Abstract
Consistently, research has shown that higher levels of maternal education are linked to positive child outcomes; however, few studies have examined whether increases in maternal education after the child is born are a protective or a risk factor for child outcomes. Given a large minority of mothers complete education after having children, understanding the impact of maternal increases in education may be important. We aimed to examine the association between increases in maternal education during the first five years of the child’s life and later child outcomes and explore the mediating role of the home learning environment and positive parenting. Further, we examined the moderating role of baseline education in the association between increases in maternal education and parenting behaviors. Data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study (FFCWS), a longitudinal birth cohort study comprising 4898 families, were used. Using structural equation modeling, findings indicated that increases in maternal education were significantly associated with greater child academic skill at age nine (b = 0.04) but not with child externalizing behavior. Increases in maternal education were not linked to home learning environment or positive parenting at age five; however, higher levels of positive parenting and a better-quality home learning environment were associated with more optimal child outcomes. Baseline maternal education did not moderate the association between increases in maternal education and home learning environment and positive parenting. Models accounted for associations with several demographic covariates, including maternal intellectual ability, child effects on parenting behaviors, and continuity of child outcomes. Findings provide limited support for policies that offer support for mothers to complete educational programs that may subsequently foster child academic skills.
Highlights
-
Increases in maternal education were associated with higher child academic skills.
-
Higher quality home learning environment was associated with better child outcomes.
-
Positive parenting was associated with better child academic and behavioral outcomes.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Achenbach, T. M., McConaughy, S. H. & & Howell, C. T. (1987). Child/adolescent behavioral and emotional problems: Implications of cross-informant correlations for situational specificity. Psychological Bulletin, 101(2), 213–232. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.101.2.213.
Achenbach, T. M., & Rescorla, L. (2001). ASEBA school-age forms & profiles. Burlington, VT: University of Vermont, Research Center for Children, Youth, and Families.
Achenbach, T. M. (1992). Manual for child behavior checklist/2-3 and 1992 profile. Burlington, VT: University of Vermont, Research Center for Children, Youth, and Families.
Augustine, J. M. (2016). Exploring new life course patterns of mother’s continuing secondary and college education. Population Research and Policy Review, 1–29. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11113-016-9401-5.
Bandura, A., & McClelland, D. C. (1977). Social learning theory (Vol. 1). Prentice Hall: Englewood cliffs.
Becker, G. S., & Tomes, N. (1986). Human capital and the rise and fall of families. Journal of Labor Economics, 4(3, Part 2), S1–S39. https://doi.org/10.1086/298118.
Behrman, J. R. (1997). Intrahousehold distribution and the family. Handbook of population and family economics, 1, 125–187.
Bradley, R. H.(1993). Children’s home environments, health, behavior, and intervention efforts: a review using the HOME inventory as a marker measure. Genetic, Social & General Psychology Monographs, 119(4), 439. http://psycnet.apa.org/record/1994-23897-001.
Bradley, R. H., & Corwyn, R. F. (2002). Socioeconomic status and child development. Annual Review of Psychology, 53(1), 371–399. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.psych.53.100901.135233.
Cabrera, N. J., Malin, J. L., Kuhns, C., & West, J. (2017). The early home environment of latino boys and their peers: a developmental perspective. Infant Mental Health Journal, 38(1), 97–114. https://doi.org/10.1002/imhj.21620.
Carneiro, P., Meghir, C., & Parey, M. (2013). Maternal education, home environments, and the development of children and adolescents. Journal of the European Economic Association, 11, 123–160. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1542-4774.2012.01096.x.
Carr, A. & Pike, A. (2012). Maternal scaffolding behavior: links with parenting style and maternal education. Developmental Psychology, 48(2), 543–551. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0025888.
Chase-Lansdale, P. L., & Brooks-Gunn, J. (2014). Two-generation programs in the twenty-first century. The Future of Children, 13–39.
Chen, E., Matthews, K. A., & Boyce, W. T. (2002). Socioeconomic differences in children’s health: How and why do these relationships change with age? Psychological Bulletin, 128(2), 295–329. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.128.2.295.
