Differing Cognitive Trajectories of Mexican American Toddlers

Abstract

Recent studies reveal early and wide gaps in cognitive and oral language skills-whether gauged in English or Spanish-among Latino children relative to White peers. Yet, other work reports robust child health and social development, even among children of Mexican American immigrants raised in poor households, the so-called immigrant advantage. To weigh the extent to which Mexican heritage or foreign-born status contributes to early growth, we first compare levels of cognitive and communicative skills among children of Mexican American and native-born White mothers at 9 and 24 months of age, drawing from a national sample of births in 2001. Just one fifth of Mexican American toddlers kept pace with the cognitive growth of White toddlers at or above their mean rate of growth through 24 months of age, matched on their 9-month cognitive status. We then assess how factors from developmental-risk or ecocultural theory help to explain which Mexican American toddlers kept pace with White peers. Growth was stronger among toddlers whose family did not live beneath the poverty line, and whose mothers reported higher school attainment, more frequent

Latino Maternal Literacy Beliefs and Practices Mediating Socioeconomic Status and Maternal Education Effects in Predicting Child Receptive Vocabulary

“…Indeed maternal education is among the most robust predictors of children's vocabulary development (Magnuson, Sexton, Davis-Kean, & Huston, 2009). Children in homes with less educated mothers experience less quality language input, less verbal interactions, fewer cognitively stimulating activities, limited sentence structures, fewer learning materials, and less maternal contingent responding (Coddington, Mistry, & Bailey, 2014;Fuller et al, 2015;Hoff, 2013;Magnuson et al, 2009;Marcella et al, 2014;Snow, Burns, & Griffin, 1998). Negative associations between low maternal education and children's developmental outcomes, although similar between Caucasian and Latino mothers, are more pronounced in Spanish-speaking homes (Guerrero et al, 2013).…”

“…Ecocultural theory sheds light on how families adaptively change (e.g., child-rearing goals, maternal practices, family structure) to fit the social context (e.g., school demands) as they respond to new and changing circumstances (Bridges et al, 2015;Fuller et al, 2015;Reese & Gallimore, 2000). In Latino families, the linkages between literacy socialization goals and schooling can depart from those in White families (who routinely engage children in language and literacy practices that mirror school-like formats) in ways that affect language-vocabulary specifically-prior to schooling (Fuller & García Coll, 2010).…”

“…Although the underlying causes are not fully understood, researchers highlight cross-cultural differences, often confounded with socioeconomic status (SES), in patterns of home socialization practices that mediate the relationship between culture and child development to explain differences, especially in language skills (Chen, Fu, & Shao, 2015;Farver, Xu, Eppe, & Lonigan, 2006;Fuller, Bein, Kim, & Rabe-Hesketh, 2015). These cross-cultural differences often take the form of proximal processes such as socialization practices shaped by culturally bounded beliefs, practices, and dispositions linked to child developmental outcomes and influenced by parental education and income -more distal variables.…”

Associations between Maternal Behaviors at 1 Year and Child Language at 2 Years in a Cohort of Women Experiencing Adversity

“…Children living in households experiencing adversity have parents who are frequently less responsive and more intrusive (Dyer, Owen, & Caughty, ; Fuller, Bein, Kim, & Rabe‐Hesketh, ; Hart & Risley, ). Teenage mothers, for example, are often less verbally responsive and more intrusive than older mothers (Keown et al., ; Rafferty, Griffin, & Lodise, ).…”

“…Teenage mothers, for example, are often less verbally responsive and more intrusive than older mothers (Keown et al., ; Rafferty, Griffin, & Lodise, ). Adversity, as used in the current study, refers to typical socioeconomic status measures but also includes other risk factors related to child language, for example, teen parenthood (Keown et al., ; Rafferty et al., ), ethnic minority status (Fuller et al., ), and parental mental health difficulties (Pan, Rowe, Singer, & Snow, ). Importantly, risk factors which impact child development are not mutually exclusive and may in fact cumulatively impact a parent's ability to cope (Conger, Conger, & Elder, ; Ghate & Hazel, ).…”