Longitudinal Connections of Maternal Supportiveness and Early Emotion Regulation to Children’s School Readiness in Low-Income Families

Maternal supportiveness and children’s emotion regulation are considered crucial for the development of school readiness, and enhancing both is particularly important for children from low-income families who are at higher risk for reduced school readiness. This study uses latent growth curve analysis to examine longitudinal connections between maternal supportiveness and toddler emotion regulation as predictors of children’s cognitive school readiness at age 5 and as mediators of the relation between family demographic risk and cognitive school readiness. The sample includes 1,258 mother–child dyads enrolled in the Early Head Start Research Evaluation project. Results support the hypothesized connections between initial and subsequent growth in maternal supportiveness and children’s emotion regulation with later cognitive school readiness. Children’s initial emotion regulation and growth in emotion regulation partially mediate the relation between initial maternal supportiveness and school readiness. Maternal supportiveness, but not emotion regulation, partially mediates the effects of demographic risk on school readiness. Tests of gender moderation indicate that model effect sizes in the relation between maternal supportiveness and emotion regulation are more robust for girls. Findings imply that enhancing early maternal supportiveness and children’s emotion regulation benefits children’s early learning readiness. Limitations of the study and future directions are considered as well.