Parenting practices have been commonly studied as important predictors of children’s social outcomes in European American families. However, researchers have rarely investigated relations between parental factors and child social outcomes in families living in sub-Saharan regions, such as Mozambique. This study investigated longitudinal relations between mothers’ perceived social support, mothers’ parenting behaviors, and children’s social competence during middle childhood using longitudinal data from the Mozambique site of the Family Migration and Early Life Outcomes (FAMELO) project (N = 609; Wave 1 child Mage = 8.96 years; 49.6% female). Mothers reported their perceived social support, parenting practices (i.e., parental engagement, modeling, monitoring), and children’s social competence. The half-longitudinal mediation model did not support the hypothesized indirect effects from maternal social support to parenting practices, and parenting practices to children’s social competence. However, mothers’ social support positively predicted their modeling behaviors and children’s social competence. Moreover, “parent effects” and “child effects” were found between maternal parenting practices and children’s social competence across two years, but relations were not always as hypothesized or consistent with within-time relations. Mothers’ engagement and monitoring behaviors at Wave 1 negatively predicted children’s social competence at Wave 2. Children’s social competence at Wave 1 negatively predicted maternal modeling behaviors and positively predicted maternal monitoring behaviors at Wave 2. The pattern of associations between mothers’ parenting practices and children’s social competence did not differ for boys and girls. This study provided novel information suggestive of longitudinal associations among mothers’ social support, maternal parenting practices, and children’s social competence in middle childhood and shed light on the complex transactions between mothers and children in Mozambican families. Suggestions for future research were provided to facilitate a better understanding of the support mothers perceived from their social networks, parenting behaviors, and child social development in the sub-Saharan African context.

Socioeconomic status (SES) is one of the most well researched constructs in developmental science, yet important questions underly how to best model it. That is, are relations with SES always in the same direction or does the direction of association change at different levels of SES? In this dissertation, I conducted a meta-analysis using individual participant data (IPD) to examine two questions: 1) Does a nonmonotonic (quadratic) model of the relations between components of SES (i.e., income, years of education, occupation status/prestige), depressive symptoms, and academic achievement fit better than a monotonic (linear) model? and 2) Is the magnitude of relation moderated by developmental period, gender/sex, or race/ethnicity? I hypothesized that there would be more support for the nonmonotonic model. Moderation analyses were exploratory. I identified nationally representative IPD from the Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR). I included 59 datasets, which represent 23 studies (e.g., Add Health) and 1,844,577 participants. Higher income (β = -0.11; β = 0.10), years of education (β = -0.09; β = 0.13), and occupational status (β = -0.04; β = 0.04) and prestige (β = -0.03; β = 0.04) were associated with a linear decrease in depressive symptoms and increase in academic achievement, respectively. Higher income (β = 0.05), years of education (β = 0.02), and occupational status/prestige (β = 0.02) were quadratically associated with a decrease in depressive symptoms followed by a slight increase at higher levels of income and a diminishing association towards higher levels of education and occupational status/prestige. Higher income was also quadratically associated with academic achievement (β = -0.03). I found evidence that these associations varied between developmental periods and racial/ethnic samples, but I did not find evidence of variation between females and males. I integrate these findings with three conclusions: (1) more is not always better and (2) there are unique contexts and resources associated with different levels of SES that (3) operate in a dynamic fashion with other cultural systems (e.g., racism), which affect the integrated actions between the individual and context. I outline several measurement implications and limitations for future research directions.

School and educational psychologists have a shared imperative to understand the complex inter-play of a student’s home life and perceived self-efficacy. Self-efficacy is the central facet of Bandura’s social cognitive theory (SCT, 1986, 1997). The current study improved upon the extant literature by exploring how home life in Arizona, Arkansas, California, and Oklahoma impacts the self-efficacy for self-regulated learning of mid-to-late adolescents. Although it is difficult to identify how specific aspects of life (including home life) matter for particular areas of functioning, the present study explored self-efficacy for self-regulated learning through the lens of three scales of the Late Adolescence version of the Home Observation for Measurement of the Environment Inventory (LA-HOME) (Caldwell & Bradley, 2016). The LA-HOME documents actions, objects, events and conditions connected with the home environment of children ages 16 to 20, who are still residing at home with parents or guardians (Caldwell & Bradley, 2016). This paper addresses the following research question: How are various aspects of the home life of mid-to-late adolescents, namely (1) modeling and encouragement of maturity, (2) family companionship and investment in adolescent, and (3) warmth, acceptance, and responsiveness, associated with self-efficacy for self-regulated learning? The sample of 333 adolescents is quite diverse demographically; it includes variations in family composition, race/ethnicity, household SES, language spoken in the home, and geography (rural, urban, suburban). The study utilizes a sub-sample of adolescents from the larger study who were 15 to 19 years of age (N = 333). Descriptive statistics, means, and standard deviations are reported for continuous variables, frequencies are reported for categorical variables, and correlations are presented. A hierarchical regression model was estimated in two steps. The first step included the complete set of control variables (household income, ethnicity, gender, and adolescent general health and depressive symptoms), and the second step included the set of three home life indicators. The hierarchical regression model had good fit. Study assets and limitations, as well as alternate theories for consideration and directions for future research, are discussed.

