This study investigated the contribution of child characteristics and parenting environment to the relationship between family SES/demographic characteristics and maternal language to infants.1157 children were drawn from a representative sample of 1292 infants born to mothers in rural Appalachian counties and rural counties in southern minority U.S. communities. Mothers and their 6-8 month old babies were videotaped at home while talking about a wordless picture book. Mothers' language output and complexity were analyzed. Child temperament, age, and parenting environment (knowledge of child development and observed mother-child engagement) were predictors of maternal language. Furthermore, their inclusion reduced the magnitude of the association between demographic characteristics and maternal language. Tests of mediation suggested that the parenting environment partially mediates the relationship between SES/demographic characteristics and maternal language. Findings are discussed with respect to identifying proximal processes that explain how SES may exert its influence on the language of young children.

The current study examines racial discrimination as a predictor of depression in a sample of 414 rural, low-income African American mothers of young children. The potential moderating role of optimism and church-based social support was also examined. Mothers completed questionnaires when their child was 24-months-old. Hierarchical regression revealed that mothers’ perception of racism was a significant predictor of depression even after controlling for a variety of distal demographic characteristics and environmental stressors. Significant interactions suggested the importance of psychological and social characteristics in understanding maternal depression. Specifically, high levels of optimism and church-based social support buffered mothers from increased depressive symptomology due to perceived racism.

This study examines the prevalence of home-school match in child-rearing beliefs and socialization practices (control and support) and their relation to ethnicity and readiness skills of children (n=310) making the transition from publicly sponsored pre-k to kindergarten. Home-school match was operationalized both as a continuous absolute measure and as categories of match or mismatch. Overall, home-school match was more prevalent than mismatch. However, the results corroborate previous ethnographic studies showing higher rates of home-school mismatch among African Americans and Latinos than Euro Americans. Controlling for race and socioeconomic status, parents‘ beliefs and practices predicted readiness but teachers‘ did not. Absolute indicators of home-school differences were not related to kindergarten readiness. Directional indicators revealed that children attained greater skills when parents and teachers matched on child-centered beliefs, low control, and high support. Contrary to the cultural match hypothesis, home-school mismatch was associated with better outcomes than match in the case of adult-centered beliefs, control, and low support.

Very little previous research has considered the contributions of family relationships and interactions on the language input of mothers and fathers to their young children. This study examined the contributions of marital love and conflict, and broader family-level conflict, cohesion, and expressiveness to mother and father vocabulary in triadic interactions with their young children in 70 dual-earner families. It was found that after controlling for parent sensitivity and parent directive behavior, marital love and family conflict when children were 12 months of age were significant predictors of both father vocabulary and mother vocabulary to children at 24 months of age. In families with higher levels of marital love when children were 12 months of age, mothers and fathers used a more diverse vocabulary with their 24 month-old children. In families with lower levels of family conflict when children were 12 months of age, mothers and fathers used a more diverse vocabulary with their 24 month-old children.

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