Parenting, Early Experiences, and School Readiness in Context

Christy Brady-Smith

Beginning school ready to learn is one of the most important skills children need to ensure a smooth transition and early success in school. The National Education Goals Panel recognized this and named it as the first goal for education reform in 1989. Among the objectives the Goals Panel set for reaching this goal by 2000 were: (a) that every parent be a child's first teacher and have access to the training and support parents need; and (b) that all children have access to high quality and developmentally appropriate preschool programs that help prepare children for school. The Panel recognized, among other things, that early school readiness is best fostered through parent-child interactions and through early experiences in high quality classroom and group settings. The role of early parenting behavior in shaping child school readiness has been established in numerous studies. There is evidence, however, that parenting style and its effect on child outcomes may differ across ethnic groups and levels of socioeconomic status. It is important to understand the degree to which factors associated with poverty overlap with or are distinct from cultural differences in parenting in order to formulate culturally sensitive intervention programs that aim to enhance school readiness via parenting. To date, few studies have been able to disentangle cultural influences on parenting from income effects, due to the confounding of ethnicity and poverty status or the use of only one ethnic group in samples of low-income families. The problem is exacerbated if parenting differences between ethnic or racial groups are attributed to deficiencies in minority families rather than to differences in history, language, and socioeconomic status. A plausible solution is to conduct within-group studies; that is, to examine parenting practices among multiple ethnic groups in the same socioeconomic strata. The proposed study will address some of the limitations in our current knowledge of parenting and its impact on school readiness. First, patterns and determinants of parenting will be explored in an ethnically diverse group of low-income mothers with infants. Second, patterns and determinants of parenting identified in the full group analyses will be examined within each ethnic group. Third, parenting patterns derived within each ethnic group will be assessed as they relate to children’s early school readiness at ages 3 and 5. Fourth, other areas of the child’s early experience, such as family environment and early child care experience, will be examined as predictors of school readiness. Several statistical methods will be employed: cluster analyses, multinomial logistic regressions, and Ordinary Least Squares multiple regressions. The Early Head Start (EHS) Research and Evaluation Project will be the primary dataset for the proposed research. Participants include low-income families of African American (31%), European American (40%), Hispanic (24%), and other (5%) ethnic backgrounds who were interviewed at baseline between 1996 and 1998, and again when children were approximately 14-, 24-, 36-, and 60-months old. Secondary analyses will be performed using the NICHD Study of Early Child Care (SECC) and the Infant Health and Development Project (IHDP).

About Christy Brady-Smith

Christy Brady-Smith, Ph.D., is a Research Scientist at the National Center for Children and Families. Her research interests focus on parenting, early employment, child care, public policy and early intervention among low-income families with young children. She is a member of the national team of the Early Head Start Research and Evaluation Project, a 17-site, longitudinal evaluation of some of the first federally funded Early Head Start programs for low-income infants, toddlers, and their families. Dr. Brady-Smith earned her doctoral degree in developmental psychology from Columbia University in 2002. During her studies, she was awarded a Spencer Research Training Grant, a Harvey Fellowship from the Mustard Seed Foundation, and the Columbia University Public Policy Fellowship. She attended Wheaton College (IL) for her undergraduate studies in psychology and graduated with honors. Prior to attending graduate school, she worked as a teacher and principal of an elementary school in Tegucigalpa, Honduras.