The influence of risk and protective processes on the competence of children growing up in poverty.

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

This study investigated the risk and protective processes that were important to the social and cognitive outcomes of children growing up in poverty. We examined risk and protection with the lives of 703 African-American mothers and their children (304 boys) who were living in Fulton County, Georgia. These families were part of the National Evaluation of Welfare to Work Strategies Child Outcomes Study that followed children for two years from when the children were three to five years of age. Discriminant function analyses were used to determine “sensitive” risk indices for resilient cognitive (Bracken Basic Concept Scale) and behavioral (Behavior Problems Index, Positive Child Behavior Scale) outcomes. Structural Equation Models were estimated to determine the importance of the timing and duration of risk and protection, to determine what variables interact with risk levels to “protect” high risk children and to determine whether risk and protection operates differently for boys and girls. We found that sensitive risk indices and protective variables (early cognitive skills. early social maturity, early education and care, cognitive stimulation, maternal warmth, social support, and maternal employment) contributed to reasonable models of children's social and cognitive competence. Specifically, early cognitive and social skills as well as the early risk environment were strong predictors of later cognitive and social skills. Cognitive stimulation in the home and outside of the home (e.g., in early education and care arrangements) was protective for cognitive outcomes among higher risk children. There was evidence of direct ameliorative effects of early behavior and maternal warmth in relation to behavioral competence but no evidence of protection among the examined variables. Finally, risk and protection operated differently in relation to male and female children.