The Effect of Parenting Styles on Cognitive Development in Early Childhood. A Cross-cultural study. MATCHI (maternal interaction, culture & child)

Background

The early years of life represent a crucial period marked by heightened sensitivity to environmental stimuli and intense learning. Central to this process are early social interactions and the transmission of cultural knowledge across generations. While prior research has established significant variations in parental teaching behaviour across cultures, its impact on children’s socio-cognitive development remains understudied, particularly in low- and middle-income countries. In this study, we investigate cross-cultural differences in parental teaching and early child development across urban and rural contexts in India, Nigeria, Germany, Brazil, and Japan. By exploring diverse cultural settings, we aim to shed light on the critical role of parental teaching in shaping early cognitive development and extending our understanding beyond simplistic dichotomies. This research contributes to a deeper comprehension of the environmental factors influencing early child development and underscores the importance of culturally sensitive approaches in studying parental behaviour and child developmental outcomes.

Aim

The present cross-cultural study aims to examine:

1. Parental teaching behavior through video recording of mother-child interaction sequences while performing standardised tasks.
2. Early child developmental outcomes using INTER-NDA Scores for cognition, language, fine motor, gross motor, positive and negative behavior
3. Associations between parental teaching behavior and early cognitive outcomes in mother-child dyads from a western industrialized urban and rural study sites.
4. Association of maternal variables, such as maternal history of childhood maltreatment and postnatal depression with maternal parental teaching and early child development

Study design and Eligibility Criteria

This will be a Cross Cultural, Cross- sectional study

Inclusion criteria:

1. Mothers with children between the ages of 24 to 30 months.
2. Mother’s aged more than or equal to 18 years and who understand and speak Kannada language
3. Mothers who will voluntarily consent to be included in the study

Exclusion criteria:

1. Mothers or children with developmental or mental health disorders
2. Mothers aged less than 18 years of age
3. Mothers not willing to provide consent
4. Any other condition as per investigator’s decision

Enrolment of Subjects

All participants who fulfil the eligibility criteria will be enrolled into the study after obtaining informed consent. Since the current study is focussing on early child development in general, a special screening is not required. We will enrol around 70 urban families from urban health centers and 30 rural families from primary health centres for participation in the study.

Study Procedures

In case parents agree with the participation together with their children, they are required to visit the central facility for scheduled assessments. The data collection during the study will be performed by the members of the study group. After taking consent the BESOZ tool will be used to assess mother-child-interaction patterns and INTER NDA for testing early child development.

BESOZ:

BESOZ is a recently developed tool that has been culturally adjusted and validated in recent cross-cultural research in nine urban and rural samples Para (Brazil), near Cotacatchi (Peru), as well as urban samples from Buenos Aires (Argentina), Münster (Germany), Kabale (Uganda), Ibadan (Nigeria), Regensburg (Germany), Bergen (Norway) and Kyoto (Japan).

Each mother-child dyad completes thirteen standardized tasks in cooperation (e.g., building a tower out of bricks), problem-solving (e.g., a simple puzzle), task assignment (e.g., bringing over objects), and innovation (e.g., generating ideas about unknown objects and shapes). These materials have demonstrated reliability and consistency in previous studies conducted in both high- and low-income countries (Köster et al., 2016, in preparation).

INTER-NDA:

The INTER-NDA (www.inter-nda.com) is a rapid and comprehensive assessment tool that measures the cognitive, motor, language, positive and negative behavioral skills of children aged 22-30 months (Fernandes et al 2014, 2020). It consists of 37 items and uses a combination of psychometric techniques to minimize bias in caregiver interviews and to account for the differences in performance between artificial testing environments and familiar settings (Fernandes et al 2014, 2020).

Study Outcomes

• Parental teaching behaviour of mother
• Early child development

Sample Size

We aim for a final sample size of 90 children (60 urban, 30 rural). Thus, we will invite around 100 families to participate in the study, considering around 10 for piloting purposes. Based on prior research we estimate 90 participants will be adequate sample size for India, because this will also allow us to investigate within cultural variation in parental behavior and associations with child development.

Study timeline

The total study duration will be 12 months. Initial 6 months for site preparation, in- country regulatory approvals and training. Recruitment and data collection will occur approximately over a period of 4 months. The last 2 months will be utilised for data cleaning and analysis.