Parenting Contributions to Latinx Children’s Development in the Early Years

• Published date: 01 July 2021
• Author: Yu Chen,Angelica Alonso,Natasha J. Cabrera
• DOI: 10.1177/00027162211049997
• Date: 01 July 2021
• Subject Matter: Families

158 ANNALS, AAPSS, 696, July 2021

DOI: 10.1177/00027162211049997

Parenting

Contributions

to Latinx

Children’s

Development in

the Early Years

By

NATASHA J. CABRERA,

ANGELICA ALONSO,

and

YU CHEN

1049997ANN THE ANNALS OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMYPARENTING CONTRIBUTIONS TO LATINX CHILDREN’S DEVELOPMENT

research-article2021

Despite comparatively high levels of poverty, Latinx

parents, on average, provide their children with early

home experiences that promote development at rates

that at least equal that of other demographic groups.

From a strength-based perspective, we describe the

demographic heterogeneity among Latinx children

during early childhood (zero to eight years), given that

these years are critical for later development. We then

discuss the individual- and family-level factors that

promote positive outcomes in Latinx children despite

the presence of economic and social stressors. We syn-

thesize these findings to generate policy recommenda-

tions that support Latinx families and children by

addressing their specific needs and building on the

strengths they already possess.

Keywords: Latinx; Hispanic; child development; par-

enting; resilience; school readiness; policy

Decades of research have shown that com-

petent parenting and the broader family

environment are unequivocally the most sig-

nificant drivers of children’s well-being and

healthy development (National Academies of

Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine 2016).

Natasha J. Cabrera is a professor of human develop-

ment at the University of Maryland. Her research

focuses on father involvement and children’s social

and cognitive development, adaptive and maladaptive

factors related to parenting and cultural variation in

ethnic minority families, and the mechanisms linking

early experiences to children’s school readiness.

Angelica Alonso is a PhD student at the University of

Maryland, College Park, and a research affiliate at the

Maryland Population Research Center. Her research

interests include how low-income ethnic minority parents

promote their children’s socioemotional development.

Yu Chen is a PhD student at the University of Maryland,

College Park, and a research affiliate at the Maryland

Population Research Center. Her research interests

include home environment, parent-child interactions,

and language development.

Correspondence: ncabrera@umd.edu

PARENTING CONTRIBUTIONS TO LATINX CHILDREN’S DEVELOPMENT 159

Right from birth, children depend on the consistent love, protection, and support

of their parents and other caregivers for their growth and development. Parents’

impact on their children’s development is fundamental during the earliest years

of life when children’s brains are rapidly developing, because parents almost

exclusively create and shape childhood experiences (Blair and Raver 2016).

Competent parenting is protective, mindful, and an integrated mixture of

warmth and developmentally appropriate control (Teti etal. 2017). Competent

parents help children to develop and build the foundational skills and knowledge

that they need to learn about the world through parenting practices, behaviors,

and social interactions. In the early years, parenting is most effective during sen-

sitive periods where the neural pathways and the behaviors they support are most

malleable (plastic) to environmental inputs (National Research Council 2000).

Latinx parents, as a group, experience comparatively high rates of family

stress, including poverty, racism and discrimination, and, for many, challenges

related to acculturating and rearing children in a different country that can com-

promise competent parenting. Yet research demonstrates that many Latinx par-

ents are still able to provide their children with early home experiences that

mitigate the negative effects of poverty on their children’s development. Insights

from research on Latinx children and families tend to focus on poverty and

adversity; research on strengths and resilience in the Latinx community is rela-

tively limited and not as rigorous. Researchers and policy-makers need to better

understand the protective factors and strengths inherent in Latinx parents and

families that contribute to children’s outcomes and specifically support and invest

in these strengths. Investing in and promoting what Latinx parents are already

doing to protect and rear their children is the most efficient way to support the

future of Latinx children.

This article accomplishes two goals: (1) we provide a demographic context for

understanding Latinx parents and parenting; and (2) we highlight the proximal

influences on Latinx parenting and describe how they support children’s develop-

ment in the early years (zero to eight), a period that sets the stage for later develop-

ment. We do so with an eye toward delineating proximal and distal ways that the

parenting role can be factored in to support the well-being of Latino youth. We also

recognize that parents are not the only influences on children’s development; we

focus on parenting because nonparental care and education are covered in another

article in this volume (see Mendez-Smith etal., this volume).

We set the stage by presenting a theoretical framework that contextualizes

parenting and children’s development in a broad ecological system that includes

cultural and social determinants of parents’ and children’s well-being. We present

a short profile of Latinx children’s development and contextualize parenting and

children’s development by framing it within a risk and resilience framework.

Understanding how parents create positive developmental pathways for their

children in the context of adversity is fundamentally important for supporting

parents, particularly in the early years. We conclude with a discussion of implica-

tions for programs and policies to strengthen the protective role that Latinx

parents play in their children’s lives and to provide continued support of their

already positive parenting.