Maternal guidance in at‐risk mother–child dyads: Associations with contextual variables

Abstract

The present study was designed to explore how maternal guidance (i.e., involvement and monitoring) is associated with parent‐level and contextual factors in unstructured and structured tasks. Participants were mothers who had histories of risk and disadvantage (mean age = 30.47) with their preschool‐aged children (aged 2–6 years; n males = 39, n females = 50). Maternal guidance was divided into two categories: directive (i.e., commands and command repetitions) and nondirective (i.e., queries, verbal prompts, and explanations). Results revealed that mothers with more directive guidance had higher levels of parental stress and higher levels of maternal childhood histories of social withdrawal. Furthermore, more nondirective maternal guidance was associated with higher quality of home environments. Taken together, results suggest that parenting practices are best understood in relation to contextual variables. Findings have implications for developing and implementing parenting interventions for at‐risk mothers. Highlights Explored the association between contextual factors (e.g., parent stress, home environment) and maternal guidance (mother's use of commands vs. hints or prompts). Maternal guidance was assessed observationally and commands were associated with more parental stress while hints were associated with a higher quality home environment. Understanding parents as a whole by exploring contextual factors, rather than through isolated parenting practices, may be beneficial in the application of future parenting interventions.

Persistence of Effects of VLBW/PT Birth Status and Maternal Emotional Availability (EA) on Child EA Trajectories

“…Maternal sensitivity has long been considered and demonstrated to be a critical parenting dimension and has been linked to children’s socio-emotional outcomes (Bohr et al, 2018). Similarly, structuring (or scaffolding; Vygotsky, 1978) is also considered a key parenting dimension, has a long history, and is integrated in many parenting studies including those with a teaching, cognitive stimulation, or learning component (e.g., Saltaris et al, 2004; Briscoe et al, 2017). Recently in a sample of fullterm and preterm infants, Gueron-Sela et al (2015) showed that preterm infants had poorer cognitive outcomes at 12 months when their parents used lower levels of co-parental structuring at 6 months.…”

“…Child gender was coded as 1 = male , 2 = female . The DIQ measure has proven effective in collecting participant demographics, and has been used in past studies (e.g., Serbin et al, 1998; De Genna et al, 2006; Briscoe et al, 2017).…”

“…As a result, sensitivity is a variable that many believe should be measured as well as then linked to measure associations with children’s socio-emotional development. Parental structuring and/or scaffolding, as well as directive and non-directive guidance are also considered to be important parenting practices (Vygotsky, 1978; Blandon and Volling, 2008; Briscoe et al, 2017) linked to children’s socio-emotional outcomes. Similarly, the child’s responsiveness to the mother and the inherent reciprocity in healthy social exchanges and emotional development is another integral factor to consider (e.g., Biringen and Robinson, 1991; Aviezer et al, 1999; Bretherton, 2000; Lovas, 2005).…”

The dynamics of maternal scaffolding vary by cumulative risk status.

“…Indeed, the sequential pairing of directives followed by compliance, but not overall frequencies of directives, relates to greater preschooler behavioral self-regulation (Lunkenheimer, Kemp, & Albrecht, 2013). Still, although the utility of directives is apparent, parents tend to use directives less as children progress through the preschool years (Briscoe, Stack, Serbin, Ledingham, & Schwartzman, 2016). During this time, higher use of directives, as compared to parenting behaviors that offer teaching, questioning, and child-led problem solving, may limit opportunities for regulatory development (Landry et al, 2000).…”