Increasing elementary school attainment globally remains a key focus for improving internationally child development (UNESCO, 2010), and for girls in particular (UNICEF, 2015). This dissertation was designed to test and explore specific areas to target to improve educational attainment for rural indigenous communities using a mixed-methods approach (i.e., quantitative survey of 264 mothers and qualitative interviews with 37 of those mothers 3.5 years later) with a Mayan community in Camanchaj, Guatemala. The first study was designed to examine the educational trajectories available to children in this community (e.g., dropping out, graduating 6th grade) by age, grade, and gender, and identified risks and vulnerabilities for educational attainment. The second study was a logistic regression to examine maternal factors that predict the likelihood of a child graduating from elementary school or dropping out in this community, above and beyond covariates of poverty and health and found that maternal education predicted educational attainment for both boys as girls as well as maternal beliefs about the importance of school for getting a job, which was particularly strong predictor for boys. The third study probed findings from Studies 1 and 2 using Experiential Thematic Analyses and Frequency Analyses to examine processes and cognitions involved in a child’s graduating elementary school, dropping out, and community beliefs and attitudes regarding education and gender equality. Findings highlight the need for interventions that are contextually and culturally appropriate and that consider complex and interacting factors of poverty, health, and gender inequality as well as maternal and community-level attitudes and beliefs to promote elementary school attainment globally.

Theoretical models support conceptualizing parent-child relationships as reciprocal and transactional with each person exerting influence on the other’s behaviors and the overall quality and valence of the relationship across time. The goals of this study were twofold: 1) determine whether there were reciprocal relations in maternal hostility and child negativity across early and middle childhood, and 2) investigate whether individual characteristics (i.e., child temperamental anger and frustration and maternal neuroticism) moderated relations found in goal one. Data were from the Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development. Empirical support was found for conceptualizing mother-child interactions as reciprocal. Maternal hostility was related to a decrease in the probability children would exhibit negative behaviors during mother-child interactions measured approximately two years later. Child negativity was also associated with a significant decrease in the probability mothers would display future hostility.

Child temperamental anger and frustration was found to moderate reciprocal relations across all three parent-to-child cross-lagged paths. Children scoring high on a dispositional proclivity to react with anger and frustration were more likely to avoid maternal hostility, via a significant decrease in negativity, across time. Moderation was also supported in two of three child-to-parent lagged paths. Finally, maternal neuroticism moderated the reciprocal effects during early childhood, such that more neurotic mothers were more likely to demonstrate a decrease in the probability of hostility relative to mothers scoring lower on neuroticism. This affect was attenuated in middle childhood, with patterns becoming similar between mothers scoring high and low on neuroticism. Moreover, children of less neurotic mothers were more likely to demonstrate a decrease in the probability of exhibiting negativity from 36 to 54 months compared to children of more neurotic mothers. This effect also attenuated with patterns becoming negative at the grade 1 to grade 3 lag. Overall, the results from this study supported a transactional model of parent-child relationships, were consistent with the motivation literature, did not support a coercive process of interaction when the sample and measurement paradigm were low-risk, and generally suggested parents and children have an equal influence on the relational processes investigated from early to middle childhood.

Over the last three decades there has been a rise in the number of workers employed during nonstandard (evening and overnight) hours; accompanying this trend has been a renewed interest in documenting workers, their families, and outcomes associated with nonstandard-hour employment. However, there are important gaps in the current literature. Few have considered how parents who work nonstandard hours care for their children when parental care is unavailable; little is known about who participates in nonparental child care during nonstandard hours, or the characteristics of those who participate. Most pressingly from a policy perspective, it is unclear how participation in nonparental child care during nonstandard hours influences child well-being. This study aims to fill these gaps. This dissertation paints a descriptive portrait of children and parents who use nonstandard child care, explores the relationship between nonstandard hours of nonparental child care participation and various measures of child well-being, and identifies longitudinal patterns of participation in nonstandard-hour child care. I find that children who participate in nonstandard-hours of nonparental child care look significantly different from those who do not participate. In particular, children are more likely to be older, identify as black or Hispanic, and reside with younger, unmarried parents who have lower levels of education. Estimates also suggest a negative relationship between participation in nonstandard-hour child care and child well-being. Specifically, children who participate in nonstandard-hour care show decreased school engagement and school readiness, increased behavioral problems, decreased social competency, and lower levels of physical health. These findings have serious implications for social and education policy.

Siblings are a salient part of family life; however, few studies have explored the role of siblings on youths' cultural development and educational expectations. In the current dissertation, two studies address this gap in the literature by using longitudinal data from 246 Mexican-origin sibling pairs and their mothers and fathers. The first study examined how older siblings' cultural orientations and values uniquely contribute to younger siblings' cultural orientations and values from late adolescence to young adulthood, after accounting for mothers' and fathers' cultural orientations and values; further, it was explored the role of sibling modeling and sibling characteristics as moderators of these associations. Findings revealed that older siblings' cultural orientations and values contribute to younger siblings' cultural orientations and values from late adolescence into young adulthood. Specifically, under conditions of high sibling modeling, younger siblings reported higher levels of Anglo orientation and familism values. Whereas, fathers' orientations were positively associated with younger siblings' Anglo and Mexican orientations and mothers' values were predictive of younger siblings' familism values. Together, the findings suggest that siblings and parents play different roles in youths' cultural development.

