Takeaway
- This double meta-analysis found that in a head-to-head between parental sensitivity to a child’s needs and parental warmth, sensitivity is more closely associated with optimal early language and learning.
- Warmth is also associated with good outcomes, but not as strongly.
- Parents can, however, be both warm and sensitive.
Why this matters
- Early language development can be a start on later successes, but which parental behaviors contribute more to optimizing outcomes is not fully established.
- These authors say that their results suggest an almost 3-fold increased odds that sensitive and warm parental behaviors will lead to stronger language skills in the child.
Key results
- In regression analysis, the r value for sensitive-responsive parenting and child language development was 0.27 (95% CI, 0.21-0.33).
- This association for warmth was 0.16 (95% CI, 0.09-0.21).
- This pooled effect size was significantly greater for sensitivity compared with warmth.
- Effects were more profound in mother-child pairs with low socioeconomic status (r=0.37; 95% CI, 0.19-0.53).
Study design
- Meta-analysis of data from 37 cross-sectional or observational studies of mother-child dyads (range in studies, n=9-1026).
- Funding: Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, Canada.
Limitations
- Included only typically developing children and mothers.
References
References
