Changes in parents’ spanking and reading as mechanisms for Head Start impacts on children
Date
2016
Journal Title
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Publisher
Journal of family psychology
Abstract
This study examined whether Head Start, the nation’s main two-generation program for low-income families, benefits children in part through positive changes in parents’ use of spanking and reading to children. Data were drawn from the 3-year-old cohort of the national evaluation of the Head Start program known as the Head Start Impact Study (N = 2,063). Results indicated that Head Start had small indirect effects on children’s spelling ability at age 4 and their aggression at age 4 through an increase in parents’ reading to their children. Taken together, the results suggest that parents plays a role in sustaining positive benefits of the Head Start program for children’s behavior and literacy skills, one that could be enhanced with a greater emphasis on parent involvement and education. (Author Abstract)
Description
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Keywords
child abuse, physical abuse, corporal punishment, discipline, research
Citation
Gershoff, E. T., Ansari, A., Purtell, K. M., & Sexton, H. R. (2016). Changes in parents’ spanking and reading as mechanisms for Head Start impacts on children. Journal of family psychology, 30(4), 480-491.