Dimensions of Parenting Stress as Predictors: Vocabulary and Phonological Awareness Skills in Preschool

This study examined the predictors of young children's school readiness skills in a low-income sample. Primary caregivers of 78 preschoolers (ages 3-5) participated. Children's receptive and expressive vocabulary skills and rhyming, alliteration and segment blending skills were measured. Parent perceptions of different types of parental stress and a composite measure of parent literacy-specific involvement were assessed through parent report. Separate hierarchical regression models indicated that after controlling for parental education, child age at preschool testing, and family literacy-specific involvement, total parenting stress significantly predicted four out of five child outcomes. Among all stress factors, parenting stress due to parental distress appeared as the best predictor of preschoolers' vocabulary skills, while also predicting children's rhyming and segment blending skills, but not alliteration. Parenting stress due to parent-child dysfunctional interaction predicted children's receptive vocabulary, expressive vocabulary, and alliteration skills, while parenting stress due to child difficulty predicted children's rhyming skills after the influence of control variables was accounted for. The implications of these results for research and practice with diverse low-income families are discussed.