Parental goals and talk with toddlers

Abstract

Myriad studies support a relation between parental beliefs and behaviors. This study adds to the literature by focusing on the specific relationship between parental goals and their communication with toddlers. Do parents with different goals talk about different topics with their children? Parents' goals for their 30-month-olds were gathered using semi-structured interviews with 47 primary caregivers, whereas the topics of conversations that took place during interactions were investigated via coding videotapes of observations in the home. Parents' short-and long-term goals spanned several areas including educational, social-emotional, developmental and pragmatic goals. Parental utterances most frequently focused on pragmatic issues, followed by play and academic topics. Parents who mentioned long-term educational goals devoted more of their talk to academic topics and less to pragmatic topics, controlling for socio-economic status. Thus, parental goals differ and these differences relate to the conversations parents engage in with their children. KeywordsParental beliefs; parental goals; parent-child interaction; parental talk Parents influence multiple aspects of their child's development. While theories differ as to the specific role of the parent in child development, it is clear that understanding parents' beliefs about childrearing and their behaviors as parents provide insight into the mechanisms through which parents exert their influence upon children. In this study we address this larger issue by investigating the relation between parental goals and communication with children. Our specific interests focus on what parents talk about with their toddlers and whether or not their chosen topics of conversation relate to certain underlying goals (shortterm or long-term) they hold for their children. Parental Beliefs and BehaviorsParental beliefs are the framework that shapes parent-child interactions, and these systems lay the groundwork for all experiences the parent and child share together (Jimerson & Bond, 2001; McGillicuddy-De Lisi & Sigel, 1995). Parents' beliefs, consisting of ideas, knowledge, cognitions, values, goals, and attitudes pertaining to parent-child relationships, serve multiple functions (Bornstein & Cheah, 2006). Empirical studies show that parents' beliefs about child development have significant direct and indirect effects on children's cognitive, emotional, and social competence (Sigel & McGillicuddy-De Lisi, 2002). Not only do parental beliefs affect the developmental outcomes of children (Grusec, Rudy, & Martini, 1997;Harkness & Super, 1996), but they also influence parental behaviors, mediate the effectiveness of parenting practices, and assist in organizing parenting (Chao, 1996; Address correspondence to: Meredith Rowe, Department of Human Development 3304T Benjamin Building, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742 mrowe@umd.edu. NIH Public Access Author ManuscriptInfant Child Dev. Author manuscript; available in PMC 2012 September 1. NIH-PA Author Manuscript...

Low-Income Central American Immigrant Mothers' Goals and Their Children's Classroom Competencies in Preschool

“…In the general developmental literature, associations are usually found between parenting goals and parenting behaviors, especially when goals are relatively specific (Rowe & Casillas, 2011). Using our theory, it would be expected that mothers' goals would be reflected in the way in which mothers organize children's physical and social settings and in parent-child interactions.…”

“…Parents' goals for their children are especially important for children's development in that goals may motivate parents' actions and guide their interpretations of children's behavior (Bornstein & Cheah, 2006;Goodnow, 2006;Rowe & Casillas, 2011;Super & Harkness, 2002). In the framework of the developmental niche (Super & Harkness, 2002), children's development occurs at the intersection of three interacting subsystems of children's most proximal environments: (a) physical and social settings, (b) customs of childrearing, and (c) the psychology of the parent (e.g., goals, beliefs, mental health).…”

“…Thus, we dichotomized the number of responses pertaining to each goal category to represent whether goals were mentioned in the respective category. This binary approach was used in Barbarin et al's (2008) examination of links between parents' school readiness beliefs and children's skills and Rowe and Casillas's (2011) exploration of links between parents' goals and their language use. The proportional scores are displayed for Question 1, but the dichotomous scores are used for Question 2.…”

Parent reading beliefs and parenting goals of Netherlands Antillean and Dutch mothers in the Netherlands

“…According to Holden (2010), parental beliefs can be defined as the mental acceptance of and conviction in the truth or validity of any things related to child rearing. These beliefs are connected to child-rearing goals, child development in general and the role that parents (need to) play in child development (Rowe & Casillas, 2010). It plays a role before decisions about practices are made (Wu & Honig, 2010).…”

Dynamics of Mothers' Goals for Children in Ethnically Diverse Populations across the First Three Years of Life

“…Parental socialization, typically defined as parents' views and practices around raising children, may be especially important during infancy and toddlerhood, when children have not yet begun schooling and the effects of peer socialization may be less pronounced (Bornstein, 2002). Parents' socialization goals guide parents' practices, thereby influencing children's cognitive and social development indirectly (e.g., Harwood, Schoelmerich, Schulze, & Gonzalez, 1999; Rowe & Casillas, 2010).…”