Across geographically diverse samples, engagement in stimulating activities with young children is considered an important element of parenting that promotes cognitive, behavioral, and social-emotional development. Indicators of stimulation activities are often summed, based on the assumption that more stimulation is better and that different stimulating activities are equivalent. Instead, this study takes a household-centered analytic approach, applying latent class analysis to detect patterns of parental stimulation practices across six activities. We then examine predictors of the resultant latent classes and their implications for children's school readiness among a sample of Ghanaian kindergarteners ( = 2,117; = 5.2 years; 51% male). Results support a 4-class solution that represents (i) Highly Stimulating; (ii) Social-emotionally Stimulating; (iii) Playful; and (iv) Playful and Academically Stimulating households. Multiple child and family characteristics differentially predict latent class membership, although class membership did not differentially predict children's literacy, numeracy, executive function, or social-emotional skills. Findings suggest that all combinations of parental stimulation are equivalently promotive of children's school-related skills and help reify a strengths-based perspective. The results deepen our understanding of the different configurations of parental stimulation and suggest that a tailored approach to parenting programs may be beneficial. Programs can build on activities that parents already do (e.g., social-emotional) to encourage increased stimulation in other areas (e.g., academic).

中文翻译：

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加纳幼儿园儿童的认知和社会情感父母刺激实践模式


在不同地域的样本中，与幼儿一起参与刺激性活动被认为是养育子女的一个重要元素，可以促进认知、行为和社会情感的发展。刺激活动的指标通常基于刺激越​​多越好并且不同的刺激活动是等效的假设进行总结。相反，本研究采用以家庭为中心的分析方法，应用潜在类别分析来检测六种活动中父母刺激实践的模式。然后，我们在加纳幼儿园样本（= 2,117；= 5.2 岁；51% 为男性）中检查了由此产生的潜在类别的预测因素及其对儿童入学准备情况的影响。结果支持 4 类解决方案，代表 (i) 高度刺激； (ii) 社会情感刺激； (iii) 好玩； (iv) 充满乐趣且有学业激励的家庭。多个儿童和家庭特征差异化地预测了潜在的阶级成员身份，尽管阶级成员身份并没有差异化地预测了儿童的识字、算术、执行功能或社交情感技能。研究结果表明，父母刺激的所有组合都同等地促进了孩子与学校相关的技能，并有助于具体化基于优势的观点。研究结果加深了我们对父母刺激的不同配置的理解，并表明量身定制的育儿计划方法可能是有益的。计划可以建立在父母已经开展的活动（例如社交情感）的基础上，以鼓励增加其他领域（例如学术）的刺激。