Effects of Parent-Adolescent Interaction on the Continuity of Cognitive Development from Early Childhood to Early Adolescence

Abstract

The continuity of cognitive development from early childhood to early adolescence is examined in light of mother-adolescent interaction and demographic measures. The sample was comprised of fifty-four mother-adolescent dyads, from a follow-up of an early-age antipoverty intervention. Middle class and lower class control groups and an experimental group were balanced by social class, ethnicity and gender. Measures used were the Participatory Style of Interaction, (PSI), the Bayley Scales of Infant Development, the Stanford Binet, and the California Test of Basic Skills. There was a continuity of cognitive development within each social class, in the absence of intervention. Social class and ethnic differences were mitigated for the lower class treated group, but re-emerged over the decade following the intervention. For the middle class and treated lower class groups, a participatory style of mother-adolescent interaction was found to be related to cognitive development and to account for much of the power of demographic variables in the prediction of cognitive development.