This interdisciplinary research project will examine how differences in parenting between higher- and lower-income households have changed over time and whether such changes account for the growing achievement gaps in children from different sets of households. The investigators will bring together expertise in theory and methods from sociology, economics, developmental psychology, and public policy analysis to answer a set of scientifically important and policy relevant questions. The project will yield new insights into the changing forms of parenting by assessing the degree to which changing gaps in children's skills are a function of differences in the way in which parents' conduct in the home environment affects the development of both cognitive and non-cognitive skills in children. Understanding this phenomenon will help answer important questions about the origins of the growing gap in children's achievement and attainments as well as the association between economic inequality and children's opportunities. Project findings therefore should help assess the value of a range of policy approaches, including the Earned Income Tax Credit that redistributes income and relies on parents to use the added income to promote their children's development; the Nurse Family Partnership that teaches high-risk parents about positive parenting practices and the nature of early childhood development; instruments like Pell Grants that encourage would-be parents to acquire post-secondary schooling; and pre-kindergarten programs that provide educational services directly to young children. By identifying the comparative roles of family income, parent education, and home environments in promoting child well-being, the project will help to point to the most effective potential approaches for addressing the increasing school readiness gaps between lower- and higher-income children.
This project will employ descriptive and econometric methods using data from three large-scale nationally representative studies covering the period from 1986 to 2012. The investigators will document trends in the gaps in children's cognitive and non-cognitive skills using three national data sets that collectively span 20 years. They will document socioeconomic-based gaps in children's home environments over time, assessing a range of variables, including measures of parents' time inputs, emotional support, and provision of a physical environment conducive to children's learning and emotional well-being. The investigators will test whether the importance of the home environment for children's cognitive and non-cognitive skills has increased over time, and they will employ a decomposition analysis to assess how much of the growing skills gaps between advantaged and disadvantaged children can be explained by growing gaps in their home environments or by a changing relationship between the home environment and these child development outcomes. This project is supported through the NSF Interdisciplinary Behavioral and Social Sciences Research (IBSS) competition.
