FAMILY CONTEXT AND CHILDREN’S EARLY LITERACY SKILLS: THE ROLE OF
MARITAL FUNCTIONING AND PARENT DEPRESSIVE SYMPTOMS
By
Laura C. Froyen

A DISSERTATION
Submitted to
Michigan State University
in partial fulfillment of the requirements
for the degree of
Human Development and Family Studies - Doctor of Philosophy
2014

ABSTRACT
FAMILY CONTEXT AND CHILDREN’S EARLY LITERACY SKILLS: THE ROLE OF
MARITAL FUNCTIONING AND PARENT DEPRESSIVE SYMPTOMS
By
Laura C. Froyen
This dissertation examines the influence of family functioning on children’s early
academic development in two separate but related studies. The results of these studies contribute
to our understanding of how complex family processes influence children’s early literacy skills.
In particular, I focus on marital functioning and the family emotional environment in Study One,
and parent depressive symptoms in Study Two.
Study One examines the influence of marital functioning on children’s early literacy
skills among 539 families with a child enrolled in a preschool in the Midwest. I take a family
systems approach to investigate the role of the family emotional environment and parents’ home
learning related behaviors as mediators in the relation between marital functioning and children’s
early literacy skills. In addition, I examine the unique contribution of fathers to these complex
family processes. This study identifies the marital relationship and family emotional
expressiveness as important contextual factors that influence children’s early literacy skills.
Additionally, the process through which this influence occurs was unique for fathers. The results
of the current study emphasize the importance of considering the broader family system in
relation to children’s early literacy skills and point to potential considerations for practitioners
across multiple settings. Further, the current study indicates that marital and family factors differ
for mothers and fathers and that it will be important to develop interventions that target these
marital and family factors and parent-child interactions in ways that are relevant for both parents.

Study Two examines the influence of mothers’ and fathers’ depressive symptoms on
preschoolers’ early literacy skills among 630 families. I utilize the Actor-Partner
Interdependence Model within a structural equation modeling framework to examine the relation
between parents’ depressive symptoms and their own and their partner’s home learning related
parenting behaviors. Further, I examine home learning-related parenting as a mediator of the
relation between parent depressive symptoms and children’s early literacy skills. Notably, I find
an actor effect of fathers’ depressive symptoms, but not mothers’, on home learning-related
parenting such that fathers who experience more depressive symptoms engage in fewer home
learning activities. I also identify a partner effect of fathers’ depressive symptoms on home
learning-related parenting such that increases in fathers’ depressive symptoms predict decreases
in mothers’ home learning activities. Finally, fathers’ depressive symptoms negatively relate to
children’s early literacy skills by influencing mothers’ home learning-related parenting. Findings
from the present study highlight the importance of considering the potential negative effects of
parent depressive symptoms on children’s early literacy skills. Further, these findings highlight
the importance of including both mothers and fathers in future research, policy, and interventions
concerned with the influence of parents’ depressive symptoms on children’s development.
As a whole, these studies suggest it may be useful for researchers interested in examining
the role of the HLE in fostering children’s skills to begin approaching these studies from a family
process perspective that conceptualizes HLE-related parenting as being embedded in a context of
broader family functioning. Additionally, the results of these two studies provide foundational
empirical evidence that is essential for the development of more comprehensive interventions
that target improvement in marital, parental, and familial functioning, in addition to children’s
overall academic wellbeing.

To all those who understand the struggle of learning to read, recognize the privilege of being
literate, and strive to extend that privilege to all.
“The more that you read, the more things you will know.
The more that you learn, the more places you'll go.”
- Dr. Seuss, I Can Read with My Eyes Shut!

iv

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Over the past six years I have had the honor and privilege to call Michigan State
University my academic home. In these years I have had countless formative experiences and
interactions that have helped me to develop my research and teaching skills, taught me to hone in
on the important questions (in both research and life), and, ultimately, culminated in the work
contained within this dissertation. This dissertation would not have been possible without the
help, support, and faith of several important people and groups.
I first would like to thank my advisor and dissertation committee chair, Lori Skibbe, for
seeing my scholarly potential and taking on the challenge, and the risk, of advising a student
from outside of your content area. I have gained so much from our advising relationship that it is
difficult to put into words all that I am thankful for. Lori, you challenged me to think about the
big picture; to make sure that my research always had meaning, and in doing so you taught me
how to think, question, evaluate, and draw conclusions on an increasingly sophisticated level. I
am truly so grateful for this and your support through these years. I look forward to continuing to
collaborate with you in the future.
I next want to thank my dissertation committee. It has been a pleasure to work with such
a knowledgeable, talented, and caring group of people as I navigated this dissertation process.
Professor John Carlson of the Department of Counseling, Educational Psychology, and Special
Education, brought a much-needed perspective to this dissertation committee. John, thank you so
much for the time and effort you have dedicated to seeing me through this process, I have so
enjoyed getting to know you. Professor Adrian Blow of the Couple and Family Therapy Program
in HDFS has served as my CFT advisor for the past six years. Adrian, your guidance has
v

extended into all areas of my training here at MSU. I am a better researcher, teacher, and
clinician for having had the privilege of working with you. Thank you so much. Professor Ryan
Bowles of the Child Development program in HDFS has played a crucial role in developing my
statistical acumen over the course of my time at MSU. Ryan, whether I needed help with the
nitty-gritty of statistics, or assistance in asking the right theoretical questions, you were always
available. You taught me that statistics are only a means to an end; that it is the scholar who tells
the story, not the numbers. Thank you so much for teaching me this valuable lesson.
I have also had the privilege of being a member of the ELLI Lab. As a group you
consistently challenged me to pursue the best that was within me. Lori, Ryan, and Hope, I
sincerely thank you for your guidance as the leaders in the ELLI Lab. I have benefited so much
simply from being a part of your research team and I so appreciate the dedication you three have
to bettering your collective group of students. To the graduate students in the ELLI lab, both past
and present, thank you for your support and solidarity in navigating the ups and downs of the
program. Graduate school is a time that can shake your confidence and your convictions, and it
was wonderful to have the ELLI Lab as a built-in support all these years. I would be remiss if I
did not mention the children and families who selflessly gave their time and energy as
participants in ELLI Lab research. This research would not have been possible without them.
Though they may never read the studies within this document, I do hope that children and
families like theirs will someday benefit from this research. That is point, after all.
There are a number of other members of the HDFS family that have been so helpful and
encouraging as I’ve navigated my doctoral program. Dr. Marsha Carolan, thank you for your
unswerving support and compassion. You are truly fabulous (as is your pumpkin pie). Dr. Claire
Vallotton, thank you for fulfilling my graduate school fantasies of engaging in stimulating
vi

intellectual discussions over delicious food and drink. I so admire you and look forward to
continuing to learn from you and collaborate with you. To all of my friends, both in the program
and out, thank you so much for becoming a part of my world. I’m not sure I would have made it
though this without you.
I am also immensely grateful for the outpouring of love and support that I have had from
my family. My parents, Curt and Kathy Froyen, have impacted me in ways I’m not sure they can
ever fully understand. My father taught me early on to passionately explore my world and to
approach life with fervor and fascination. My mother dedicated much of her life to helping
struggling children learn to read, giving them a gift they will carry with them forever. I little
expected to find myself pursuing such a parallel course, but I’m not surprised given the love and
value of reading that my mother instilled in me. Mom, the memory of reading nightly with you is
one thing that convinces me that there is something “more” to shared reading and the home
learning environment, something powerful about the parent-child relationship and the family
context that we aren’t currently capturing. Anne, Brendan, Kaja, and Collin, thank you so much
for being my family and supporting me. I love you and the joy you bring to my world.
Last on the page but first in my heart, I want to acknowledge my wonderful husband,
Dan, and my amazing daughter, Eleonora. You two are the light of my world; I did not truly
know the meaning of life until I met each of you. Each day you teach me a new lesson about life,
love, patience, understanding, and compassion. Best of all, you bring perspective and balance to
my life. Dan, thank you for challenging me, gently, to become a better partner, parent, and
scholar. I am so grateful to have gone through this with a partner who truly understands the life,
and associated challenges, of a graduate student. Elli, being your mother has not only given
meaning to my life, it has given true meaning to my research. Thank you for being you.
vii

TABLE OF CONTENTS

LIST OF TABLES

x

LIST OF FIGURES

xi

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION
Purpose
Rationale
Theoretical Framework
REFERENCES

