Aletha C. Huston

School readiness and later achievement.

Using 6 longitudinal data sets, the authors estimate links between three key elements of school readiness--school-entry academic, attention, and socioemotional skills--and later school reading and math achievement. In an effort to isolate the effects of these school-entry skills, the authors ensured that most of their regression models control for cognitive, attention, and socioemotional skills measured prior to school entry, as well as a host of family background measures. Across all 6 studies, the strongest predictors of later achievement are school-entry math, reading, and attention skills. A meta-analysis of the results shows that early math skills have the greatest predictive power, followed by reading and then attention skills. By contrast, measures of socioemotional behaviors, including internalizing and externalizing problems and social skills, were generally insignificant predictors of later academic performance, even among children with relatively high levels of problem behavior. Patterns of association were similar for boys and girls and for children from high and low socioeconomic backgrounds.

Economic Well-Being and Children's Social Adjustment: The Role of Family Process in an Ethnically Diverse Low-Income Sample

Using latent variable structural equation modeling, a family economic stress model that links economic well-being to child well-being in an ethnically diverse, low-income sample of 419 elementary school-age children was evaluated. The sample was 57% African American and 28% Hispanic, and most families were headed by single mothers. The results provided support for the position that family process is a critical mediator of the effects of economic hardship on childrens social adjustment. Lower levels of economic well-being, and the corollary elevated perceptions of economic pressure indirectly affected parenting behavior through an adverse impact on parental psychological well-being. Distressed parents reported feeling less effective and capable in disciplinary interactions with their child and were observed to be less affectionate in parent-child interactions. In turn, less than optimal parenting predicted lower teacher ratings of childrens positive social behavior and higher ratings of behavior problems. Multiple-group analyses revealed that the pathways by which economic hardship influences childrens behavior appear to operate similarly for boys and girls, and for African American and Hispanic families.

Words from "Sesame Street": Learning vocabulary while viewing.

The study is a longitudinal investigation of preschool childrens viewing of Sesame Street and their vocabulary development.

Family Instability and Children's Early Problem Behavior

This study investigated the association between family instability and childrens problem behavior during the transition to first grade. In a sample (n = 1,015) drawn from the NICHD Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development, we found that a quarter of sample members experienced at least one family transition between birth and age 6. Instability was also related to family structure at birth: those born into cohabiting parent families experienced the most instability, followed by those born into single mother families and finally, those in two-biological married parent families. Children who experienced instability had higher teacher and observer reports of problem behaviors than those from stable family structures. Finally, differences in problem behavior associated with family instability varied by family structure at birth and the emotional, social and material resources in the family.

The development of sex typing: Themes from recent research☆

Abstract A conceptual framework for organizing the constructs and content areas included in research on sex typing is presented in this review of recent research on the development of sex typing. Two major themes are discussed. First, sex-typed play activities and interests emerge clearly in the first few years of life. Both play activities and peer preferences are sex typed earlier and more definitely than are personality traits and social behaviors such as aggression or dependency. It is suggested that researchers have underemphasized the importance of interests, activities, and peer associations while overemphasizing personality attributes as the core of sex typing. The second theme is that cognitions and concepts about sex typing are important in the acquisition of gender typing, but they are not sufficient by themselves for understanding the process by which sex-typed behavior is acquired. Childrens sex-role concepts are sometimes related to their behavioral preferences, but other factors are also important influences on behavior.

American children's use of electronic media in 1997: A national survey

Within a weighted, nationally representative sample of 2902 children, differences in electronic media use by age and sex were examined. The data collected were part of the University of Michigans Child Development Supplement (CDS) to the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID), and included two 24-h time-use diaries, one from a weekday and one from a weekend day. Children and their parents reported the titles of television programs, videotapes, and electronic games (both computer and platform) that the children used. These titles were coded by genre, and differences in total time and in time spent with specific genres within each medium were examined. Main effects of age and sex on total use and use by genres are reported. Among other results, oldest boys were found to spend more time watching sports programs and playing electronic sports games while the oldest girls spend more time watching relationship dramas and not a large amount of time playing video games. The results indicate the diverging media interests of boys and girls. Use patterns may also suggest a lack of availability of appropriate electronic games for older girls.

Family and individual predictors of child care use by low-income families in different policy contexts

Abstract We examine family and individual characteristics that predict low-income parents’ child care use, problems with child care, and receipt of public subsidies using data from three demonstration studies testing policies to promote employment for low-income parents (primarily single mothers). The characteristics that mattered most, particularly for use of center-based care were family structure (ages and number of children), parents’ education, and personal beliefs about family and work. The effects of race and ethnicity were inconsistent suggesting that generalizations about ethnic differences in child care preferences should be viewed with caution. There was little support for the proposition that many low-income parents do not need child care assistance because they use relative care. Child care subsidies and other policies designed to reduce the cost of care and to increase parents’ employment appeared to meet the needs associated with caring for very young children and for large families and were most effective in reaching parents with relatively less consistent prior employment experience. Parents whose education and personal beliefs were consistent with a preference for center-based care were most likely to take advantage of the opportunity to choose that option and to use subsidies.

Affect dysregulation in the mother-child relationship in the toddler years: Antecedents and consequences

The purpose of this study was to examine child, maternal, and family antecedents of childrens early affect dysregulation within the mother-child relationship and later cognitive and socioemotional correlates of affect dysregulation. Childrens affect dysregulation at 24 and 36 months was defined in the context of mother-child interactions in semistructured play and toy cleanup. Dyads were classified as dysregulated at each age based on high negative affect. Affect dysregulation was associated with less maternal sensitivity and stimulation, more maternal depressive symptoms, and lower family income over the first 36 months of life. Children with early negative mood, lower Bayley Mental Development Index scores and insecure-avoidant (15 months) or insecure-resistant attachment classifications (36 months) were more likely to be in an affect-dysregulated group. Controlling for family and child variables, affect-dysregulated children had more problematic cognitive, social, and behavioral outcomes at 54 months, kindergarten, and first grade. The findings are discussed in terms of the early role played by parents in assisting children with affect regulation, the reciprocal nature of parent-child interactions, and the contribution of affect regulation to childrens later cognitive, social, and behavioral competence.

Young Children's Perceptions of Television Reality: Determinants and Developmental Differences.

Five- and 7-year-old children judged factuality and social realism of favorite TV shows and test clips in pairs matched for content. In each pair one was news or documentary format, the other fictional drama. All children understood that fictional programs were not factual. Children correctly discriminated the purposes and intended audience of news from those of documentaries. Children discriminated factuality by genre of program, and genre of program by formal production features and by content. Age and vocabulary scores (Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test-Revised; PPVT-R) predicted accuracy of factuality judgments, but TV viewing history over the past 2 years did not. By contrast, judged social realism was predicted by viewing history and very little by age and PPVT-R. Older children better understood that fictional characters do not retain their roles in real life and that fictional shows are scripted and rehearsed

Impacts on Children of a Policy to Promote Employment and Reduce Poverty for Low-Income Parents: New Hope After 5 Years.

The impacts of New Hope, a program to increase parent employment and reduce poverty, were measured 5 years after parents were randomly assigned to program or control groups. New Hope had positive effects on childrens school achievement, motivation, and social behavior, primarily for boys, across the age range 6-16. In comparison to impacts measured 2 years after program onset, effects on achievement were robust, but effects on social behavior were reduced. The program produced improvements in family income and use of organized child care and activity settings, suggesting possible pathways by which the New Hope package of policies influenced childrens behavior.