Trajectories of Observed Maternal and Paternal Sensitivity in Early and Middle Childhood: Predicting Children's Social Competence from Sensitive Parenting

The present longitudinal study of parental sensitivity had three primary goals: 1) to delineate the developmental trajectories of paternal and maternal sensitivity across early and middle childhood using data from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Study of Early Childcare (N = 513); 2) to identify demographic and family context variables that differentiate among trajectories; 3) to examine the degree to which trajectories of maternal and paternal sensitivity predicted children's social competence in middle school, over and above demographic and family correlates. A group based trajectory analysis of parental sensitivity obtained from separate observations of father-child and mother-child interaction across a seven year study period revealed four distinct, yet similar, trajectories of fathers' and mothers' sensitivity. These included groups defined by high-stable, moderate-stable, moderate-decreasing, and low-increasing levels of sensitivity. The majority of fathers and mothers in this sample exhibited high to moderately stable levels of sensitivity with their children during early and middle childhood. Parents in these trajectories were characterized by higher overall SES, and they reported using less harsh parenting practices as compared to parents in trajectory groups characterized by either low or moderate levels of sensitivity that increased or decreased over time. Also, mothers showing moderate decreasing sensitivity reported significantly more depressive symptoms. No additional family context variables predicted to either paternal or maternal sensitivity over time. Finally, trajectories of both paternal sensitivity and maternal sensitivity predicted different aspects of children's social competence in sixth grade after significant covariates, previous child functioning, and the opposite parent's sensitivity were taken into account