Mothers’ Strategies to Support Children’s Early Learning in Low-Income Homes: A Qualitative Investigation

A long history of empirical research demonstrates that children of low-socioeconomic status (SES) begin school behind their peers and that enrichment activities in the home environment mediate these disparities. This past work overlooks the considerable heterogeneity in the parenting practices of families from low-SES backgrounds. To address this limitation, this study examined home enrichment practices among families with low-SES in greater detail to obtain a nuanced view of the experiences and challenges facing socioeconomically disadvantaged parents. We conducted in-depth, qualitative interviews with 13 mothers of three- to five-year-old children with low-SES, addressing their enrichment activities in the home and any challenges or barriers that interfere with enrichment activities. Parents were also asked to report on their home enrichment practices through a survey measure. All parents described substantial challenges in attempting to provide opportunities for learning with their young children but also described activities that they did engage in, along with a variety of strategies for overcoming challenges. Comparable challenges and strategies were noted by mothers with both high and low scores on a traditional survey measure of home learning activities, suggesting these measures may miss important learning opportunities that parents in low-SES contexts provide for their children. Highlights Few studies address the heterogeneity of low-SES families home learning practices. In this qualitative study, we interviewed low-SES mothers with children between three and five years of age. All mothers described activities they engaged in, along with a variety of strategies for overcoming SES-related challenges. Traditional measures of home learning did not fully capture the learning opportunities that the low-SES mothers provided.