Low-income, Latina mothers' scaffolding of preschooler's behavior in a stressful situation and children's self-regulation: A longitudinal study

Authors: POWER, THOMAS - Washington State University; BECK, ASHLEY - Spokane Regional Health District; SILVA GARCIA, KARINA - California Polytechnic State University; DURAN AGUILAR, NOEMI - Washington State University; HOPWOOD, VERONICA - Pullman Regional Hospital; RAMOS, GUADALUPE - University Of Southern California; OLIVERA GUERRERO, YADIRA - Michigan State University; FISHER, JENNIFER - Temple University; O'CONNOR, TERESIA - Children'S Nutrition Research Center (CNRC); HUGHES, SHERYL - Children'S Nutrition Research Center (CNRC)

Submitted to: Parenting Science and Practice
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 9/1/2020
Publication Date: 9/16/2020
Citation: Power, T.G., Beck, A., Silva Garcia, K., Duran Aguilar, N., Hopwood, V., Ramos, G., Olivera Guerrero, Y., Fisher, J.O., O'Connor, T.M., Hughes, S.O. 2020. Low-income, Latina mothers' scaffolding of preschooler's behavior in a stressful situation and children's self-regulation: A longitudinal study. Parenting Science and Practice. https://doi.org/10.1080/15295192.2020.1820835.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/15295192.2020.1820835

Interpretive Summary: Parents play a significant role in the development of self-regulation in the preschool years. According to self-determination theory, environments that support basic psychological needs for relatedness, competence, and autonomy facilitate child self-regulation. Parents who provide just enough assistance with a task so that children can eventually learn to solve similar problems on their own, i.e., parental scaffolding, promote independent problem solving in their children. Despite the growing literature in this area and consistent pattern of findings, most studies have examined middle- to upper-middle class European American mothers and their children. In contrast, among Latina mothers and their children, high levels of directiveness may not have the same negative impact as seen in other ethnic groups. Researchers have argued that this may be because maternal control and directiveness in Latina/o families is one way that these mothers show involvement and caring with their children. Thus, the current study examined the relationship between maternal scaffolding of preschool children's behavior during a difficult and frustrating task and children's delay of gratification 18 months later in a group of 130 low-income Latina families. Observed behaviors were coded using a moment-to-moment coding system. Children that showed the greatest delay of gratification 18 months later had mothers who used instructive praise and nonverbal autonomy-promoting scaffolding strategies during the first time point. Whereas children showing lower delay of gratification at the second time point had mothers who used nonverbal attention directing and restriction during the first time point. Some findings of this study were consistent with previous studies examining European American children, but the results for nonrestrictive control were consistent with a small, but growing, literature suggesting that maternal control may not interfere with the development of self-regulation in young children from low-income Latina/o families. The findings also suggest that physical guidance may be particularly important in this population. Interventions promoting the development of child self-regulation may benefit from teaching parents how to provide more information to their children through praise, how to use nonverbal autonomy-promoting strategies when helping children problem-solve difficult tasks, and how to avoid excessive nonverbal restriction and direction of children's attention in such situations.

Technical Abstract: Maternal control and directiveness in Latina/o families often do not show the negative associations with child adjustment seen in European American samples. This study tested the self-determination hypotheses that Latina maternal involvement and structure would be positively associated with preschool children's later self-regulation, whereas directiveness and control would show negative relations. At Time 1, 130 low-income Latina mothers were observed helping their 4- to 5-year-old children complete a stressful task. Maternal strategies for scaffolding children's responses to stress were examined with detailed event coding. At Time 1 and Time 2 18 months later, a delay of gratification task assessed children's self-regulation. Children's Time 2 ability to delay gratification at 5.5 to 6.5 years (controlling for delay of gratification at ages 4 to 5) was predicted by Time 1 maternal scaffolding strategies. Children showing the greatest delay gratification at Time 2 (controlling for delay of gratification at Time 1) had mothers who used instructive praise and nonverbal autonomy-promoting scaffolding strategies at Time 1. Negative predictors included nonverbal attention directing and restriction. The findings highlight the importance of physical guidance in Latina/o families and suggest that highly directive maternal strategies may not interfere with the development of self-regulation as is often found in European American families. These findings will be useful in developing interventions to promote self-regulation in Latina/o children from low-income families.