Choy, S. (2002). Nontraditional undergraduates (NCES 2002-012). Washington, DC: National Center for Education Statistics. http://search.proquest.com/docview/1651830642/93DDD7A01C9B43F4PQ/1.
Conger, R. D., Wallace, L. E., Sun, Y., Simons, R. L., McLoyd, V. C., & Brody, G. H. (2002). Economic pressure in African American families: A replication and extension of the family stress model. Developmental Psychology, 38(2), 179. https://doi.org/10.1037/0012-1649.38.2.179.
Conners, C. K. (2001). Conners’ rating scales revised. Multi-Health Systems, Incorporated.
Crosnoe, R., & Kalil, A. (2010). Educational progress and parenting among Mexican immigrant mothers of young children. Journal of Marriage and Family, 72(4), 976–990. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1741-3737.2010.00743.x.
Deary, I. J., Strand, S., Smith, P., & Fernandes, C. (2007). Intelligence and educational achievement. Intelligence, 35(1), 13–21. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.intell.2006.02.001.
Dearing, E., McCartney, K., & Taylor, B. A. (2001). Change in family income‐to‐needs matters more for children with less. Child Development, 72(6), 1779–1793. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-8624.00378.
Deater-Deckard, K., Dodge, K. A., Bates, J. E., & Pettit, G. S. (1996). Physical discipline among African American and European American mothers: Links to children’s externalizing behaviors. Developmental Psychology, 32(6), 1065. https://doi.org/10.1037/0012-1649.32.6.1065.
Dollaghan, C. A., Campbell, T. F., Paradise, J. L., Feldman, H. M., Janosky, J. E., Pitcairn, D. N., & Kurs-Lasky, M. (1999). Maternal education and measures of early speech and language. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 42(6), 1432–43. https://doi.org/10.1044/jslhr.4206.1432.
Domina, T., & Roksa, J. (2012). Should mom go back to school? Post-natal educational attainment and parenting practices. Social Science Research, 41(3), 695–708. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssresearch.2011.12.002.
Dunn, L. M., & Dunn, L. M. (1997). PPVT-III: Peabody picture vocabulary test. American Guidance Service.
Foster, H., Brooks-Gunn, J., & Martin, A. (2007). Poverty/socioeconomic status and exposure to violence in the lives of children and adolescents. In D. J. Flannery, A. T. Vazsonyi, & I. D. Waldman (Eds.), The Cambridge handbook of violent behavior and aggression (p. 664–687). Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511816840.036
Furstenberg, F. F., Belzer, A., Davis, C., Levine, J. A., Morrow, K., & Washington, M. (1993). How families manage risk and opportunity in dangerous neighborhoods. Sociology and the public agenda, 231–258.
Harding, J. F. (2015). Increases in maternal education and low-income children’s cognitive and behavioral outcomes. Developmental Psychology, 51(5), 583–599. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0038920.
Harding, J. F., & Morris, P. A. (2015). Understanding how participation in education changes mothers’ parenting practices. Society for Research on Educational Effectiveness. http://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED562497
Harding, J. F., Morris, P. A., & Hughes, D. (2015). The relationship between maternal education and children’s academic outcomes: a theoretical framework. Journal of Marriage & Family, 77(1), 60–76. https://doi.org/10.1111/jomf.12156.
Hauser, R. M., & Warren, J. R. (1997). Socioeconomic indexes for occupations: a review, update, and critique. Sociological Methodology, 27, 177–298. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9531.271028.
Hooper, D., Coughlan, J., & Mullen, M. (2008). Structural equation modelling: guidelines for determining model fit. Electronic Journal of Business Research Methods, 6(1), 53–60.
Hox, J. J., Maas, C. J., & Brinkhuis, M. J. (2010). The effect of estimation method and sample size in multilevel structural equation modeling. Statistica Neerlandica, 64(2), 157–170. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9574-2009.00445.
Iruka, I. U., LaForett, D. R., & Odom, E. C. (2012). Examining the validity of the family investment and stress models and relationship to children’s school readiness across five cultural groups. Journal of Family Psychology, 26(3), 359–370. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0028290.
