Ethnic Differences in Profiles of Mother–Child Interactions and Relations to Emerging School Readiness in African American and Latin American Children

Abstract

SYNOPSISObjective. This article examines ethnic similarities and differences in profiles of mother–child interaction qualities for low-income African American and Latin American mothers and associations with preschoolers’ emerging school readiness. Design. Videotaped mother–child interactions were collected at age 2.5 years from a sample of African American (n = 192) and Latin American (n = 210) families. Profiles of maternal behavior were identified in person-centered within-group analyses of five ratings of maternal behavior from the videotaped interactions. Mothering profile groups were examined for relations to child receptive language, behavior problems, and pre-academic school readiness measured at age 3.5 years. Results. Latent class analyses yielded three similar profiles in the two ethnicities identified as Child-Oriented, Directive, and Harsh-Intrusive mothering, and a fourth profile of Withdrawn mothering only among the African American mothers. For African American children, Child-Oriented and Directive mothering were each associated with higher pre-academic school readiness and language scores than Harsh-Intrusive or Withdrawn mothering. For Latin American children, Child-Oriented mothering was associated with fewer child behavior problems than Harsh-Intrusive mothering, and higher school readiness scores than Directive mothering. Conclusions. Both similarities and differences were found between African American and Latin American families in observation-based mothering profiles and their linkages with preschoolers’ school readiness.