Parenting has long been a topic of research based on its importance for family and child outcomes. Recent methodological advances in person-centered approaches suggest that our understanding of parenting could be further advanced by examining parenting typologies across various parenting behaviors longitudinally. Accordingly, the current study aims to examine latent transitions in parenting practice patterns across four annual assessments during early childhood and examine whether individual- and family-level factors at baseline discriminate parenting transition patterns. Data from four waves (ages 2, 3, 4, and 5) of a study of 731 caregiver-child dyads from a randomized controlled trial were used. Latent Class Analysis (LCA) and Latent Transition Analysis (LTA) were conducted to investigate underlying types of parenting practices at each age and longitudinal parenting practice transition patterns that represent continuity and change. For the LCA, two latent classes emerged at all four waves, representing ‘lower warmth; higher negative interaction’ (Dysregulated) and ‘higher warmth; lower negative interaction’ (Warm) parenting groups. The LTA model with two classes at all waves was conducted with good fit. The results showed diversity in the transition patterns over time, especially non-linear patterns of parenting across early childhood. Using multinominal logistic regression, six transition patterns, collapsed from 16 possible patterns, were predicted by family factors such as child sex, family income, primary caregivers’ race, parental involvement, child inhibitory control, and child externalizing behaviors. Findings have implications for parenting assessment, practice, and analysis.

中文翻译：

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幼儿时期观察到的养育模式的稳定性/变化的预测因素：潜在的过渡方法


养育子女长期以来一直是一个研究课题，因为它对家庭和孩子的结果很重要。最近以人为中心的方法论进展表明，通过纵向研究各种育儿行为的育儿类型，可以进一步推进我们对育儿的理解。因此，本研究旨在研究幼儿期四次年度评估中育儿实践模式的潜在转变，并研究基线上的个人和家庭层面因素是否会歧视育儿转变模式。使用了一项随机对照试验中 731 名看护者-儿童二人组研究的四轮（2、3、4 和 5 岁）的数据。潜在类别分析（LCA）和潜在转变分析（LTA）旨在调查每个年龄段的养育实践的基本类型以及代表连续性和变化的纵向养育实践转变模式。对于 LCA，在所有四波中都出现了两个潜在类别，代表“较低的温暖度”；更高的负面互动”（失调）和“更高的温暖；降低负面互动（温暖）的养育团体。所有波浪均具有两级的 LTA 模型拟合良好。结果显示，随着时间的推移，过渡模式存在多样性，尤其是幼儿期的非线性养育模式。使用多项逻辑回归，从 16 种可能的模式中分解出 6 种转变模式，通过家庭因素（例如儿童性别、家庭收入、主要照顾者的种族、父母参与、儿童抑制控制和儿童外化行为）进行预测。研究结果对育儿评估、实践和分析具有重要意义。