Teaching or Learning from Baby: Inducing Explicit Parenting Goals Influences Caregiver Intrusiveness

Parents’ goals influence their interactions with their children. In this pre-registered study, we examined whether directing parents to teach their baby versus learn from their baby influences the extent to which they engage in intrusive caregiving behavior. Mother¬s and their 6-month-old infants (N=66; 32 female infants) participated in a 10-minute “free play” interaction, coded in 2-minute epochs for degree of maternal intrusiveness. Prior to the final epoch, mothers were randomly assigned to receive instructions to focus on 1) teaching something to their infant; or 2) learning something from their infant. Analyses of within-person changes in intrusiveness from before to after receiving these instructions indicated that mothers assigned to teach their infant increased in intrusiveness, whereas mothers assigned to learn from their infant decreased in intrusiveness. Parents’ explicit goals regarding infant learning can lead to controlling and adult-centered caregiving behavior.

Longitudinal links between maternal parenting behaviors in early childhood and academic outcomes and mother-child relationship quality in middle childhood

[ACCESS RESTRICTED TO THE UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI AT REQUEST OF AUTHOR.] The goals of this study were to examine longitudinal relations between maternal parenting behaviors when children were kindergarten age and children's academic success and academic confidence in middle childhood. Direct and mediated relations between mothers' supportiveness and intrusiveness when children were kindergarten age, and mother-child relationship quality and children's academic outcomes at 5th grade were examined. Participants included 2,985 mothers and their children from the Early Head Start Research and Evaluation Project; 42% were European American, 39% were African American, and 19% were Mexican American. Maternal intrusiveness when children were kindergarten-age negatively predicted children's academic confidence and academic success in 5th grade. Maternal supportiveness when children were kindergarten age was positively related to children's academic success in 5th grade at the trend level. The discussion focuses on maternal intrusiveness as a modest predictor of children's academic outcomes longitudinally and its implications for mother-child dyads.