Elsevier

Infant Behavior and Development

Volume 41, November 2015, Pages 113-126
Infant Behavior and Development

Developmental outcomes of toddlers of young Latina mothers: Cultural, family, and parenting factors

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.infbeh.2015.08.001Get rights and content

Abstract

Children of adolescent mothers are at risk for poor developmental outcomes. This study is among the first to examine how cultural, family, and parenting factors prospectively predict the cognitive and language development of children of young Latina mothers (N = 170; Mage = 17.9 years). Mothers were interviewed and observed interacting with their children at 18 months (W1). Children were tested at 18 (W1) and 24 (W2) months. Mothers’ cultural orientation (W1) was related to aspects of the childrearing environment (W1), which in turn had implications for the children's development (W2). Specifically, a stronger orientation toward American culture was related to higher mother-reported engagement in parenting by their own mothers (grandmothers), which in turn predicted stronger gains in cognitive and expressive language functioning from W1 to W2. A stronger Latino orientation related to the display of more directiveness and greater mother-reported engagement by the children's biological fathers; directiveness, in turn, predicted fewer gains in cognitive functioning only when father engagement was low and did not predict expressive language development. Finally, mothers’ display of more positive affect, a stronger American orientation, and higher grandmother engagement uniquely predicted gains in W2 expressive language functioning. Implications for intervention are discussed.

Section snippets

Developmental outcomes of toddlers of young Latina mothers: cultural, family, and parenting factors

Children of adolescent mothers are at risk for poor developmental outcomes across domains, including cognitive and language functioning (Whitman, Borkowski, Keogh, & Weed, 2001). These deficits are related to family demographic characteristics; adolescent mothers are more likely than their non-parenting peers to come from lower socio-economic-status (SES) backgrounds and have lower educational attainment. They are also more likely than adult mothers to be single and live in poverty (Mollborn &

Participants

Participants for the current study included 170 adolescent Latina mothers and their toddlers. All 170 mothers participated at Wave 1 (W1) when their children were 18 months old. Of these, 149 (87.6%) returned for Wave 2 (W2) when their children were 24 months. Families who returned for W2 did not differ significantly from those who did not return on any of the demographic indicators. The mean age of mothers at the time of their child's birth was 17.9 years (SD = 1.3; range: 14.3–19.9). Mothers

Analytic approach

We first present analyses to examine continuity and change in children's cognitive and language functioning, followed by descriptive information on mothers’ cultural orientation. We then describe preliminary analyses used to inform the selection of parenting behaviors and covariates to include in the main analyses. Specifically, given sample size constraints, we tested associations between the maternal behaviors and children's scores at W2 to select behaviors with significant associations with

Discussion

Latina adolescent mothers have the highest birthrate in the US (Martin et al., 2013), yet little is known about their children's development or the childrearing environment in which they are raising their children. To our knowledge, this is the first study to test how cultural, family and parenting factors contribute to children's subsequent cognitive and language attainment among young Latina mothers and their toddlers. In doing so, the study contributes to our understanding of their

Acknowledgements

The research reported in this article was funded by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development of the National Institutes of Health under award number R01HD46554 to the first author. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health. We thank the families for participating in the study, Dr. Andrea Bonny and Metro Health Medical Center for their collaboration

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