Browsing by Author "Nordahl, Kristin Berg"
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- Early maternal spatial support for toddlers and math skills in second gradePublication . Ribeiro, Luisa A.; Casey, Beth; Dearing, Eric; Nordahl, Kristin Berg; Aguiar, Cecília; Zachrisson, HenrikThe aim of this study is to investigate whether maternal spatial support during two types of joint manipulative toy play tasks with 2-year-old children was longitudinally associated with math screening test scores in second grade. The interaction between spatial support and maternal education was explored as well. We also investigated predictions of a teacher rating of math performance at second grade, although these effects were less robust. Data were drawn from BONDS (The Behavior Outlook Norwegian Developmental Study), a longitudinal study of Norwegian children and their families. Participants were a subsample of 932 mothers and their 2-year-olds. Mothers were asked to help their children solve both a puzzle task and a shape-color sorting task. Mothers’ spatial support included spatial language, gestures, and placement of objects. Results showed that higher levels of spatial support during mother-child interaction tasks at 2 years of age was significantly associated with fewer math difficulties in second grade. This was the case for a puzzle task (a task associated with spatial visualization skills), but not for a shape-color sorting task (a task associated with shape and color feature discriminations). Conclusions are drawn with respect to the importance of identifying optimal parental spatial strategies associated with better math outcomes. These findings on parental facilitation of spatial skills during joint early play may be useful for future training interventions directed at parents of children at risk for poor math skills.
- Parenting quality from observational ratings at age 2: validation from Norwegian and US SamplesPublication . Nordahl, Kristin Berg; Owen, Margaret Tresch; Ribeiro, Luisa Antunes; Zachrisson, Henrik DaaeThis study investigated the construct validity of a proposed measure of parenting quality derived from extensively used observational ratings of parenting in mother-child interaction procedures with 2-yearolds in two large samples. Data included global ratings of mother-child interaction in an unstructured free-play and a semi-structured teaching task from the Behavior Outlook Norwegian Developmental Study (N = 1157) and from the Three Boxes procedure used in the NICHD Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development (N = 1364). Confirmatory Factor Analyses, including ratings of mothers’ sensitivity, detachment, intrusiveness, cognitive stimulation, positive regard and negative regard, revealed a similarly structured latent parenting construct across samples and observational procedures, supporting the structural and content validity, and the generalizability of the measure. In the Norwegian sample, better predictive validity to child outcomes at age 4 was found from the semi-structured teaching task than from the less structured free-play task. Comparable predictive validity to child outcomes was found for the U.S. sample’s latent parenting quality construct. The results hold implications for the careful selection and study of observational procedures for measuring parenting quality in early childhood.