ABSTRACT

Research Findings: Structural racism places Black families at heightened risk for stress, parenting challenges, and child developmental concerns. These impacts on families persist across the lifespan, though Black families also thrive in spite of the oppression they face. Federally funded programs like Early Head Start (EHS) show promise in supporting vulnerable families and children, and particularly for low-income Black families. The current study examined processes of change over time among parenting behavior, parenting stress, child behavior, and child verbal skills for low-income Black EHS participants as well as control participants. Our findings suggest that functioning at age 1 drives functioning through age 3. Early parenting is a key driver of verbal skills, but less so child behavior. While child behavior and verbal skills do not show significant reciprocal relations in this population, child behavior does show reciprocal relations with parenting stress over time. Furthermore, program participation appears to attenuate the impacts of early parenting behavior and early parenting stress on later parenting behavior and parenting stress. Overall, our results highlight the importance of early support to promote supportive parenting and reduce parenting stress. Practice or Policy: Findings highlight the value of support early in infancy to foster thriving for low-income Black families.

摘要

研究成果：结构性种族主义使黑人家庭面临更大的压力风险、育儿挑战和儿童发育问题。这些对家庭的影响会持续一生，尽管黑人家庭尽管面临压迫，但也能茁壮成长。早期启蒙 (EHS) 等联邦政府资助的计划在支持弱势家庭和儿童方面显示出希望，特别是对于低收入黑人家庭。目前的研究调查了低收入黑人 EHS 参与者和对照参与者的养育行为、养育压力、儿童行为和儿童语言技能随时间变化的过程。我们的研究结果表明，1 岁时的功能会驱动 3 岁时的功能。早期养育是语言技能的关键驱动因素，但对儿童行为的影响较小。虽然儿童行为和语言技能在该人群中没有显示出显着的相互关系，但随着时间的推移，儿童行为确实显示出与养育压力的相互关系。此外，项目参与似乎减弱了早期养育行为和早期养育压力对后期养育行为和养育压力的影响。总体而言，我们的结果强调了早期支持对于促进支持性育儿和减轻育儿压力的重要性。实践或政策：调查结果强调了在婴儿早期提供支持以促进低收入黑人家庭繁荣发展的价值。