title: Does early responsive parenting have a special importance for children's development or is consistency across early childhood necessary?
abstract: The role of early versus ongoing maternal responsiveness in predicting cognitive and social development was examined in home visits for mothers, full-term children (n = 103), and medically low-risk (n = 102) and high-risk (n = 77) preterm children at 5 ages. There were 4 maternal clusters based on warm and contingent responsiveness behaviors observed early (at 6, 12, and 24 months) and late (at 3 and 4 years): high early, high late; high early, low late; low early, moderate late; and low early, low late. Children, especially preterm children, showed faster cognitive growth when mothers were consistently responsive. Social growth was similar in the consistently responsive (high-high) and the early-responsive inconsistent (high-low) clusters, but greater deceleration at 4 years among children with mothers in the inconsistent cluster refuted the notion of a unique role for early responsiveness. The importance of consistent responsiveness, defined by an affective-emotional construct, was evident even when a broader constellation of parenting behaviors was considered.
authors.affiliation: Division of Developmental Pediatrics, University of Texas-Houston Health Science Center, 77030, USA. slandry@ped1.med.uth.tmc.edu
authors.forename: S H
authors.initials: SH
authors.lastname: Landry
authors.forename: K E
authors.initials: KE
authors.lastname: Smith
authors.forename: P R
authors.initials: PR
authors.lastname: Swank
authors.forename: M A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Assel
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Vellet
mesh_terms: D002648:Child; D002652:Child Behavior / Q000523:psychology*; D002657:Child Development; D016000:Cluster Analysis; D003071:Cognition; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009034:Mother-Child Relations; D009035:Mothers / Q000523:psychology; D016487:Parenting; D012919:Social Behavior