1
1
1
3
10

CHAPTER 2: STUDY ONE: Marital Functioning and Early Literacy: A Family Systems
Perspective
ABSTRACT
Introduction
The Current Study
Method
Participants
Measures
Marital relationship.
Family emotional expressiveness.
Home learning environment.
Early literacy skills.
Analysis Plan
Results
Indirect Effects
Unique Contributions of Fathers
Discussion
Marital Functioning Influences Early Literacy
The Importance of Fathers
Limitations
Practical Implications
Conclusion
REFERENCES

14

CHAPTER 3: STUDY TWO: Mothers’ and Fathers’ Depression and Children’s Early
Literacy Skills
viii

14
15
23
23
23
24
24
27
28
28
29
31
34
36
39
39
42
44
45
47
49
60

ABSTRACT
Introduction
The Current Study
Method
Participants
Procedures
Measures
Parental depressive symptoms.
Home learning environment.
Early literacy skills.
Analysis Plan
Results
Influence of Parent Depression on HLE-Related Parenting
Effect of Parent Depression on Children’s Early Literacy Skills
Discussion
Actor Effects
Partner Effects
Influence of Parent Depression on Early Literacy
Limitations
Practical Implications
Conclusion
REFERENCES
CHAPTER 4: CONCLUSION
Family Process and Children’s Early Literacy
Importance of Including Fathers
Contributions to Theory
Implications
Practice.
Future research.
REFERENCES

ix

60
61
69
69
69
70
72
72
72
73
74
75
75
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
88
98
99
100
102
104
105
107
108

LIST OF TABLES

TABLE 2.1:

Descriptive information of study participants

25

TABLE 2.2:

Means, Standard Deviations, and Intercorrelations of Study Variables

32

TABLE 2.3:

Unstandardized, Standardized, Significance Levels for the Model in
Figure 2.1

34

TABLE 2.4:

Mediation of the Effect of Marital Functioning on Children’s Early
Literacy

35

TABLE 2.5:

Unstandardized, Standardized, Significance Levels for Model Examining
Unique Contributions of Fathers

37

TABLE 3.1:

Descriptive information of study participants

71

TABLE 3.2:

Means, Standard Deviations, and Intercorrelations of Study Variables

76

TABLE 3.3:

Unstandardized, Standardized, Significance Levels for the Model in
Figure 3.1

77

x

LIST OF FIGURES

FIGURE 1.1:

A Process Model of the Determinants of Parenting.

6

FIGURE 1.2:

Theoretical Framework for the Effects of Marital Relations on
Children.

7

FIGURE 1.3:

Overarching Conceptual Framework for the Current Dissertation.

8

FIGURE 2.1:

Simplified Path Diagram of Marital Functioning, Family
Expressiveness, the HLE, and Children’s Early Literacy Skills.

33

FIGURE 3.1:

APIM: Effect of Parent Depression on Children’s Early Literacy
Mediated by the HLE.

78

xi

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION
Purpose
This dissertation uniquely addresses significant gaps in the literature regarding the
association between parent psychopathology, the marital relationship, family emotional and
educational environments and children’s academic development. In Study One I examine the
influence of the parent marital relationship, levels of family emotional expressiveness, and the
home learning environment on children’s academic skills. In addition, I explore whether fathers
contribute uniquely to these family processes. In Study Two I investigate the influence of
parental depressive symptoms on children’s academic outcomes as mediated by the home
learning environment. In addition I explore whether parents influence their partners in these
processes. The results of this dissertation project advance our understanding of how these
complex familial processes work together to influence children’s academic development.
Findings also provide foundational empirical evidence that is essential for the development of
more comprehensive interventions that target improvement in marital, parental, and familial
functioning, in addition to children’s overall academic wellbeing.
Rationale
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Healthy People 2020 initiative
identified improving children’s social-emotional, learning, language and cognitive development,
increasing positive parenting, fostering close parent-child relationships and improving rates of
shared reading as key objectives in the promotion of general health in the American people (U.S.
DHHS, 2010). In addition, there is a widely held concern that significant portions of elementaryaged students in America are not reading well enough to perform adequately in school (National
Reading Panel, 2000). This concern is amplified by research demonstrating that trajectories of
1

reading development are established in preschool and are surprisingly stable and resistant to
change (Catts, Bridges, Little, & Tomblin, 2008; Skibbe, Grimm, Stanton-Chapman, Justice,
Pence & Bowles, 2008). Additionally, children’s emergent literacy skills shape future reading
development (National Early Literacy Panel, 2008; Sénéchal, 2006; Storch & Whitehurst, 2002),
which has been related to academic performance in grade school (Denton, West, & Walston,
2003; Duncan et al., 2007) through young adulthood (Baydar, Brooks-Gunn, & Furstenberg,
1993; Cunningham & Stanovich, 1997), and is even predictive of career and economic potential
(Storch & Whitehurst, 2001).
The acquisition of children’s emergent literacy skills is heavily influenced by the home
learning environment (HLE; Skibbe, Justice, Zucker & McGinty, 2008; Storch & Whitehurst,
2001), which includes parenting practices that are specifically aimed at enhancing early
educational outcomes (Sénéchal, 2006; Sénéchal & LeFevre, 2002; Whitehurst & Lonigan,
1998). However, despite the importance of academic skills for young children’s development,
and research attesting to the importance of HLE-related parenting behaviors in developing these
skills, the influence of broader family functioning on children’s academic outcomes has received
little attention (see Belsky & Fearon, 2004; Froyen, Skibbe, Bowles, Blow, & Gerde, 2013).
In contrast, the relationship between parental psychopathology, marital and family
environments, and children’s social-emotional development has been well established
(Cummings & Davies, 1996; Cummings, Keller, & Davies, 2005; Fosco & Grych, 2007).
Emerging research indicates that parental psychopathology (Augustine & Crosnoe, 2010; Fagan
& Lee, 2013), the quality of the marital relationship (Belsky & Fearon, 2004; Ghazarian &
Buehler, 2010), and the family emotional environment (Froyen et al., 2013) have potentially
important implications for children’s academic development as well. However, the vast majority
2

of this work is based almost entirely on maternal reports (Lamb, 2010). While research indicates
that fathers are taking on increased responsibilities at home (Cabrera, Tamis-LeMonda, Bradley,
Hofferth, & Lamb, 2000), and the research community at large has begun to recognize the
valuable and unique contributions fathers make to child outcomes (Downer, Campos, McWayne,
& Gartner, 2008), the role of fathers in the family, in parenting, and in child outcomes, is not
well understood (Lamb, 2010).
In general, the extant literature points to disrupted parenting practices as one explanatory
mechanism for how parental psychopathology and problematic marital relationships affect child
socio-emotional outcomes. These pathways, at least for the marital relationship, are beginning to
be supported for child academic outcomes as well (Belsky & Fearon, 2004; Froyen, et al., 2013).
However, relatively little is known about how these complex family processes influence
children’s early academic skills or the HLE-related parenting behaviors associated with these
skills. As such, family systems theory will be used to provide a framework for investigating the
family processes that influence children’s early academic skills. This framework is further
explicated below.
Theoretical Framework
The proposed dissertation project builds upon family systems and human ecological
theories that attempt to explain the various ways that individuals are influenced by the systems
that surround them (Bronfenbrenner & Morris, 2006; von Bertalanffy, 1976). The human
bioecological model suggests that development of the individual occurs through processes and
interactions with the persons and objects in their environmental context (Bronfenbrenner &
Morris, 2006). The development of the human bioecological model constitutes a significant shift
in the literature as it provided a framework for understanding and investigating the
3

