Childhood Development Factors Influencing Early Childhood Development

Childhood Development

Factors Influencing Early Childhood Development

Darling and Steinberg (1993) proposed a model of parenting that integrated several prior models. They discriminated between parenting practice and parenting style, with the former representing domain-specific parenting habits and the latter domain-independent social interactions between parent and child. A critical distinction between parenting practice and style, based on their model, is that style communicates to the child how the parent feels about the child rather than the child's behavior. The natural extension of this model is that a child's sense of self-worth is directly influenced by parenting style.

The parenting styles reviewed by Darling and Steinberg (1993) included authoritarian, authoritative, indulgent, and neglectful. Of these parenting styles, authoritative was viewed as producing the best developmental outcomes in terms of socialization, academic achievement, and emotional maturation. Using the model proposed by Maccoby and Martin in 1983, parenting styles could be described empirically along two dimensions: (1) the nature and frequency of demands placed on the child and (2) the nature of reinforcement. For example, an authoritative parent would rate high in terms of demands and reinforcement, while an authoritarian parent would rate high on demands and low on reinforcement. However, the authors noted that other contextual factors, such as socioeconomic status and ethnicity, can modify parenting style efficacy.

Darling and Steinberg's model for parenting styles, which incorporated several prior models, provided child developmental researchers with a framework for asking empirical questions. Much of the research that had been done by the time Darling and Steinberg published their article in 1993 had used older children and adolescents as study subjects. This essay will examine whether there is more recent evidence supporting a significant interaction between parenting styles and early childhood development.

Contemporary Parenting Styles and Early Childhood Development

An increasingly common phenomenon is families with working parents, regardless of whether the home has one or two parrents (Tong et al., 2009). Work demands therefore frequently intrude upon interactions between parent and child in modern society. A recent study reviewed prior research efforts that examined the impact of working parents during early infancy on developmental outcomes and found mixed results. For example, one study found lower vocabulary skills associated with working parents, while another revealed improved cognitive functioning.

In an effort to bring clarity to this topic, Tong and colleagues (2009) conducted a large study examining the developmental outcomes of 504 Japanese children with working mothers and enrolled in childcare. The children were under the age of 4 at the time of study enrollment. After the two-year study period the children were assessed for motor, social, communicative, vocabulary, and cognitive development. The parenting style of the working mothers were graded based on stimulating interactions with child, social activities, use of punishment, family support, self-reports of parenting competency, and the child's reluctance to go to childcare.

Gross motor development was found to depend on whether a mother and child went to the grocery store together and the use of punishment (Tong et al., 2009). Social competence, communication abilities, and intelligence were improved dramatically if the mother and child played and sang together. Vocabulary, however, was diminished if the mother inconsistently used punishment. These results suggest that a parenting style which emphasizes prolonged interactions between parent and child, despite work obligations, will foster healthy developmental outcomes. These results were found regardless of which government accredited daycare facility the child was enrolled at.

Based on the findings of Tong and colleagues (2009), the only parenting style that would be predicted to promote healthy early childhood development would be authoritative. While an indulgent parent might spend a significant amount of time with the child, a positive and consistent use of punishment during the two-year study period was associated with improved gross motor skills and vocabulary. The child of an indulgent working parent with a weak, inconsistent, or absent punishment practice would probably be developmentally delayed on these two measures.

Impact of Early Education on Cognitive Development

The importance of early education for child development is a generally uncontested concept in most countries, so much so, that many countries with the resources to implement preschool programs for disadvantaged children do so (reviewed by Burger, 2010). The assumption that these programs make is that children from low-income families do not have access to the same stimulating learning environment during early childhood that advantaged children have. As a result, these children are often faced with significant social and cognitive obstacles when entering kindergarten and the first grade that other children do not experience. These children are at risk for repeating grades, entering special education programs, and dropping out later on.

Preschool programs attempt to minimize the impact of socioeconomic status by providing an environment that prepares children for the social and academic challenges they will face when entering elementary school. Parents of low-income families may disproportionately suffer from mental health problems or work more than one job. While many low-income children may receive adequate food, clothing, and basic care, the opportunities for playing, singing, and shopping together with their parents may be reduced. Burger (2010) performed a systematic review of the international research literature on this topic and found that that overall, most studies found that preschool participation does lower the bar for a successful elementary school start. However, reliable data supporting a clear relationship between preschool participation and cognitive development is lacking. Also lacking is data showing preschool participation can reduce enrollment in special education programs or dropping out of school at an older age.