The Role of Fathering in the Language Development Among Young, Low-Income African American and Latino Children

The Role of Fathering in the Language Development
Among Young, Low-Income African American and Latino Children
Abstract
Recent studies of low-income children have revealed significant variations in the
quality of parent-child communication as well as the quantity of parent input that are
important for successful child language development. Shared aspects of early parent-
child communication including joint engagement with symbols and the interaction’s flow
predict language outcome above measures of parent verbal input (15) or the child’s joint
attention skills. The importance of early joint engagement for language development is
demonstrated in diverse race-ethnic groups.
However, the majority of this research has focused on mothers. More research on
ethnic minority fathers is critical to document the heterogeneity in as well as the unique
cultural ecology of the early language environments of low-income, ethnic minority
children as well as to foster innovation in the development of preventive interventions to
support language development and early academic success. We propose to leverage a
longitudinal study of low-income African American and Latino children that includes
video recordings of 216 2-3 year old children interacting with their fathers and their
mothers. By leveraging an existing archive of videos, we extend the original NICHD
investment as well as lower costs enormously relative to the cost of launching a new
longitudinal study. Our aims are as follows:
Aim 1: To describe father-child interactions in low-income African American and
Latino families encompassing both broad characteristics as well as culturally distinct
patterns of father language input and quality of joint engagement.
Aim 2: To compare language input and the quality of joint engagement among
African American and Latino low-income children in early father-child and mother-child
interactions.
Aim 3: To examine the relation between early language input, joint engagement,
and culturally distinct patterns of father-child interaction with language development and
literacy achievement in early elementary school among African American and Latino
low-income children.
Aim 4: To explore whether father-child interactions, father-child language, and/or the
relation of these with child language development and early literacy achievement differ
by child gender.

Grant Number: 5R01HD100557-05
NIH Institute/Center: NIH
Principal Investigator: MARGARET CAUGHY