Jung, D. E., Bhang, S. Y., Lee, W. H., Yoon, H. J., Jung, H. Y., & Kim, Y. (2018). Protective role of parenting attitude on the behavioral and neurocognitive development of the children from economically disadvantaged families. Psychiatry Investigation, 15(6), 584 https://doi.org/10.30773/pi.2017.12.25.
Krieger, N., Williams, D. R., & Moss, N. (1997). Measuring social class in U.S. public health research: concepts, methodologies, and guide- lines. Annual Review of Public Health, 18, 341–378.
Lareau, A. (2011). Unequal childhoods: Class, race, and family life. Univ of California Press.
Linver, M. R., Brooks-Gunn, J., & Kohen, D. E. (2002). Family processes as pathways from income to young children’s development. Developmental Psychology, 38(5), 719. https://doi.org/10.1037/0012-1649.38.5.719.
Little, R. J. (1988). A test of missing completely at random for multivariate data with missing values. Journal of the American Statistical Association, 83(404), 1198–1202. https://doi.org/10.1080/01621459.1988.10478722.
Martin, A., Gardner, M., & Petitclerc, A. (2019). Low-income mothers’ entry into postsecondary education during middle childhood: effects on adolescents. Children and Youth Services Review, 106, 104470. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.childyouth.2019.104470.
Magnuson, K. (2003). The effect of increases in welfare mothers’ education on their young children’s academic and behavioral outcomes: Evidence from the National Evaluation of Welfare-to-Work Strategies Child Outcomes Study. Institute for Research on Poverty Madison, WI. http://www.ssc.wisc.edu/irpweb/publications/dps/pdfs/dp127403.pdf.
Magnuson, K. (2007). Maternal education and children’s academic achievement during middle childhood. Developmental Psychology, 43(6), 1497–1512. https://doi.org/10.1037/0012-1649.43.6.1497.
Magnuson, K. A., Sexton, H. R., Davis-Kean, P. E., & Huston, A. C. (2009). Increases in maternal education and young children’s language skills. Merrill-Palmer Quarterly, 55(3), 319–350. https://doi.org/10.1353/mpq.0.0024.
Marsh, H. W. (1990). Self-Description Questionnaire Manual. Campbelltown N. S. W. Australia: University of Western Sydney, Macarthur.
Monaghan, D. (2017). Does college enrollment and bachelor’s completion by mothers’ impact children’s educational outcomes? Sociology of Education, 90(1), 3–24. https://doi.org/10.1177/0038040716681054.
Newman, D. A. (2003). Longitudinal modeling with randomly and systematically missing data: a simulation of ad hoc, maximum likelihood, and multiple imputation techniques. Organizational Research Methods, 6(3), 328–362. https://doi.org/10.1177/1094428103254673.
Nievar, M. A., Moske, A. K., Johnson, D. J., & Chen, Q. (2014). Parenting practices in preschool leading to later cognitive competence: a family stress model. Early Education and Development, 25(3), 318–337. https://doi.org/10.1080/10409289.2013.788426.
Ontai, L., Sano, Y., Hatton, H., & Conger, K. J. (2008). Low‐income rural mothers’ perceptions of parent confidence: the role of family health problems and partner status. Family Relations, 57(3), 324–334. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1741-3729.2008.00503.x.
Pilkauskas, N., Waldfogel, J., & Brooks-Gunn, J. (2016). Maternal labor force participation and differences by education in an urban birth cohort study-1998-2010. Demographic Research, 34, 407. https://doi.org/10.4054/DemRes.2016.34.14.
Pinquart, M. (2016). Associations of parenting styles and dimensions with academic achievement in children and adolescents: a meta-analysis. Educational Psychology Review, 28(3), 475–493. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10648-015-9338-y.
Pinquart, M. (2017). Associations of parenting dimensions and styles with externalizing problems of children and adolescents: an updated meta-analysis. Developmental Psychology, 53(5), 873. https://doi.org/10.1037/dev0000295.
