Faculty Publications

Low-Income Parents' Warmth And Parent-Child Activities For Children With Disabilities, Suspected Delays And Biological Risks

Document Type

Article

Keywords

Child health, Disabilities, Parent-child relations, Parental warmth

Journal/Book/Conference Title

Infant and Child Development

Volume

20

Issue

5

First Page

509

Last Page

524

Abstract

Warm and responsive parenting is optimal for child development, but this style of parenting may be difficult for some parents to achieve. This study examines how parents' observed warmth and their reported frequency of parent-child activities were related to children's classifications as having biological risks or a range of disability indicators. Children were low-income prekindergarteners who participated in the Early Head Start Research and Evaluation Project Longitudinal Follow-up. Data from parent, early care and education staff reports, and direct child assessments were used to classify children into the following groups: disabilities, suspected delays, biological risks, disabilities and biological risk, suspected delays and biological risk, and no disability indicator. Socioeconomic status (ethnicity, maternal education and poverty level) and maternal depression were controlled in the analyses. The parents of children with disabilities and suspected delays evidenced significantly lower levels of warmth and less frequent parent-child activities compared with other parents. The parents of children with biological risk factors who did not also have disabilities or suspected delays did not exhibit decreased warmth and less frequent parent-child activities. © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Department

School of Applied Human Sciences

Original Publication Date

9-1-2011

DOI of published version

10.1002/icd.717

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