developmental process from a whole-child perspective. Family systems theory, which emerged
from general systems theory, proposes that in order to truly understand the individual, we must
study their context (Broderick, 1993; von Bertalanffy, 1976). These two theoretical models have
been the basis of a vast body of literature that confirms the importance of considering a child’s
developmental context when attempting to study development. Out of this very broad field of
study has come research confirming the family’s central role in the cognitive, social, and
emotional development of children (Bronfenbrenner & Morris, 2006), while at the same time
generating more specified theories and models that are utilized to support investigations into the
specific processes and pathways through which this influence occurs.
Bronfenbrenner’s bioecological model suggests that child development is influenced by
several systems including microsystems, mesosystems, exosystems, and the macrosystem, all of
which are imbedded in the chronosystem (Bronfenbrenner & Morris, 2006). Microsystems are
the immediate contexts with which the child has direct interaction, for example home, school,
and church. Mesosystems are comprised of the points of intersection between two or more of the
child’s microsystems. For example, when the child and their parents attend an open house at the
child’s school, two of the child’s microsystems come into direct contact and interaction; this is
representative of a child’s mesosystem. Bronfenbrenner’s model also discusses the influence of
exosystems, the systems that influence the child but with which the child does not have direct
contact, such as a parent’s workplace, and the macrosystem, comprised of the larger culture and
environment in which the rest of the child’s systems are embedded.
This project applies a family systems lens to the bioecological model, allowing the
current research to hone in on the microsystems most pertinent to identifying the ways in which
the family influences children’s early literacy skills. These systems include the family as a
4

whole, the parent-child subsystem, the marital subsystem, and, in addition, the intersection (i.e.
mesosystem) between home and school that occurs during HLE-related parent-child interactions.
Research in this area has identified the marital or parental subsystem as a significant source of
influence in the developmental process (Broderick, 1993). The aspects of the marital or parental
subsystem found to influence this process range from the structural (i.e. one-parent vs. twoparent homes; Bronfennbrenner & Morris, 2006; divorce; Amato, 2010), to the interactional
(marital satisfaction and conflict; Cummings & Davies, 1996), and the internal/personal
(psychopathology, Cummings & Davies, 1994). Research in this area suggests that these various
aspects of the marital or parental subsystem influence child development through parenting
(Belsky, 1984; Cummings, Davies, & Campbell, 2000). Belsky (1984) outlines a process model
of the determinants of parenting and their effect on child development (see Figure 1). This
theoretical model has driven the field of family process research concerning the influence of
various familial systems on child development (Cummings, et al., 2000).
As can be seen in the model provided in Figure 1.1, it has been proposed that parenting is
one of the primary ways through which other family processes, such as parent psychological
functioning (captured as a part of parent personality; Belsky, 1984) and marital relations,
influence child development. In the past, this model has been expanded upon to provide a more
detailed theoretical framework for understanding how the marital relationship influences child
adjustment (see Figure 1.2; Cummings et al., 2000). The Cummings and colleagues (2000)
model provides a broad, detailed framework that incorporates aspects of parent psychological
functioning, parenting practices, and the family emotional environment in explaining the ways in
which these family processes influence children’s psychological adjustment.

5

Marital
Relations

Developmental
History

Personality

Social
Network

Parenting

Work

Child
Characteristics

Child
Development

FIGURE 1.1: A Process Model of the Determinants of Parenting. From Belsky (1984).

6

Parental
Adjustment

Parental
Alcohol
Problems

Family
Emotional
Climate

Children’s
Characteristics

Other Group
Characteristics

Marital Relations
1. Destruction
2. Constructio
Parenting
practices

Parent-Child
Attachment
Other Family
Subsystems
and Stresses

Other
Psychological
Processes

Children’s Day-to-Day
Psychological
Functioning

Children’s
Emotional
Security

Child Psychological Adjustment
1. Vulnerability
2. Competence

FIGURE 1.2. Theoretical Framework for the Effects of Marital Relations on Children.
From Cummings, Davies, & Campbell (2000).

7

I have developed an overarching conceptual framework that builds upon and adapts both
the Belsky (1984) model and the Cummings et al. (2000) model to guide the research questions,
hypotheses, and analyses set forth in this dissertation project. This conceptual framework is
presented in Figure 1.3 and shows my overarching theory, informed by the bioecological model
and family systems theory, for the ways in which the concepts investigated in this dissertation
project are related.

Marital
Relations

Family
Emotional
Climate

Parenting

Parental
Psychopathology

Child
development

Child
characteristics

FIGURE 1.3. Overarching Conceptual Framework for the Current Dissertation. Adapted
from Belsky (1984) and Cummings, Davies, & Campbell (2000).

8

Current human bioecological and family systems theory suggests that aspects of the
marital relationship influences the context in which children develop, including the family
emotional climate and, though far less well-researched, HLE-related parenting (Froyen et al.,
2013). Current theory and research also suggests that levels parent depressive symptoms have an
influence on the environment in which children are developing and this includes both the
emotional and home learning environments (Kohl, Lengua, McMahon, 2000). In the studies
contained within this dissertation I am specifically interested in the influence of these parent,
marital, and family factors on children’s early literacy skills.
This overarching framework provides the theoretical basis for the current dissertation
project, however it is a very broad, complex framework that does not translate readily into a
single, workable statistical model. As such, for the purposes of this dissertation I will utilize this
conceptual framework to guide the research questions, hypotheses, and analyses set forth in two
distinct studies. The first will examine the part of the model comprising marital relations, the
family emotional climate, parenting, and children’s development. The second study will examine
the paths in the model concerning parental psychopathology, parenting, and children’s
development. This overarching conceptual framework presents the goals of these two studies
within the context of current theory and research on these family processes and their influence on
child outcomes, which are more fully outlined in the individual studies presented below.

9

REFERENCES

10

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Baydar, N., Brooks-Gunn, J., & Furstenberg, F. F. (1993). Early warning signs of functional
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Belsky, J., & Fearon, R. M. P. (2004). Exploring marriage–parenting typologies and their
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Broderick, C. B. (1993). Understanding family process. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
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Cabrera, N. J., Tamis-LeMonda, C., Bradley, R. H., Hofferth, S., & Lamb, M. E. (2000).
Fatherhood in the twenty-first century. Child Development, 71(1), 127-136.
Catts, H. W., Bridges, M., Little, T. & Tomblin, J. B. 2008. Reading achievement growth in
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Cummings, E.M., Keller, P.S., & Davies, P.T. (2005). Towards a family process model of
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Duncan, G. J., Dowsett, C. J., Claessens, A., Magnuson, K., Huston, A. C., Klebanov, P., Pagani,
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adolescent development, 2001(92), 53-72.
U. S. Department of Health and Human Services. (2010). Healthy People 2020. Retrieved from:
http://www.healthypeople.gov/2020/default.aspx
von Bertalanffy, L. (1976). General systems theory: Foundations, development, applications.
New York: George Braziller.
Whitehurst, G. J., & Lonigan, C. J. (1998). Child development and emergent literacy. Child
Development, 69, 848–872.

13

CHAPTER 2: STUDY ONE
Marital Functioning and Early Literacy: A Family Systems Perspective

ABSTRACT
The current study examines the influence of marital functioning on children’s early literacy skills
among 539 families with a child enrolled in a preschool in the Midwest. I take a family systems
approach to investigate the role of the family emotional environment and parents’ home learning
related behaviors as mediators in the relation between marital functioning and children’s early
literacy skills. In addition, I examine the unique contribution of fathers to these complex family
processes. This study identifies the marital relationship and family emotional expressiveness as
important contextual factors that influence children’s early literacy skills. Additionally, the
process through which this influence occurs was unique for fathers. The results of the current
study emphasize the importance of considering the broader family system in relation to
children’s early literacy skills and point to potential considerations for practitioners across
multiple settings. Further, the current study indicates that marital and family factors differ for
mothers and fathers and that it will be important to develop interventions that target these marital
and family factors and parent-child interactions in ways that are relevant for both parents.

