Statistical tests of indirect effects revealed that EF at Time 2 mediated the relations between negative parent - child interactions and academic ability, B = − 0.07, SE = 0.03, Z = − 2.25, p = 0.024, and between
parental scaffolding and academic ability, B = 2.68, SE = 1.13, Z = 2.38, p = 0.017.
Thirdly, EF mediated the links between negative parent - child interaction and academic ability on the one hand and between
parental scaffolding and academic ability on the other hand.
It is possible that our measure of the HLE was unrelated to our measures of
parental scaffolding and negative parent - child interaction because these constructs were measured in very different ways (i.e., observation vs. questionnaire).
Second, our analyses showed that children's EF mediated the relations between
parental scaffolding and negative parent - child interaction and children's early academic ability.
These findings were confirmed by the non-significant direct path between negative parent - child interaction and academic ability, B = − 0.06, SE = 0.05, Z = − 1.18, p = 0.24, β = − 0.05, and between
parental scaffolding and academic ability, B = 0.17, SE = 2.34, Z = 0.07, p = 0.94, β = 0.01.
Our models revealed that children's EF (but not general cognitive ability) mediated the relations between
parental scaffolding and negative parent - child interactions and children's early academic ability.
Importantly, for the first time, our findings showed that EF and not general cognitive ability played a specific role in the relation between
parental scaffolding, negative parent - child interaction and children's academic ability.
Academic ability was weakly correlated with each aspect of parental behavior: Negative parent - child interaction, pr (100) = − 0.19, p = 0.05;
parental scaffolding, pr (100) = 0.17, p = 0.09; the HLE, pr (100) = 0.27, p = 0.005.
Parental scaffolding and negative parent - child interaction uniquely accounted for 5 and 4 % of the variance in Time 2 EF but only 0.1 and 0.2 % of the variance in academic ability.
These results suggest that
parental scaffolding and negative parent - child interactions influence children's academic ability by shaping children's emerging EF.
Parental scaffolding and the HLE were unrelated.
We have shown that individual differences in children's EF (but not general cognitive ability) mediate the relations between each of two aspects of parental behavior (that is, «
parental scaffolding» or the proclivity to modify instructions and support in response to children's behavior and «negative parent - child interaction» or the extent to which parents are critical, controlling and display negative affect on the other) and children's early academic ability.
In response to this challenge, we followed calls for fine - grained analyses (e.g., Davidov and Grusec, 2006; Carr and Pike, 2012) by distinguishing three aspects of parental behavior (i.e.,
parental scaffolding, negative parent - child interaction and provision of opportunities for learning) that have been studied in relation to children's academic ability and EF.
To examine the specificity of EF as a mediator of the effects of negative parent - child interaction and
parental scaffolding on academic ability, we tested a second longitudinal model in which general cognitive ability (as measured by the Matrix Reasoning task) was entered as a mediator between negative parent - child interaction,
parental scaffolding and academic ability instead of EF.
Examination of the tests of indirect effects revealed that general cognitive ability at Time 2 (as measured by the Matrix Reasoning task) did not mediate the relation between negative parent - child interaction and academic achievement, B = − 0.01, SE = 0.02, Z = − 0.63, p = 0.53, or the link between
parental scaffolding and academic achievement, B = − 0.83, SE = 0.73, Z = − 1.13, p = 0.26.
That is,
parental scaffolding and negative parent - child interaction appear to influence children's academic abilities by helping or hindering children's emerging EF.
Authoritative parenting,
parental scaffolding of long - division mathematics, and children's academic competence in fourth grade.
EF remained significantly correlated with both negative parent - child interaction, pr (100) = − 0.29, p = 0.003, and
parental scaffolding, pr (100) = 0.29, p = 0.003, but showed a weak and non-significant correlation with the HLE, pr (100) = 0.13, p = 0.19.
Higher levels of scaffolding are related to higher reading and math achievement in African American families; thus strategies to increase
parental scaffolding may be effective in decreasing the «achievement gap.»
From a socio - cultural viewpoint, cognitively responsive behaviours (e.g. maintaining versus redirecting interests, rich verbal input) are thought to facilitate higher levels of learning because they provide a structure or scaffold for the young child's immature skills, such as developing attentional and cognitive capacities.9 Responsive behaviours in this framework promote joint engagement and reciprocity in the parent - child interaction and help a child learn to assume a more active and ultimately independent role in the learning process.10 Responsive support for the child to become actively engaged in solving problems is often referred to as
parental scaffolding, and is also thought to be key for facilitating children's development of self - regulation and executive function skills, behaviours that allow the child to ultimately assume responsibility for their well - being.11, 12
Not exact matches
Look to build a
scaffolding of support around disadvantaged children:
parental education, nutrition, early learning and early health.
Child development is about the
scaffolding support provided by
parental relationship and communication qualities for the integrated functioning of the various brain systems.
Furthermore, regarding the authentic functioning of the brain, when children are dealing with
parental behaviors that are unresponsive and problematic, this problematic
parental behavior dysregulates the integrated functioning of the child's brain systems so that the child produces disregulated emotional and behavioral displays (i.e., protest behavior) designed to elicit the involvement of the parent to serve as a «regulating other» for the child in providing
scaffolding support for the child's transition back into a regulated state, thereby building all of the neural networks associated with the developmental challenge that the child had difficulty independently mastering.
Psychosocial risk factors included socioeconomic status, life stress, caretaker depression,
parental support, hostility, and
scaffolding skills.
Specifically,
parental active and passive co-regulation and overall
scaffolding have important relations to child externalizing problems, and interventions for children with ASD targeting emotion regulation should encourage parents to use
scaffolding techniques when their child is exhibiting anger or overly emotional arousal.
One hundred five adolescents and their parents engaged in conversations about two challenging events, with
parental contributions to the discussions coded for four
scaffolding behaviors (reiterations, negations, move alongs, and new interpretations).
Significant indirect, cascading effects on age 6 ODD symptom levels were noted for age 4 socioeconomic status via age 5 conflict and
scaffolding skills; age 4
parental depression via age 5 child NA; age 4
parental hostility and support via age 5 EC; age 4 support via age 5 EC; and age 4 attachment via age 5 EC.
At the level of parent - child interactions, cognitive aspects of parent - child interactions such as
parental verbal
scaffolding during problem - solving tasks in early childhood show both concurrent and longitudinal associations with EF in early childhood (Hughes and Ensor, 2009; Bernier et al., 2010; Hammond et al., 2012).
In the best - fitting model: (a) SES had indirect effects on contextual factors of stress and conflict,
parental depression, and parenting factors including hostility, support, and
scaffolding; (b) stress and conflict had both direct effects on ODD symptoms, and indirect effects via
parental depression and parenting; (c) parenting had direct effects on ODD symptoms and indirect effects via child effortful control (EC), negative affect (NA) and sensory regulation (SR); (c) NA, EC, and SR had direct effects on symptom frequency, and attachment had indirect effects via EC, and SR..
Contextual factors include socioeconomic status, family stress, and conflict; parent factors included
parental depression; parenting factors included
parental hostility, support, and
scaffolding skills; child factors included child effortful control (EC), negative affect (NA), and sensory regulation.