The second study explored the reciprocal associations between older and younger siblings' educational expectations from early/middle adolescence to middle/late adolescence and from middle/late adolescence to young adulthood. In this study it was tested the moderating role of family immigrant context and sibling characteristics in the association between older and younger siblings' educational expectations. Findings revealed that older siblings' educational expectations at T1 predicted younger siblings' educational expectations at T2. Further, older siblings' educational expectations at T2 continued to influence younger siblings' educational expectations at T3, and younger siblings' educational expectations at T2 also predicted older siblings' educational expectations at T3. Family immigrant context moderated the association from older siblings' educational expectations at T2 to younger siblings' educational expectations at T3, such that the association was significant for immigrant-born families, but not for U.S.-born/Mixed-status families. Our study highlights the value of siblings' roles, particularly in immigrant families, as youth make important decisions about their educational pursuits.

Children's academic experiences during first grade have substantial implications for their academic performance both concurrently and longitudinally. Using two complementary studies, this dissertation utilizing data from the National Institute of Child Development Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development helps create a better understanding of the importance of first-grade experiences for children's academic performance. The first study expands upon current literature by focusing on how children's academic experiences simultaneously influence children's academic performance through behavioral engagement. Specifically, study one examined the mediating role of first-grade behavioral engagement between first-grade academic experiences (i.e. parental involvement, positive peer interactions, student-teacher relationship, and instructional support) and second-grade academic performance. Using a panel model, results showed that behavioral engagement mediates relations between peer interactions and academic performance and relations between instructional support and academic performance. Implications for interventions focusing on children's positive peer interactions and teacher's high-quality instructional support in order to promote behavioral engagement during early elementary school are discussed.

The second study expands the current literature regarding instructional quality thresholds. Limited research has addressed the question of whether there is a minimum level of instructional quality that must be experienced in order to see significant changes in children's academic performance, and the limited research has focused primarily on preschoolers. The goal of study two was to determine if high-quality first-grade instructional support predicted children's first-, third-, and fifth-grade academic performance. Using piecewise regression analyses, results did not show evidence of a relation between first-grade instructional support quality and children's academic performance at any grade. Possible reasons for inconsistencies in findings from this study and previous research are discussed, including differences in sample characteristics and measurement tools. Because instructional quality remains at the forefront of discussions by educators and policy makers, the inconsistencies in research findings argue for further research that may clarify thresholds of instructional support quality that must be met in order for various subgroups of children to gain the skills needed for long-term academic success.

Data from the NICHD Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development (SECCYD) was used to study the role of child individual, parental, and environmental predictors of anxiety across childhood and adolescence. Longitudinal growth modeling was used to examine the influence of behavioral inhibition, parental control, parental anxiety and stressful life events on the developmental progression of anxiety from 4 to 15 years of age. Based on these data, it appears that there are significant developmental differences between the role of child individual, parental and environmental risk factors. These results highlight the importance of considering developmental factors when assessing and targeting risk for anxiety.

This study investigated the efficacy of Early Head Start home-based, center-based and mixed-approach programs on cognitive, language and behavioral outcomes at different levels of cumulative environmental risk. Early Head Start is a federal program that provides low-income families and their children from birth to age three with childcare, parenting education, healthcare and other family supports. As part of Early Head Start's initiation, a program evaluation was begun involving 3,001 children from 17 programs around the country. Half of the children were randomly assigned to the control group, who received no Early Head Start services. Data were collected through program application and enrollment forms, interviews of parents and child and family assessments. Almost all of the children's primary caretakers were mothers, ranging in age from 18 to 26. One-third were African American, one-third white, and one-fourth Hispanic. Almost half of the parents did not have a high school diploma at the time of enrollment, and most of the families received public support of some kind. For each child, a multiple environmental risk score was calculated, which was the sum of 10 possible environmental risks. Each of four outcomes was regressed onto the ten risks individually and also as a cumulative risk index along with program type and covariates. There were significant negative relations of accumulated risk to reductions in reasoning, spatial ability and vocabulary and increased behavior problems. Children with at least eight risks scored 1.48 standard deviations lower on reasoning ability and vocabulary, .48 standard deviations lower on spatial ability and .48 standard deviations higher on behavior problems. The home-based program showed significant benefit for reasoning and vocabulary. Versus the control group, home-based programs increased average reasoning scores by .24 of a standard deviation and increased vocabulary by .14 of a standard deviation. There was no significant difference in program benefits at different levels of risk. This suggests that for reasoning and vocabulary, the home-based program is promotive because the degree of benefit Early Head Start appears to provide is consistent across all levels of risk for the set of risks and outcomes examined in this study.