TY - JOUR
T1 - Chaos, poverty, and parenting
T2 - Predictors of early language development
AU - Vernon-Feagans, Lynne
AU - Garrett-Peters, Patricia
AU - Willoughby, Michael
AU - Mills-Koonce, Roger
AU - Cox, Martha
AU - Blair, Clancy
AU - Burchinal, Peg
AU - Burton, Linda
AU - Crnic, Keith
AU - Crouter, Nan
AU - Garrett-Peters, Patricia
AU - Granger, Doug
AU - Greenberg, Mark
AU - Lanza, Stephanie
AU - Miccio, Adele
AU - Mills-Koonce, Roger
AU - Skinner, Deborah
AU - Stifter, Cynthia
AU - Werner, Emily
AU - Willoughby, Mike
N1 - Funding Information:
This research was supported by a grant from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development ( PO1-HD-39667 ), Lynne-Vernon Feagans and Martha Cox, PIs, with co-funding from the National Institute on Drug Abuse and the Center for Minority Health . We also want to thank all the families and children who participated in this longitudinal study.
PY - 2012
Y1 - 2012
N2 - Studies have shown that distal family risk factors like poverty and maternal education are strongly related to children's early language development. Yet, few studies have examined these risk factors in combination with more proximal day-to-day experiences of children that might be critical to understanding variation in early language. Young children's exposure to a chronically chaotic household may be one critical experience that is related to poorer language, beyond the contribution of SES and other demographic variables. In addition, it is not clear whether parenting might mediate the relationship between chaos and language. The purpose of this study was to understand how multiple indicators of chaos over children's first three years of life, in a representative sample of children living in low wealth rural communities, were related to child expressive and receptive language at 36 months. Factor analysis of 10 chaos indicators over five time periods suggested two factors that were named household disorganization and instability. Results suggested that after accounting for thirteen covariates like maternal education and poverty, one of two chaos composites (household disorganization) accounted for significant variance in receptive and expressive language. Parenting partially mediated this relationship although household disorganization continued to account for unique variance in predicting early language.
AB - Studies have shown that distal family risk factors like poverty and maternal education are strongly related to children's early language development. Yet, few studies have examined these risk factors in combination with more proximal day-to-day experiences of children that might be critical to understanding variation in early language. Young children's exposure to a chronically chaotic household may be one critical experience that is related to poorer language, beyond the contribution of SES and other demographic variables. In addition, it is not clear whether parenting might mediate the relationship between chaos and language. The purpose of this study was to understand how multiple indicators of chaos over children's first three years of life, in a representative sample of children living in low wealth rural communities, were related to child expressive and receptive language at 36 months. Factor analysis of 10 chaos indicators over five time periods suggested two factors that were named household disorganization and instability. Results suggested that after accounting for thirteen covariates like maternal education and poverty, one of two chaos composites (household disorganization) accounted for significant variance in receptive and expressive language. Parenting partially mediated this relationship although household disorganization continued to account for unique variance in predicting early language.
KW - Chaos
KW - Early childhood
KW - Language
KW - Parenting
KW - Poverty
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84864007889&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=84864007889&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.ecresq.2011.11.001
DO - 10.1016/j.ecresq.2011.11.001
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84864007889
SN - 0885-2006
VL - 27
SP - 339
EP - 351
JO - Early Childhood Research Quarterly
JF - Early Childhood Research Quarterly
IS - 3
ER -