Mediating Role of Maternal Sensitivity: Enhancing Language Development in At‐risk Families

Abstract

Home-visiting programs have gained increasing importance in family-centered prevention and intervention. However, few studies have examined the mechanisms underlying early intervention treatment effects. The goal of this study is to analyze the mediating role of maternal sensitivity in enhancing language development with the home-visiting program Parents as Teachers (PAT). Data were collected and analyzed within the ongoing, long-term ZEPPELIN study, a randomized controlled trial with 251 participating at-risk families. Via longitudinal mediation analysis, we examined whether effects of the PAT on receptive and expressive language outcomes at 24 and 36 months were mediated by maternal sensitivity at 12 months. Within a moderated mediation framework, we investigated whether the level of family psychosocial stress affects this mediation. Results showed that intervention effects on language outcomes are mediated by maternal sensitivity-weakly and through specific pathways. Moderation and moderated mediation analyses indicated that effects of the PAT and also specific mediation effects increase with the level of psychosocial stress. Implications of the results for practice are discussed.

Attachment Style, Mother Tongue Proficiency and Sociocultural Identity Amongst Second and Third Generation South Asian Immigrants in Hong Kong

“…As for DL proficiency, participants with low levels of attachment insecurity exhibited higher proficiency. These findings support previous research that reports secure attachment assists language competency in both monolingual (e.g., Bornstein et al, 2020;IJzendoorn et al, 1995) and bilingual speakers (Constantini et al, 2012;Oades-Sese & Li, 2011), possibly due to the mediating role of maternal sensitivity in language development (Bornstein et al, 2020;Neuhauser et al, 2018). The secure child-caregiver attachment and maternal sensitivity would have facilitated an emotionally supportive environment, allowing the child and caregiver to share experiences and engage in quality conversational interactions that would aid language development.…”

“…Secure attachment has been associated with maternal sensitivity, as it involves the ability of the primary caregiver to respond appropriately to verbal and non-verbal signals of the child (Bakermans-Karneburg et al, 2003). Maternal sensitivity has been also linked to language skills development, to the extent that sensitive parents may be more verbally responsive in early interaction processes (Leigh, Nievar, & Nathans, 2011;Neuhauser et al, 2018). Parental sensitivity can be defined as the operationalisation of "accurate, prompt, and contingent didactic and affective responses to children' signals, cooperation with the children, accessibility to children and expression of positive feelings and emotions toward the children" (Bornstein et al, 2020, p. 483).…”

Recruiting Immigrant and Refugee Arab American Mother–Father–Infant Triads Resettling in the United States: A Feasibility Study

“…Family stress has repeatedly been associated with altered infant development (Asok et al, 2013;Drury et al, 2012Drury et al, , 2014. Maternal stress and depression, common experiences for immigrant Arab American women (Alhasanat-Khalil et al, 2018;Alhasanat & Fry-McComish, 2015), have been linked to poorer cognitive, motor, socialemotional, and language development among infants 12 to 18 months old (Azar et al, 2007;Brennan et al, 2008;Neuhauser et al, 2018). A higher level of stress and depression among Arab American immigrant fathers (Goforth et al, 2015;Javanbakht et al, 2018) has also been associated with lower cognitive and language development scores among infants at 18 to 24 months old (Cheng et al, 2016;Malmberg et al, 2016;Sethna et al, 2017).…”

Family Context Assessment to Promote Language and Reading Abilities in 6-Year-Old Children

“…Some items are grouped around two factors that reflect the degree of perception of parental self-efficacy and the level of knowledge about infant developmental stages. These items capture important self-perception variables that can modulate the quality of responsiveness and language interactions, and thus can be key intervention targets [24,51]. Therefore, the resulting factors might be included in the subscale called parental profile fostering child development, replicating the structure of this same subscale in the original version.…”