SYNOPSIS

Objective. 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. Design. 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. Results. Children’s Time 2 ability to delay gratification at 5½ to 6½ 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. Conclusions. 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.

概要

客观的。Latina/o 家庭中的母性控制和指导通常不会显示出与欧裔美国人样本中儿童适应的负相关关系。本研究检验了自决假设，即拉丁裔母亲的参与和结构与学龄前儿童后来的自我调节呈正相关，而指导性和控制则呈负相关。设计。在时间 1，观察到 130 名低收入拉丁裔母亲帮助她们 4 至 5 岁的孩子完成一项压力很大的任务。通过详细的事件编码检查了母亲搭建儿童对压力反应的策略。在 18 个月后的时间 1 和时间 2，延迟满足任务评估了儿童的自我调节能力。结果。时间 1 母亲脚手架策略预测了儿童时间 2 在 5½ 至 6½ 岁延迟满足的能力（控制 4 至 5 岁的延迟满足）。在时间 2 表现出最大延迟满足的孩子（在时间 1 控制延迟满足）的母亲在时间 1 使用指导性表扬和非语言自主促进支架策略。负面预测因素包括非语言注意力引导和限制。结论。研究结果强调了身体指导在拉丁裔/非裔家庭中的重要性，并表明高度指导性的母性策略可能不会干扰自我调节的发展，这在欧裔美国家庭中很常见。这些发现将有助于制定干预措施以促进低收入家庭拉丁裔儿童的自我调节。