14

Introduction
As the relational and emotional hub of the family (Davies, Sturge-Apple, Woitach &
Cummings, 2009), the parental relationship plays a critical role in establishing the emotional and
relational structure of the family. Additionally, the quality of the marital relationship has
significant implications for both parent-child interactions (Jouriles & Farris, 1992) and individual
outcomes for children (see Davies & Cummings, 1994 for review). This is particularly
significant for young children, who research shows spend more time under the direct care of
parents than under that of other caregivers (Hofferth & Sandberg, 2001). As such, it is essential
that research pursue specificity in regard to the influence of broader, marital, familial, and
parental processes on the development of young children.
One way of capturing a more complete picture of the influence of these processes is to
include both mothers and fathers in this research. There is theoretical and empirical evidence to
suggest that it is important to include fathers when conducting research on the influence of
family functioning on child development (Bronfenbrenner & Morris, 2006; Marsiglio, Amato,
Day, & Lamb, 2000), yet the majority of studies in this area of the literature are based on mother
report (Cummings & Davies, 2002). Given the change in fathers’ roles in the family and
involvement in parenting in the past half century (Cabrera, Tamis-LeMonda, Bradley, Hofferth,
& Lamb, 2000), it is crucial that we conceptualize both the family and parenting as more than
mothers’ perspectives alone and make the inclusion of fathers a priority (Lamb, 2010).
The need to consider both mothers and fathers is supported by research that suggests that
maternal and paternal perspectives on marital functioning differentially affect parenting and the
family emotional environment (Sturge-Apple, Davies, & Cummings, 2006a), as well as
outcomes for children (Sturge-Apple, Davies, & Cummings, 2006b). For example, for fathers,
15

marital conflict is associated with more vague or confusing commands, but this relationship does
not hold for mothers (Jouriles & Farris, 1992). In addition, fathers’ emotional unavailability
more strongly predicted increases in child psychological issues than did mothers’ emotional
unavailability (Sturge-Apple et al., 2006b). Further, fathers make unique contributions to child
outcomes with research consistently showing an effect of fathers above and beyond the
contributions of mothers (Parke, 2002; Stolz, Barber, & Olsen, 2005). Additionally, fathers’
parenting may also be more susceptible to marital dissatisfaction than is mothers’ parenting
(Nelson, O’Brien, Blankson, Calkins, and Keance, 2009).
However, findings regarding the differential influence of mothers and fathers in the
literature are sometimes contradictory and these differences are not yet well understood (Coiro &
Emery, 1998; Cummings & Davies, 2002; Sturge-Apple et al., 2006a). For example, SturgeApple and colleagues (2006b) found that mothers’ emotional unavailability was impacted by
both withdrawal and hostility in the marital relationship, whereas fathers’ was only related to
withdrawal, indicating a stronger influence of marital dysfunction on mothers. One reason for
this inconsistency in the literature may be that many of these studies examine mothers and
fathers in separate analyses, which fails to take into account the interdependent nature of these
data (Kenny, Kashy, and Cook, 2006). By estimating the influence of mothers and fathers
simultaneously we may be able to more accurately assess the effect of marital functioning on the
family emotional environment, parenting, and child outcomes (Kenny et al., 2006).
In addition to our incomplete understanding of the differential influence of mothers and
fathers, research into the influence of the marital relationship and family emotional environment
has focused primarily on child socio-emotional development. There is abundant research
demonstrating the deleterious effect of marital dysfunction on children’s social, behavioral, and
16

emotional adjustment. For example, the negative effect of marital conflict on children’s
internalizing and externalizing behaviors has been replicated in numerous studies (see
Cummings & Davies, 1994; Grych & Fincham, 1990 for reviews). In addition, emerging
research in this area suggests that marital dysfunction is detrimental to children’s early academic
skills (Belsky & Fearon; 2004; Fagan, 2013; Froyen, Skibbe, Bowles, Blow, & Gerde, 2013), but
there are several limitations to this body of research.
The majority of studies that examine the influence of the marital relationship on
academics focus on divorced populations (Amato, 2010; Fagan, 2013), neglecting young
children in intact families who may be experiencing normative levels of marital discord or
dissatisfaction. This is significant given findings that suggest that marital discord has an impact
on child development in the time prior to divorce (Amato, 1993; Sun & Li, 2001). Further,
research on community samples with relatively low levels of marital distress consistently
demonstrates that the marital relationship has implications for children in emotional, social, and
academic domains (Grych, Fincham, Jouriles, & McDonald, 2000; Froyen et al., 2013).
In addition, academic functioning is most commonly conceptualized using approximate
measures, including children’s grades (Ghazarian & Buehler, 2010), academic functioning across
content areas (Sun & Li, 2001), or teacher perceptions of general academic competence (Bascoe,
Davies, Sturge-Apple & Cummings, 2009) rather than directly testing children’s specific skills.
Assessments of children’s specific skill sets allows for the examination of factors that influence
specific developmental domains. Further, teachers may not be the best reporters of children’s
academic competence, as they may have difficulties separating academic from social
competencies (Ford, 1982). In sum, the literature in this area neglects the influence of intact

17

families’ marital and family functioning on the early academic skills that are consistently linked
to future academic and professional success, such as early literacy skills .
Children’s ability to acquire foundational early literacy skills, such as letter knowledge
(Foulin, 2005; Storch & Whitehurst, 2002), decoding (Baydar, Brooks-Gunn, & Furstenberg,
1993), and phonological awareness (Lonigan, Schatschneider, Westberg, & The National Early
Literacy Panel, 2008), significantly predict children’s later reading skills even when children’s
socioeconomic status, IQ, verbal memory, and vocabulary are taken into account (Bryant,
MacLean, Bradley, & Crossland, 1990; MacLean, Bryant, & Bradley, 1987; Wagner &
Torgesen, 1987; Torgesen, Wagner & Rashotte, 1994). It is well documented in the literature that
gaps in reading ability are established early, are resistant to change, and tend to widen as children
age (Bast & Reitsma, 1998; Catts, Bridges, Little, & Tomblin, 2008; Foster & Miller, 2007;
Skibbe et al., 2008). In addition, children’s early literacy skills have been related to academic
performance through high school and even predict future career and economic outlooks (Storch
& Whitehurst, 2001).
The literature suggests that there are many ways that parents support children’s early
literacy skills, including things such as parent involvement, both at home, school, and in the
community (Hindman, Miller, Froyen, & Skibbe, 2012), all of which have been shown to
positively influence children’s early academic skills (Epstein, 1995). In addition to parental
involvement, parents are instrumental in creating the educational environment in which children
are embedded at home, typically referred to as the home learning environment (HLE). The HLE
is conceptualized in a variety of ways, including the parents’ own literacy activities, materials
available in the home (e.g., books, magazine subscriptions, and library cards), and specific
parenting practices that are aimed at enhancing children’s educational outcomes.
18

Research overwhelmingly indicates that HLE-related parenting behaviors in which
parents engage are hugely influential in shaping children’s early academic outcomes. Research
shows that one of the most important assets for preschool-aged children is a home environment
in which the parents are actively involved in engaging their child in activities aimed at academic
enhancement (Bjorklund, Hubertz, & Reubens, 2004; Bjorklund & Rosenblum, 2001; Cannon &
Ginsburg, 2008; Collins, Maccoby, Steinberg, Hetherington, & Bornstein, 2000; Morrison &
Cooney, 2002; Storch & Whitehurst, 2001). While much of this research focuses specifically on
shared reading, there is evidence that a broad range of HLE activities promote children’s early
academic skills (Sénéchal, 2006; Storch & Whitehurst, 2001). For example, deliberate teaching
of letters and sounds and engagement in writing activities fosters gains in letter knowledge and
phonological awareness (Hindman, Connor, Jewkes, & Morrison, 2008; Justice & Ezell, 2000;
Justice & Ezell, 2002). In addition, parent-child conversation, in addition to shared book reading,
promotes vocabulary development (Sénéchal, 2006; Sénéchal, LeFevre, Hudson, and Lawson,
1996; Sénéchal, Thomas, & Monker, 1995). What parents do in the HLE when children are
young affects children’s skills not only concurrently, but also helps children to be successful
later in their academic careers (Burchinal, Peisner-Feinberg, Pianta, & Howes, 2002;
Cunningham & Stanovich, 1997; Griffin & Morrison, 1997).
Similarly to research conducted on marital relations, research concerning the ways in
which parents work to improve children’s literacy skills is based almost exclusively on maternal
report (Hindman & Morrison, 2012; Powell, Son, File, & Froiland, 2012; Roberts, Jurgens, &
Burchinal, 2005; Rodriguez & Tamis-LeMonda, 2011). Father involvement has been increasing
steadily over the past 20 years (Sayer, Bianchi, & Robinson, 2004; Cabrera et al., 2000) and
research shows that, although their involvement is still less than that of mothers (Clark & Foster,
19

