs applied to the study of teenage parenting must shift from linear models to complex multivariate models that permit simultaneous analysis of organismic, environmental, and behavioral determinants of development. Finally, mental health specialists, government agencies, and researchers alike, must be willing to entertain the hypothesis that much of our knowledge of the childrearing skills of teenage mothers is based on myth rather than empirical fact. 1 such myth may be that below 19 years of age, maternal age in and of itself is an important determinant of infant development and parent-infant interaction. Poor social-economic status, family support systems, marital stability, nutrition and prenatal care may be far more important determinants of development for these children than the age of their mothers.     

Intelligence and school readiness in preschool children with prenatal drug exposure.

This prospective, longitudinal study examined factors affecting intelligence and school readiness in children 4-5 years of age with prenatal cocaine/opiate exposure. Intelligence and school readiness scores were not significantly different for the drug-exposed group (N = 104) than for unexposed, demographically matched controls (N = 35), although both groups scored slightly below average. Caregivers of drug-exposed children scored significantly lower in intelligence and reading achievement than caregivers of controls; both were below average. Caregiver reading scores accounted for the largest variance in both child intelligence and school readiness; for school readiness, birth weight also contributed but was less important in the model. Neither prenatal drug exposure nor continuing caregiver drug use was significant in the regression analyses. The relationship between child scores and caregiver reading achievement is consistent with studies showing the importance of a stimulating, supportive home environment, and suggests interventions to foster caregiver literacy skills and facilitate caregiver-child cognitive interactions such as reading to the child.     

Positive association between cognitive ability and cortical thickness in a representative US sample of healthy 6 to 18 year-olds

Neuroimaging studies, using various modalities, have evidenced a link between the general intelligence factor (g) and regional brain function and structure in several multimodal association areas. While in the last few years, developments in computational neuroanatomy have made possible the in vivo quantification of cortical thickness, the relationship between cortical thickness and psychometric intelligence has been little studied. Recently, cortical thickness estimations have been improved by the use of an iterative hemisphere-specific template registration algorithm which provides a better between-subject alignment of brain surfaces. Using this improvement, we aimed to further characterize brain regions where cortical thickness was associated with cognitive ability differences and to test the hypothesis that these regions are mostly located in multimodal association areas. We report associations between a general cognitive ability factor (as an estimate of g) derived from the four subtests of the Wechsler Abbreviated Scale of Intelligence and cortical thickness adjusted for age, gender, and scanner in a large sample of healthy children and adolescents (ages 6–18, n = 216) representative of the US population. Significant positive associations were evidenced between the cognitive ability factor and cortical thickness in most multimodal association areas. Results are consistent with a distributed model of intelligence.     

Erratum to “Positive association between cognitive ability and cortical thickness in a representative US sample of healthy 6 to 18 year-olds”

Neuroimaging studies, using various modalities, have evidenced a link between the general intelligence factor (g) and regional brain function and structure in several multimodal association areas. While in the last few years, developments in computational neuroanatomy have made possible the in vivo quantification of cortical thickness, the relationship between cortical thickness and psychometric intelligence has been little studied. Recently, cortical thickness estimations have been improved by the use of an iterative hemisphere-specific template registration algorithm which provides a better between-subject alignment of brain surfaces. Using this improvement, we aimed to further characterize brain regions where cortical thickness was associated with cognitive ability differences and to test the hypothesis that these regions are mostly located in multimodal association areas. We report associations between a general cognitive ability factor (as an estimate of g) derived from the four subtests of the Wechsler Abbreviated Scale of Intelligence and cortical thickness adjusted for age, gender, and scanner in a large sample of healthy children and adolescents (ages 6–18, n = 216) representative of the US population. Significant positive associations were evidenced between the cognitive ability factor and cortical thickness in most multimodal association areas. Results are consistent with a distributed model of intelligence.     

