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...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , , , |
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| Other Authors: | |
| Format: | Working Paper |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
2024
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://hdl.handle.net/10356/175907 |
| _version_ | 1826119372922421248 |
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| author | Ting, Sharon Kyeong, Yena Kee, Michelle Law, Evelyn Rifkin-Graboi, Anne Lourdes, Mary Daniel Eriksson, Johan Chen, Helen Setoh, Peipei |
| 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 |
| author_sort | Ting, Sharon |
| collection | NTU |
| 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. |
| first_indexed | 2024-10-01T04:59:13Z |
| format | Working Paper |
| id | ntu-10356/175907 |
| institution | Nanyang Technological University |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-10-01T04:59:13Z |
| publishDate | 2024 |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | ntu-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 |
| 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 |
| title | 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_short | 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 |
| topic | Social Sciences |
| url | https://hdl.handle.net/10356/175907 |
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