2005; Duursma, Pan, & Raikes, 2008), they are still engaging in HLE-related parenting
behaviors with sufficient frequency to influence children’s skills (Duursma et al., 2008; Yeung,
Sandberg, Davis-Kean, & Hofferth, 2001). In addition, research is beginning to show that
fathers’ involvement in HLE-related parenting behaviors uniquely contributes to child outcomes
(Duursma et al., 2008). These findings highlight the need to include fathers in research
examining not only the influence of fathers’ HLE-related behavior, but also their contribution to
the broader family emotional environment. As such, including fathers in this research will allow
for the examination of how functioning of the marriage and family as a whole unit influences the
work that parents do to promote early academic skill development.
There is evidence to suggest that the active, HLE-related, supports that parents provide to
children are not the only way that parents can support their children’s early literacy development
(Belsky & Fearon; 2004; Froyen et al., 2013). There are several processes through which the
marital relationship may, directly or indirectly, influence children’s outcomes. The spillover
hypothesis suggests that the emotional nature of one relationship in the family system, such as
the marital relationship, spills over into other areas (Easterbrooks, Emde, Hinde, & Hinde, 1988;
Repetti, 1987). Research suggests that the family emotional environment is one area that is
influenced by marital functioning. Family emotional expressiveness, or the principal pattern of
displaying verbal and non-verbal expressions of emotion within the family as a whole
(Halberstadt, Cassidy, Stifter, Parke, & Fox, 1995), is influenced by the quality of the marital
relationship. For example, higher levels of maternal marital satisfaction have been linked to more
positive expressiveness (Froyen et al., 2013) and lower levels of maternal marital satisfaction
have been linked to greater negative expressiveness (Froyen et al., 2013; Kolak & Volling, 2007;
Stocker, Ahmed, & Stall, 1997). In addition, marital relationships that are high in conflict and
20

low in satisfaction are associated with higher levels of negative emotional expressiveness
(Halberstadt et al., 1995; Wong, McElwain, & Halberstadt, 2009). Finally, positive and negative
parental expressiveness have been shown to moderate the relation between marital conflict and
children’s internalizing and externalizing problems (Fosco & Grych, 2007). In addition, positive
expressiveness has been shown to mediate the relation between mothers’ marital satisfaction and
children’s early literacy skills (Froyen et al., 2013).
Research and theory in this area also suggests that, beyond the overall emotional
environment, parent-child interactions are one of the primary ways through which other family
processes, such as the quality of the marital relationship, influence child development (Belsky,
1984; Cummings, Davies, & Campbell, 2000; Erel & Burman; 1995). Family emotional
expressiveness has been shown to influence various aspects of parenting. Parents’ reports of
expressiveness are related to parents’ ability to cope with the stress of parenting young children
above and beyond the contributions of marital quality (Kolak & Volling, 2007). In general, the
emotion that parents display directly influences the parenting environment that children
experience and negative emotions are directly linked to inferior parenting skills (Dix, 1991).
When it comes to the influence of the family emotional environment on parenting, one
aspect that remains understudied is the way in which family expressiveness influences how
parents actively teach their children academic skills, referred to here as HLE-related parenting
practices. HLE-related parenting behaviors are considered to be a subset of more general
parenting (Hindman & Morrison, 2012) and emerging research suggests that they are influenced
by marital and family processes in similar ways as other aspects of parenting (Froyen et al.,
2013). For example, marriages high in conflict are characterized by reduced parent involvement,
including less time engaging in play, shared reading, and social activities with their child
21

(Buehler & Gerard, 2002), some of which are examples of HLE-related parenting behaviors. In
addition, mother’s ratings of family positive expressiveness have been shown to directly predict
mothers’ own HLE-related parenting behaviors (Froyen et al., 2013), and, together with the
HLE, mediate the relation between marital satisfaction and children’s early literacy skills. Taken
together these findings suggest that the family emotional environment is one pathway through
which marital functioning influences children’s early literacy skills.
Family systems and human ecological theories attempt to explain the various ways that
distal and proximal processes of the systems surrounding individuals are influential in their
development (Bronfenbrenner & Morris, 2006; von Bertalanffy, 1976). This theoretical
framework has driven the field of family process research concerning the influence of various
familial systems on child development (Belsky, 1984; Cummings et al., 2000). However, the
literature has not consistently taken a family process approach to the study of the broader aspects
of family functioning that influence HLE-related parenting and children’s early literacy skills. In
particular, the literature has not consistently included fathers despite a rising awareness of the
necessity of their inclusion (Lamb, 2010). As a result, the literature reviewed above is based
primarily on mothers’ perceptions and may not accurately reflect the true nature of relations
among constructs such as marital functioning, family expressiveness, HLE-related parenting, and
children’s early literacy. In addition, the extent to which fathers contribute uniquely to these
complex family processes has yet to be determined. By taking a whole family perspective I will
simultaneously estimate the influence of mothers’ and fathers’ marital functioning on the family
emotional environment, parenting, and child outcomes. Investigating these effects requires a
sophisticated application of structural equation modeling that has not been utilized in the past
when examining the influence of marital and family functioning on children’s early literacy
22

skills. In doing so it will be possible to estimate these relations with greater accuracy and
interpret results with greater confidence.
The Current Study
The goals of the current study are to construct a family process model to capture the
influence of these complex family factors on children’s early literacy skills. Informed by family
systems theory and the human bioecological model (Bronfenbrenner & Morris, 2006) and the
research literature outlined above, I expect the distal processes of marital functioning and family
emotional expressiveness to be related to the more proximal processes encompassed by HLErelated parenting, which will then be directly associated with children’s early literacy skills.
Specifically, I expect higher levels of couple functioning, as determined by high levels of
satisfaction and low levels of conflict, to be related to more positive and less negative
expressiveness. In addition, I expect HLE-related parenting to be influenced by the emotional
environment, with positive expressiveness supporting the HLE and negative expressiveness
hindering it. Finally, I expect the HLE-related parenting in which both mothers and fathers
engage to promote children’s early literacy skills. I will also explore the extent to which this
family process model is unique contributions of fathers.
Method
Participants
Families were recruited through their child’s attendance at one of three preschools, each
of which was associated with a large, Midwestern university. In the falls of 2009, 2010, and
2011, all families with children attending three preschools were invited to participate in an
ongoing, longitudinal study of child development. Seven hundred and eighty-eight (788) families
and their preschool-aged child were initially enrolled and 74% of mothers and 49% of fathers
23

returned the questionnaires. Both mothers and fathers completed theses questionnaires
individually and turned them in separately. Only intact, two-parent families were included in the
current study, which yielded a final sample size of 539. Families did not differ in terms of parent
education for those which were intact (Mothers: M = 6.59, SD = 1.96; Fathers: M = 6.73, SD =
2.48) and those which were not (Mothers: M = 5.16, SD =1.89; Fathers: M =5.02, SD = 2.21);
t(590) = -6.05, p = .07; t(376) = -3.90, p = .12). Intact and non-intact families also did not
differ by child gender, χ2 (1, n = 600) = 1.57, p = .35) or by child race χ2 (1, n = 615) = 3.06, p =
.06).
Children’s ages ranged from 31 to 75 months, with an average age of 49 months (SD =
6.82) and 52% were female. The majority of children were White (81%), however 7% were
Asian or Pacific Islander, 3% were Hispanic or Latino, 2% were Black or African American, and
6% were multiracial. English was the primary language spoken in the majority of homes (94%).
In addition, parents were generally well educated with 59% of mothers and 53% of fathers
having at least a bachelor’s degree or higher. The demographics for children’s race, ethnicity,
and primary language are reflective of U.S. census data for the counties in which the data is
collected (U.S. Census Bureau, 2011). Demographic information is presented in Table 2.1
Measures
Marital relationship. For the purposes of this study, marital functioning was measured
using an assessment of marital satisfaction and marital conflict. Mother and father report on
marital satisfaction and marital conflict were used to construct a latent factor of overall marital
relationship functioning. The use of a latent factor with several indicators as an outcome
enhances the reliability with which a construct is measured (von Oertzen, Hertzog, Lindenberger,
& Ghisletta, 2010). All four indicators had strong loadings (mothers’ satisfaction: .42, p < . 001;
24

TABLE 2.1
Descriptive information of study participants
Child Demographics
Age in Months (n = 536)
Min
Max
Mean
SD
Gender (n = 515)
Female
Male
Race (n = 527)
Black or African American
White (not Hispanic/not
Latino)
Hispanic or Latino
Asian
Multi-racial
Other
Language (n = 540)
English
Korean
Chinese
Spanish
Other

30.94
74.97
48.76
7.02

268 (52.0%)
247 (48.0%)

11 (2.1%)
426 (80.8%)
13 (2.5%)
39 (7.4%)
30 (5.7%)
8 (1.5%)

495 (91.7%)
6 (1.1%)
5 (0.9%)
6 (1.1%)
28 (5.2%)