Examining Preschool Cognitive Abilities Using a CHC Framework

Although there has been a substantial growth in the number of published studies examining tests of cognitive abilities and using contemporary theories of cognitive abilities, to date none have done so with preschool cognitive tests. In this study the relation between cognitive ability measures for young children and Cattell-Horn-Carroll (CHC) theory is examined. Tests and subtests from the Differential Ability Scales: Upper Preschool Level and the Woodcock-Johnson Tests of Cognitive Ability-Revised with a sample of 158 children between 4 and 5 years of age were used in a series of joint factor analyses. Although a series of models were explored, the model representative of the CHC theory of cognitive abilities was best supported by the data. This provides evidence for a greater differentiation of young children's cognitive abilities than are typically interpreted. Results are discussed with regard to understanding the link between contemporary theories of intelligence and young children's cognitive abilities, as well as implications for intellectual assessment practices with young children.     

The Role of Paternal Age in the Prediction of Offspring Intelligence

Recent evidence suggests that paternal age at birth influences myriad developmental outcomes among children, but few studies have examined the possibility for father's age to influence children's intellectual development among a sample of high-risk families. The authors use data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study to examine the association between paternal age at birth among 480 male and 449 female children's verbal IQ scores, as assessed with a version of the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test at 9 years old. The nonlinear association between paternal age and children's verbal intelligence was also examined. Paternal age at birth appears to have a marginally significant nonlinear relationship with male children's verbal IQ scores, despite controlling for a number of possible confounders associated with both young and advanced paternal age.     

Longitudinal Changes in Intellectual Development in Children with Fragile X Syndrome

Structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to examine the development of intellectual functioning in 145 school-age pairs of siblings. Each pair included one child with Fragile X syndrome (FXS) and one unaffected sibling. All pairs of children were evaluated on the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Third Edition (WISC-III) at time 1 and 80 pairs of children received a second evaluation at time 2 approximately 4 years later. Compared to their unaffected siblings, children with FXS obtained significantly lower percentage correct scores on all subtests of the WISC at both time points. During the time between the first and second assessments, the annual rate of intellectual development was approximately 2.2 times faster in the unaffected children compared to the children with FXS. Levels of the fragile X mental retardation protein (FMRP) were highly associated with intellectual ability scores of the children with FXS at both time points (r=0.55 and 0.64 respectively). However, when gender, age, and the time between assessments were included as covariates in the structural equation model, FMRP accounted for only 5% of the variance in intellectual ability scores at time 1 and 13% of the variance at time 2. The results of this study suggest that slower learning contributes to the low and declining standardized IQ scores observed in children with FXS.     

CHILD-REARING BELIEFS WITHIN DIVERSE SOCIAL STRUCTURES: MOTHERS AND DAY-CARE PROVIDERS IN MEXICO*

The child-rearing beliefs of 32 mothers and 36 day-care providers in Mexico were compared. Day-care providers expected children to master developmental skills at an earlier age than did mothers. Day-care providers more strongly valued the development of independent and cooperative behavior, and placed less importance on obedience. They also reported employing more flexible and nonauthoritarian discipline strategies than did mothers. Mothers and caregivers did not differ in the extent to which they attributed the success of their discipline strategies to their own actions rather than to external factors. Also examined was how mothers' beliefs differed in families characterized by interdependent versus individualistic social structures. In interdependent families, mothers were more likely to believe in later mastery of developmental skills and to make external attributions. These findings suggest that Mexican children experience incongruous social norms as they move between home and day care settings, and that these norms, at least within the home, are associated with the social structural features of the setting.     

Psychometric intelligence and adaptive competence in rural Philippine children

Psychometric intelligence and adaptive competence constructs were compared in 5-to 7-year-old children in a rural Philippine barrio. Individual psychometric subtests of intelligence, indigenous with respect to content, and a form for obtaining adults' ratings of children's adaptive competencies (skill in, or adaptation to, the natural and social demands of their environment) were developed. Acceptable reliabilities, increases in performance with age, and reasonable patterns of scale intercorrelations indicate that the two ecologically relevant measures are reasonably reliable and construct-valid operationalizations of the psychometric intelligence and adaptive competence constructs. Concurrent validities of the psychometric intelligence subtests versus school grades demonstrate the meaningfulness of the psychometric intelligence construct in this setting and associate it with “scholastic aptitude,” as in Western settings. Verbal/intellective aspects of adaptive competence—as compared to the children's competence in everyday barrio skills and responsibilities (e.g., domestic and livelihood tasks, personal-care functions)—were found to be more related to school performance and psychometric intelligence.