1. Mothers' Vocabulary and Autonomy-Granting Behaviors as Predictors of Gains in Children's Vocabulary Competence from Age 3 to Age 4
Sara L. Sohr-Preston
Southeastern Louisiana University
Laura V. Scaramella
Juli L. Weiss
University of New Orleans

2. Background
Commonly supported link between mothers’ and children’s vocabulary (e.g., Bornstein, Haynes, & Painter, 1998)
Early parenting behaviors might partially explain this association (Culp et al., 2000; Pan et al., 2005)
Reliable assessment of vocabulary difficult in early childhood
Stability not yet achieved
Scores may change in preschool years (e.g., Pan et al., 2005)
Goal: Predict change in children’s vocabulary (age 3 to 4) from mother’s vocabulary and parenting behaviors

3. Basic Theoretical model
Mother’s parenting (Age 2)
Mother’s parenting (Age 4)
Mother’s Vocabulary
Child’s Vocabulary
(Age 4)
Child’s Vocabulary (Age 3)

4. Participants Mothers and Preschoolers Study 167 mother-child dyads
PI: Laura Scaramella
Recruitment through New Orleans area Head Start (H.S.) centers
Target children were 2 year-old younger siblings of 3-4 year-old H.S. student
Assessed annually over 3-year period
167 mother-child dyads

5. Procedures Age 2 assessment Age 3 assessment Age 4 assessment
Clean up task
Target children
Mothers
Age 3 assessment
Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test – III (PPVT; Dunn & Dunn, 1997)
Age 4 assessment
PPVT

6. Variables - Vocabulary
Mother’s and children’s vocabulary
PPVT standard scores
Normed so that M=100, SD=15
Mothers
M = , SD = 11.48
Target children
Age 3
M = 78.40, SD = 12.29
Age 4
M = 83.65, SD = 12.95

7. Variables - Parenting Mothers’ observed parenting Microsocial coding
Rate-per-minute
Autonomy-granting behaviors
Indirect commands
Explanations
Supportive behaviors
Positive reinforcement
Positive physical

8. Variables – Parenting (con’t)
Age 2 parenting
Autonomy-granting behaviors
M = 2.39, SD = 1.70
Supportive behaviors
M = 1.25, SD = 1.32
Age 4 parenting
M = 2.88, SD = 1.79
M = .55, SD = 1.02

9. Control variables Target child sex
71 boys
96 girls
Global ratings of mothers’ parenting style
Rated on 1-7 scale
Positive parenting
Mean = 3.26, SD = .07
Negative parenting
Mean = 3.34, SD = .07

10. results Structural equation modeling (SEM) for hypothesis testing
Models (preliminary and full model) estimated using AMOS 19.0 (Arbuckle, 2010)

11. Preliminary analysis
Before examining full model, model estimated including potential control variables of child sex and global parenting styles predicting mother and child vocabulary
Child sex significantly related to mother vocabulary score
Positive parenting exhibited no significant relationships with mother or child vocabulary
Negative parenting marginally inversely associated with child vocabulary
Positive parenting excluded from subsequent analyses

12. Full model analysis Model fit: Χ2 (7, N = 167) = 4.38; p > .05
RMSEA = 0.00
CFI = 1.00
Good fit based on these indices (Hu & Bentler, 1999)

13. Summary of coefficients
Variable 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
1. Child sex
2. Global neg parenting
-.14
3. Autonomy(age 2)
.06
-.13
4. Autonomy(age 4)
-.01
.38
5. Support(age 2)
-.09
-.04
.26
6. Support(age 4)
.04
.20
.22
7. Mother vocab
-.18
-.10
.16
.19
.21
8. Child vocab (age 3)
.12
.02
.11
.28
9. Child vocab (age 4)
-.11
.00
-.20
-.03
.23
.34
Highlighted values are statistically significant (p < .05)

14. SEM Results – core model
Autonomy-granting (Age 2)
.38 **
Autonomy-granting (Age 4)
.19 *
.16 *
.00
Mother Vocabulary
(Age 3)
.02
.26 **
Child Vocabulary
(Age 4)
.28 **
.34 **
Child Vocabulary
(Age 3)
.11
-.20**
-.03
.21 **
Support
(Age 4)
Support
(Age 2)
.22 **
Control variables and correlations among exogenous variables not shown

15. Discussion
Specific parenting behaviors (autonomy- granting), above and beyond overall parenting style, predicted advances in young children’s vocabulary
Early support predicted declines, but that does not mean supportive parenting behaviors should be avoided
Support likely encourages other adaptive developmental outcomes
Mothers who themselves exhibited greater vocabulary competence more often engaged in autonomy-granting behaviors
Earlier parenting behaviors were predictive, but concurrent parenting behaviors were not

16. Conclusion
Mothers’ own vocabulary skills may serve as an important source of resiliency in fostering their children’s growth in vocabulary development during the preschool years