Parent Education
Maternal
Education
(n = 479)

Highest Degree Obtained
Some high school
High school diploma or
equivalent
Some college but no degree
College degree or higher

Paternal
Education
(n = 337)

6 (1.2%)

5 (1.5%)

31 (6.1%)
173 (33.9%)
299 (58.6%)

25 (7.3%)
125 (36.6%)
182 (53.3%)

25

fathers’ satisfaction: .53, p < . 001; mothers’ conflict: .75, p < . 001; fathers’ conflict: .85, p < .
001).
Marital satisfaction was measured using the Kansas Marital Satisfaction Scale (KMS;
Schumm et al., 1986), a short, three-item measure of marital satisfaction, assessing individuals’
satisfaction with their spouse, marriage, and marital relationship. Participants are asked to rate
their satisfaction with these aspects of their relationship on a 7-point, Likert-type scale ranging
from “Extremely Dissatisfied” to “Extremely Satisfied”. Total scores for individuals with no
missing data can range from three to 21 with higher scores indicating higher relationship
satisfaction. The KMS demonstrates good construct validity (Schumm, Crock, Likani, Akagi, &
Bosch, 2008; Schumm et al., 1986), internal consistency (Grover, Paf-Bergen, Russell, &
Schumm, 1984), criterion validity (Schumm et al., 1986), and test-retest reliability (Mitchel,
Newel, & Schumm, 1983). This measure corresponds well with lengthier assessments of couple
functioning (Crane, Middleton, & Bean, 2000; Schumm et al. 1986) and effectively distinguishes
between high and low to non-distressed couples (Crane et al., 2000; White, Stahlmann, &
Furrow, 1994). In addition, this measure was recently identified as the best available brief
measure of marital satisfaction (Graham, Diebels, & Barnow, 2011). Cronbach’s alpha reliability
in the current sample was .98 for mothers and .98 for fathers.
Marital conflict was assessed using mother and father report on levels of overt marital
hostility on the O’Leary-Porter Scale (Porter & O’Leary, 1980). This 10-item assessment
measures marital conflict that occurs in front of the child in the study and includes questions
such as, “Husbands and wives often disagree on the subject of discipline. How often do you and
your spouse argue over disciplinary problems in this child’s presence?,” and “In every normal
marriage there are arguments. How often would you say arguments between you and your
26

spouse take place in front of this child?” Participants are asked to respond to these questions on a
5-point, Likert-type scale ranging from “Never” to “Very Often”. Total scores for individuals
with no missing data can range from 10 to 50. Traditionally higher scores on this measure
indicate higher levels of conflict. However, because this measure is being used to create a factor
along with a measure that is in the other direction, the variables were reverse coded so that
higher scores indicate better functioning (i.e., lower levels of conflict). This allows results to be
interpreted more readily as higher scores for the marital relationship factor will indicate overall
higher functioning (higher satisfaction and lower conflict). The OPS demonstrates acceptable
test-retest reliability, internal consistency, concurrent validity with other assessments of marital
functioning (Porter & O’Leary, 1980). Cronbach’s alpha reliability in the current sample was .71
for mothers and .75 for fathers. This level of reliability is similar to that noted in other studies
utilizing this measure of marital conflict (Obradovic, Bush, & Boyce, 2011) and constitutes an
acceptable level of reliability (George & Mallery, 2003; Nunnaly & Bernstein, 1994).
Family emotional expressiveness. Family emotional expressiveness for both mothers
and fathers was measured using the Family Expressiveness Questionnaire – Short Form (FEQ;
Halberstadt, 1996). The FEQ is a 24-item questionnaire that assesses the frequency of emotional
expression in the family on a scale ranging from 1 to 9. The FEQ contains two subscales
consisting of positive family expressiveness and negative family expressiveness. Examples of
positive family expressiveness include “praising someone for good work,” and “expressing
excitement over one’s future plans,” whereas examples of negative family expressiveness
include “showing contempt for another’s actions,” and “expressing dissatisfaction with someone
else’s behavior.” The FEQ has good discriminant validity and has a ten-day test-retest reliability
ranging from .89 to .92 (Halberstadt, 1996). Scores for family levels of emotional expressiveness
27

were generated by creating composites of mother and father reports of negative and positive
emotional expressiveness. Cronbach’s alpha reliability of the positive and negative
expressiveness subscales in the current sample were .89 and .87 respectively for both mothers
and fathers. Mother and father report were used to create separate factors for positive and
negative expressiveness. The two indicators for the positive expressivity factor had strong
loadings (mothers: .66, p < . 001; fathers: .51, p < 001), as did the two indicators for negative
expressiveness (mothers: .50, p < . 001; fathers: .73, p < .001).
Home learning environment. The HLE was assessed using both mother and father
responses on a subscale of the Parenting Questionnaire (Morrison & Cooney, 2002), which is a
self-report measure of parenting behaviors. The HLE subscale includes seven items such as,
“How frequently do you read to your child,” and “How frequently do you teach your child letter
sounds”. Parents were asked to rate, on a five-point Likert-type scale, how likely they were to
engage in these activities at home. See Froyen and colleagues (2013) for the full measure.
Mothers and fathers reported on their own home learning activities, and these scores were used
to generate a home learning environment composite score. Higher scores indicated that parents
provided more learning activities within their homes. Cronbach’s alpha reliability of the HLE
subscale in the current sample was .84 for mothers and .83 for fathers. Again, mother and father
report were used to create a factor for HLE-related parenting. Both indicators had strong
loadings on the factor (mothers: .70, p < .001; fathers: .57, p < .001).
Early literacy skills. Three aspects of early literacy skills were measured, including
letter knowledge, decoding, and phonological awareness. Letter knowledge was assessed via a
letter identification task in which children are shown shuffled uppercase and lowercase alphabet
letters in one of eight randomly ordered forms. The form given to each child was randomly
28

assigned. In this task, children are asked to identify the name of the letter shown. In fall of 2009
and 2010 children were asked to name all 52 upper and lowercase letters whereas an eight-item
subset of letters was used in the fall of 2011. This subset has been used in previous research and
consisted of letters that span the range of the construct (Bowles, Pentimonti, Gerde, & Montroy,
2014; Phillips, Piasta, Anthony, Lonigan, & Francis, 2012). In order to examine letter knowledge
on the same scale regardless of the assessment format, Rasch scores were constructed based on
previous research (Bowles et al., 2014).
Decoding was measured using the Letter-Word Identification subtest of the WoodcockJohnson III Tests of Achievement (WJ-III; Woodcock, McGrew, & Mather, 2001). This
assessment evaluates children’s early knowledge of letters, words, and decoding skills.
Reliability for this assessment for children ages three to eight ranges from .96 to .99 (Woodcock,
McGrew, Schrank, & Mather, 2001, 2007). Finally, phonological awareness was assessed using
the phonological awareness subscale of the Test of Preschool Early Literacy (TOPEL; Lonigan,
Wagner, Torgesen, & Rashotte, 2007), testing children’s blending and elision abilities. Internal
consistency for this assessment ranges from 0.86 to 0.88 for children ages three to five while the
test-retest reliability is .83. These three assessments measure distinct, but related, aspects of
children’s emerging literacy skills and were utilized to construct a latent literacy variable. All
three indicators had strong loadings on the early literacy factor (letter knowledge: .91, p < .001;
decoding: .88, p < 001; phonological awareness: .37, p < .001).
Analysis Plan
Structural equation modeling (SEM) implemented in Mplus (Muthen & Muthen, 2010)
was utilized to construct a family process model of the influence of the marital relationship and
family emotional environment on HLE-parenting behaviors and children’s early literacy skills
29