Plomin, R., DeFries, J. C., Knopik, V. S., & Neiderhiser, J. M. (2016). Top 10 replicated findings from behavioral genetics. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 11(1), 3–23. https://doi.org/10.1177/1745691615617439.
Reichman, N. E., Teitler, J. O., Garfinkel, I., & McLanahan, S. S. (2001). Fragile families: sample and design. Children and Youth Services Review, 23(4–5), 303–326. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0190-7409(01)00141-4.
Rosseel, Y. (2012). Lavaan: An R package for structural equation modeling and more. Version 0.5–12 (BETA). Journal of Statistical Software, 48(2), 1–36.
Rudy, D., & Grusec, J. E. (2001). Correlates of authoritarian parenting in individualist and collectivist cultures and implications for understanding the transmission of values. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 32(2), 202–212. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022022101032002007.
Schafer, & Graham, J. W. (2002). Missing data: our view of the state of the art. Psychological methods, 7(2), 147.
Schochet, O. N., Johnson, A. D., & Ryan, R. M. (2020). The relationship between increases in low-income mothers’ education and children’s early outcomes: Variation by developmental stage and domain. Children and Youth Services Review, 109, 104705. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.childyouth.2019.104705.
Shaw, D. S., & Shelleby, E. C. (2014). Early-starting conduct problems: Intersection of conduct problems and poverty. Annual Review of Clinical Psychology, 10(1), 503–528. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-clinpsy-032813-153650.
Shelleby, E. C., Votruba-Drzal, E., Shaw, D. S., Dishion, T. J., Wilson, M. N., & Gardner, F. (2014). Income and children’s behavioral functioning: a sequential mediation analysis. Journal of Family Psychology, 28(6), 936–946. https://doi.org/10.1037/fam0000035.
Super, C. M., & Harkness, S. (1986). The developmental niche: a conceptualization at the interface of child and culture. International Journal of Behavioral Development, 9(4), 545–569.
Sirin, S. R. (2005). Socioeconomic status and academic achievement: a meta-analytic review of research. Review of Educational Research, 75(3), 417–453. https://doi.org/10.3102/00346543075003417.
Tamis-LeMonda, C. S., Luo, R., McFadden, K. E., Bandel, E. T., & Vallotton, C. (2019). Early home learning environment predicts children’s 5th grade academic skills. Applied Developmental Science, 23(2), 153–169. https://doi.org/10.1080/10888691.2017.1345634.
Vuolo, M., Mortimer, J. T., & Staff, J. (2014). Adolescent precursors of pathways from school to work. Journal of Research on Adolescence, 24(1), 145–162. https://doi.org/10.1111/jora.12038.
Wechsler, D. (1981). WAIS-R manual: Wechsler adult intelligence scale-revised. Psychological Corporation.
Woodcock, R. W., McGrew, K. S., & Mather, N. (2001). Woodcock-1591Johnson tests of achievement. Itasca, IL: Riverside Publishing.
Yeung, W. J., Linver, M. R., & Brooks–Gunn, J. (2002). How money matters for young children’s development: parental investment and family processes. Child Development, 73(6), 1861–1879. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-8624.t01-1-00511.
Youngstrom, E., Loeber, R., & Stouthamer-Loeber, M. (2000). Patterns and correlates of agreement between parent, teacher, and male adolescent ratings of externalizing and internalizing problems. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 68(6), 1038. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-006X.68.6.1038.
Zhang, W., Zhang, L., Chen, L., Ji, L., & Deater‐Deckard, K. (2019). Developmental changes in longitudinal associations between academic achievement and psychopathological symptoms from late childhood to middle adolescence. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 60(2), 178–188. https://doi.org/10.1111/jcpp.12927.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Conflict of Interest
The authors declare no competing interests.
Ethical Approval
All procedures were in accordance with ethical standards. The FFCWS was approved by the Columbia University and Princeton University Institutional Review Boards.
Informed Consent
Informed Consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.
Additional information
Publisher’s note Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Awada, S.R., Shelleby, E.C. Increases in Maternal Education and Child Behavioral and Academic Outcomes. J Child Fam Stud 30, 1813–1830 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10826-021-01983-7
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10826-021-01983-7