This proposal seeks support for secondary data analysis of two large-scale studies (i.e. The National Longitudinal Study of Youth (NLSY) and the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Study of Early Child Care (NICHD SECC)). The study investigates the mediating effect of parenting practices (i.e. learning stimulation and responsivity) on the relation between SES and child outcomes. The outcomes studied are math scores, reading comprehension, verbal ability, and behavior problems. Subsequent analyses involving the NICHD data, calls for expanding the proposed model to include three more mediators-perceived financial strain, maternal depression and child care quality. The proposed model simultaneously incorporates multiple mediators (i.e. learning stimulation and responsivity), and separate components of socioeconomic status (SES: i.e. education, income, assets, and occupation) in the same model. Analyses will be conducted separately using NLSY data and NICHD data. Finally, the child's developmental stage (i.e. 3 to 5 years of age; 6 to 9 years of age, and 10 to 15 years of age) and ethnicity are incorporated into the study design. Path analysis will be performed for each ethnicity by developmental stage by child outcome strata. In order to determine if the model operates differently across the three developmental stages, multiple group comparison models within the structural equation modeling (SEM) framework will be used to assess differences (stability) of parameter estimates across the three developmental stages. A series of constraints (holding paths to be equal across time) will determine which paths differ across time. Similarly, model differences across child outcomes and ethnicity will be assessed. Moreover, the proposed study models components of SES separately and determines the relative effect of each component in all models (i.e. ethnicity by developmental stage by child outcome) studied. For all analyses, direct, indirect, and total effects will be determined. These results will provide a much needed indication of the process by which different components of SES operate to influence child well being.