(Figure 1). Model fit was assessed utilizing the chi-square test of absolute fit, the comparative fit
index (CFI), and the root mean square error of approximation (RMSEA) following guidelines
proposed by Browne and Cudeck (1993) and Hu and Bentler (1998).
Next, I next examined the indirect effect of these family factors on children’s early
literacy skills by using bootstrapping to estimate the indirect effect and 95% confidence intervals
for the indirect effect (Bollen & Stine, 1990). Bootstrapping is a resampling method in which the
indirect effect is estimated by repeatedly sampling from the data set. In repeating this resampling
of the data thousands of times, 10,000 in this case, I am able to approximate the sampling
distribution and use it to construct confidence intervals for the indirect effect. Research indicates
that the bootstrapping approach to indirect effects is significantly better than other approaches to
mediation, such as the Sobel test (Mackinnon et al., 2002, Mackinnon et al., 2004). This is
particularly true with more complex mediation models with multiple mediators (Preacher &
Hayes, 2008). If the bootstrapped confidence interval for the indirect effect does not contain zero
then I will conclude that that the indirect effect is significant.
Finally, a series of chi-square difference tests were used to determine whether there
are differences for mothers and fathers in these processes and which factors are driving these
differences. I first constructed a model where all father variables were allowed to vary freely
with other father variables. The original model would be nested within this model. If the original
model fits significantly worse than this second model, it can be concluded that there are global
differences for mothers and fathers in how these family processes influence children’s early
literacy skills. Finally, one at a time I constrained the paths from father variables to zero to see at
what point fit worsened significantly. This will allow me to explore the specific family factors to
which fathers may contribute uniquely.
30

Missingness in the data was accounted for utilizing the likelihood-based approach
provided by Mplus. In the first year of study the measure of marital conflict was not included,
which represents planned missingness on this measure for 35% of families. In general data that
are missing due to planned missingness are considered to be missing at random and can be
included in analyses without biasing results (Enders, 2010). Enders (2010) provides an overview
of missing data mechanisms. In addition, father response rate was lower than that of mothers
leading to missing data rates above 20% for fathers on satisfaction, positive and negative
expressiveness, and the HLE. Independent samples t-tests indicated that there were no significant
differences between the literacy scores of children whose fathers returned the questionnaires
(Letters: M = .25, SD = .96; Decoding: M=332.68, SD = 27.14; Phonological Awareness: M
=12.39, SD = 6.06) and fathers who did not (Letters: M= .11, SD= .97, t(485) = −1.46; p = .89;
Decoding: M =326.48, SD = 26.47, t(435) = −2.22; p = .91; Phonological Awareness: M =13.46,
SD = 6.35, t(357) = 1.50; p = .75). Two child variables had rates of missingness above 20%
(Letter knowledge and the TOPEL) due to testing time constraints. These data were considered
to be missing completely at random (MCAR). Other variables had missing data rates under 11%.
I did initially control for child gender, race, and parent education, however these controls
were not significantly related to any of the study variables (i.e., p > .05), their inclusion did not
alter results, and including them in the model did not improve model fit. For the purposes of
parsimony these controls were removed from the final models.
Results
Means, standard deviations, and correlations among the study variables are presented in
Table 2.2.

31

TABLE 2.2
Means, Standard Deviations, and Intercorrelations of Study Variables (N = 539)
Variables
Min Max Mean SD 1
2
3
4

5

6

Mother Satisfaction

3.00

21.00 17.82 3.97 -

Father Satisfaction

3.00

21.00 17.97 4.17

.32** -

Mother Conflict

5.00

50.00 42.68 4.74

.29**

.30** -

Father Conflict

24.00 50.00 43.06 4.71

.28**

.44**

.60** -

Mother Positive

3.00

9.00

7.60

0.96

.23**

.15*

.25**

.18*

-

Father Positive

1.17

9.00

7.05

1.14

.15*

.22**

.06

.06

.34** -

Mother Negative

1.08

7.25

3.54

1.09 -.14** -.12*

Father Negative

1.00

7.42

3.49

Mother HLE

1.00

5.00

Father HLE
1.00
Note. * p < .05. ** p < .01

5.00

-.36** -.19*

-.12*

7

8

9

-.06

-

1.14 -.14** -.22** -.24** -.39** -.07

-.03

.34** -

3.38

.84

.06

.17**

.22**

.10

.21**

.10

-.13** -.15** -

3.18

.83

-.03

.11

.07

.13

.12

.22** -.11

10

-.25** .41** -

The initial model, depicted in Figure 2.1, provided an adequate fit for the data (χ2 = 111.9, df = 55, p = .00; CFI =.94; TLI =
.92; RMSEA = 0.04). The unstandardized and standardized loadings and regression coefficients for the model are presented in Table
2.3. In this model, the couple relationship significantly predicted both positive (β = .44, p < .001) and negative (β = -.61, p < .001)
family emotional expressiveness.
32

FIGURE 2.1. Simplified Path Diagram of Marital Functioning, Family Expressiveness, the HLE, and Children’s Early
Literacy Skills. Note. Coefficients are standardized estimates; LNK: Letter Knowledge; PA: Phonological Awareness; * p <.01, ** p
<.001; χ2 = 111.9, df = 55, p = .00; CFI =.94; TLI = .92; RMSEA = 0.04
33

TABLE 2.3. Unstandardized, Standardized, Significance Levels for the Model in Figure 2.1 (N = 539)
Pathways
Marital Functioning → Positive Expressivity

Unstandardized
.07

SE
.01

Standardized
.44

p
< .001

Marital Functioning → Negative Expressivity

-.08

.02

-.61

< .001

Positive Expressivity → HLE

.32

.12

.43

.01

Negative Expressivity → HLE

-.39

.14

-.45

.01

HLE → Early Literacy Skills

1.01

.24

.55

< .001

Note. X2(55) = 111.9. CFI = 0.94. TLI = 0.92. RMSEA = 0.04
This suggests that couples with higher marital functioning (less conflict and more satisfaction) have families characterized by more
positive and less negative expressiveness. Both positive and negative family emotional expressiveness predicted the HLE, (β = .43, p
< .01 and β = -.45, p < .01 respectively). This indicates that increases in positive family expressiveness were related to increases in
HLE- related parenting behaviors, while increases in negative family emotional expressiveness are related to decreases in HLE-related
parenting. Finally, family HLE predicted children’s early literacy skills (β = .55, p < .001).
Indirect Effects
I next examined the indirect effect of these family factors on children’s early literacy skills by using bootstrapping to estimate
the indirect effect and constructing 95% confidence intervals. The bootstrapped point estimates and confidence intervals are presented
in Table 2.4.

34

TABLE 2.4. Mediation of the Effect of Marital Functioning on Children’s Early Literacy (N = 539)
Bootstrapping
Percentile 95% CI
Point Estimate
SE
Lower Upper
Indirect Effects: Marital→ HLE
Marital → Positive → HLE
.054
.037
.012
.165
.079
.051
.023
.243
Marital → Negative → HLE
Total
.133
.075
.043
.355
Indirect Effects: Expressiveness → Literacy
HLE → Positive → Literacy
.352
.499
.100
1.607
-.256
.322
-1.099
-.068
HLE → Negative→ Literacy
Indirect Effects: Marital → Literacy
Marital → Positive → Literacy
.055
.105
.010
.366
Marital → Negative → Literacy
.080
.122
.020
.412
Total
.018
.185
-.275
.218
Note. Based on 10,000 bootstrap samples.

Marital functioning had a significant total indirect effect on the HLE (0.133; 95% CI [0.043, 0.355]). The significant specific
indirect effects on the HLE were through both positive (0.054; 95% CI [0.012, 0.165]), and negative expressiveness (0.079; 95% CI
[0.023, 0.243]). In addition there was a significant, and positive, indirect effect of positive expressiveness on literacy (0.352; 95% CI
[0.100, 1.607]), and a significant, and negative, effect of negative expressiveness on literacy (-0.256; 95% CI [-1.099, -0.068]), both
through the HLE.
Finally, the total indirect effect of marital functioning on children’s early literacy was estimated to be 0.018 (95% CI [0.275, 0.218]). This confidence interval contains zero, and thus was not significant. However, two of the specific indirect effects of
35

marital functioning on children’s early literacy were significantly different than zero. These
results suggest that marital functioning has an indirect effect on children’s literacy skills through
two paths captured in this model. The first is through positive expressiveness and the HLE
(0.055; 95% CI [0.010, 0.366]), while the second is through negative expressiveness and the
HLE (0.080; 95% CI [0.020, 0.412]).
Taken together, these findings demonstrate that marital functioning indirectly
influences children’s early literacy skills through the family emotional environment and the
HLE. In general, parents who report better marital relations have families that display more
positive emotions and fewer negative emotions, which is related to an increase of HLE-related
parenting, which is then predictive of greater early literacy skills. Conversely, families with poor
functioning marriages tend to express more negative emotions and fewer positive emotions,
which is related to a decrease in HLE-related parenting, and a subsequent decrease in observed
early literacy skills for children.
Unique Contributions of Fathers
The next sets of analyses examined whether fathers contribute to these family factors
in a unique way. First, I allowed all paths from the father variables to vary freely. The initial
model is nested within this second model. This model failed to converge. There was a negative
variance in the error terms for mothers HLE and mothers’ report of family negative emotional
expressiveness indicating that the model was inappropriate for the data. I first constrained the
relation between fathers’ HLE and the literacy factor to zero. This model also failed to converge
and while the negative variance for mothers’ HLE went away, the other negative variance

36

was still present. Next, I constrained the path from fathers’ report of negative family emotional expressiveness to the literacy factor.
This model converged and had no negative error variances. The absence of these paths suggests that a model where father’s HLE and
negative expressiveness are not directly predictive of children’s early literacy is more appropriate for the data.
This model fit the data well (χ2 = 84.2, df = 44, p = .00; CFI = .96; TLI = .93; RMSEA = 0.04). The unstandardized and
standardized loadings and regression coefficients for the model are presented in Table 2.5.

