Maternal Parenting Characteristics and School Involvement: Predictors of Kindergarten Cognitive Competence Among Head Start Children

While early childhood theorists emphasize the importance of the parent-child relationship to school performance, research findings on the relationship between parenting characteristics and child cognitive competence vary in their results. Differing results are found in samples of Head Start and non-Head Start families. One hundred fourteen Head Start children and mothers participated in this study. The authors examined the contribution of four separate maternal parenting factors (warmth, punitiveness, intrusiveness, and involvement in school activities). The authors related these factors to child kindergarten competence, as measured by PPVT-R and teacher-rated child's memory of teacher instructions. Correlational analyses indicated that maternal intrusiveness consistently predicted child cognitive competence while children were in Head Start; maternal school involvement predicted cognitive competence while children were in kindergarten. Hierarchical regression analyses showed that when child gender, maternal PPVT-R scores, and child Head Start cognitive competence were controlled, maternal school involvement related positively to kindergarten child memory for instructions; and maternal punitiveness related negatively to kindergarten child PPVT-R scores. Measuring positive and negative emotional involvement separately revealed significant findings on maternal intrusiveness and punitiveness that may have been obscured had these maternal characteristics been measured on the low end of a scale of maternal warmth. Implications for involving Head Start parents in schools are discussed.