This research examines variations in parenting and its effects on child cognitive outcomes across Latino subgroups from a national sampling that utilized a subset of 995 former Head Start Latino parents and children. Comparisons of the Parenting Dimension Inventory scaled scores revealed Latino subgroup differences on nurturance and consistency. Puerto Rican parental caregivers scored higher on nurturance and consistency than Mexican Americans and El Salvadorans. Pearson’s product-moment correlation revealed a positive relationship between responsiveness to child inputs and higher academic achievement scores for each Latino subgroup. Examination of the Woodcock-Johnson Test of Achievement also revealed a main effect of Latino subgroup differences. Findings suggest that there exist intracultural variations in parenting and academic achievement within the Latino population and confirm previous findings that parenting is related to positive child cognitive outcomes.
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