TABLE 2.5. Unstandardized, Standardized, Significance Levels for Model Examining Unique Contributions of
Fathers (N = 539)
Pathways
Unstandardized
SE
Standardized
p
Father Satisfaction → Father Positive
.06
.02
.21
.02
Father Satisfaction → Father Negative
.00
.02
.00
.99
Father Conflict→ Father Positive
-.02
.03
-.17
.44
Father Conflict → Father Negative
-.04
.04
-.17
.32
Father Positive → HLE
.13
.04
.18
< .001
Father Negative Exp → HLE
-.13
.04
-.19
< .001
Mother Marital Functioning → Mother Positive
.07
.02
.33
< .001
Mother Marital Functioning → Mother Negative
-.09
.02
-.54
< .001
Mother Positive → HLE
.07
.10
.20
.24
Mother Negative → HLE
-.09
.08
-.19
.15
Note. X2(44) = 84.2 CFI = 0.96. TLI = 0.93. RMSEA = 0.04

37

The constrained (original) model fit significantly worse than this second model (∆χ2 =
27.7, ∆df = 11, p = .001), indicating that fathers influence these family processes in unique ways,
above and beyond the contribution of mothers. Next, I constrained the paths from father
variables to zero one at a time. For each subsequent constrained model, the fit was significantly
worse. These findings suggest that a model where fathers’ reports of satisfaction, conflict,
positive expressiveness, and negative expressiveness are allowed to freely predict all other father
variables but only satisfaction, conflict and positive expressiveness freely predict children’s early
literacy skills is the most appropriate for the data. In this model, if the paths between father
variables were significant this represented an effect of fathers above and beyond that of mothers.
Additionally, if the paths between the latent variables were significant this represented an effect
of mothers.
These results indicate that fathers’ satisfaction uniquely predicted their own report of
positive expressiveness (β = .212, p < .02), but neither fathers’ satisfaction nor conflict predicted
their own report of negative expressiveness (β = .00, p < .99 and β = -0.174, p < .32 respectively)
above and beyond the contribution of mothers. When fathers’ marital functioning was allowed to
uniquely predict their own positive and negative expressiveness, mothers’ marital functioning
continued to predict mothers’ positive and negative expressiveness (β = .327, p < .001 and β = 0.539, p < .001, respectively). Taken together, this suggests that the way in which marital
satisfaction is related to family expressiveness is unique for fathers, with fathers’ marital
satisfaction predicting fathers’ positive expressiveness above and beyond the contribution of
mothers.
Patterns of effects for the influence of positive and negative family expressiveness on
the HLE are also unique for fathers (β = .181, p < .001 and β = -0.186, p < .001 respectively). In
38

addition, when accounting for the uniqueness of fathers, mothers’ HLE is not predicted by
mothers’ positive (β = .198, p < .24) or negative (β = -0.193, p < .15) expressiveness. This
suggests that the relation between the family emotional environment and the HLE may be
attributable to the unique contributions of fathers.
Discussion
Research overwhelmingly indicates that parents’ active efforts to provide their children
with academic instruction are directly related to the early literacy skills children display as they
transition to formal schooling (Bjorklund, Hubertz, & Reubens, 2004; Storch & Whitehurst,
2001). The skills contained within the construct of early literacy have been identified as some of
the strongest predictors of future success in both reading specifically and academics generally
(Foulin, 2005; Storch & Whitehurst, 2002; Wagner, Torgesen, & Rashotte, 1994). However, our
understanding of how the broader family system, namely marital functioning and the emotional
environment, influences both the HLE and children’s subsequent skills is rooted in mothers’
perspectives (Froyen et al., 2013). The current study identifies the marital relationship and family
emotional expressiveness as important contextual factors that influence children’s early literacy
skills. Additionally, including fathers allowed for the conceptualization of this study from a
family process perspective and indeed the results supported considering mothers and fathers
contemporaneously, as opposed to separately or mothers alone. Finally, the analytic methods
employed in the study allow for greater accuracy and confidence when interpreting results than
previous research.
Marital Functioning Influences Early Literacy
Previous research on the influence of marital and family functioning on child outcomes
indicates that parenting is often the primary way that children are influenced by these family
39

system factors (Belsky, 1984; Cummings et al., 2000; Erel & Burman; 1995). However, for
young children, much of this work focuses on children’s social and emotional function,
neglecting children’s early academic skills (Belsky & Fearon; 2004; Froyen et al., 2013). In
addition, this body of research has largely failed to examine the influence of these broader family
factors on the specific aspects of parenting that are typically related to children’s early
academics, namely the HLE (Froyen et al., 2013). While some previous research does indicate
that marital relations and family functioning are associated both with HLE-related parenting and
children’s early literacy outcomes, the current study approaches these relationships from a family
systems perspective that considers the role of both mothers and fathers.
The current study shows that the quality of the marital relationship is important for
children’s early literacy skills because of its influence on the emotional atmosphere of the
family, which then influences the HLE-related parenting behaviors that support early literacy
skills. High marital quality (higher satisfaction and lower conflict) is associated with a family
emotional environment characterized by more positive and less negative emotional
expressiveness. This is in keeping with the extant literature suggesting that the marital
relationship sets the emotional tone of the family (Davies et al., 2009). This study also
demonstrates that the emotional environment is related to the HLE such that more positive and
less negative expressiveness is associated with more frequent engagement in the HLE-related
parenting behaviors that promote children’s early literacy skills. This finding is also in line with
previous research, however the only other study to examine these marital and family factors in
relation to the HLE did not include fathers (Froyen et al., 2013).
Interestingly, previous research that only included mothers suggested that negative
expressiveness was not related to the HLE and was not an indirect pathway of influence of
40

marital relationship quality on children’s early literacy outcomes (Froyen et al., 2013). However,
in the current study that included fathers, family negative emotional expressiveness did predict
the HLE. This may be because there are some family processes that are different for mothers and
fathers. Findings in the literature are mixed in regards to whether marital relations differentially
influence other family systems for mothers and fathers with some studies noting a stronger
negative influence of the marital relationship on father’s parenting (see Coiro & Emery, 1998 for
review). The current study adds to this literature by identifying processes by which marital and
family emotional factors influence parenting that are unique for fathers. These potential
differences are discussed more fully below.
Finally the results for the present study show that the family emotional environment and
HLE-related parenting mediate the relation between marital functioning and children’s early
literacy. This finding reflects previous research indicating that parenting is one of the primary
ways that the influence of the marital relationship is transmitted to children (Belsky, 1984;
Cummings et al., 2000; Erel & Burman; 1995). The current study adds to this body of research
by highlighting the role of parenting behaviors that that are specifically aimed at enhancing
children’s academic outcomes in mediating the influence of marital functioning and young
children’s literacy. This work highlights the importance of taking a whole family perspective
when examining factors that contribute to children’s early literacy outcomes.
While the size of the indirect effects are small, it is important to consider three essential
factors when interpreting these results. First, and most importantly, research on children’s early
literacy shows that gaps in these skills widen with age (Foster & Miller, 2007; Torgesen, Wagner
& Rashotte, 1994). Early intervention studies suggest that the gains made in literacy skills in
early childhood hold as children age and may prevent long-term literacy challenges (Cartledge,
41

Yurick, Singh, Keyes, & Kourea, 2011; Berrninger, Abbott, Vermeulen, Ogier, Brooksher, &
Zook, 2002; Vellutino, Scanlon, & Jaccard, 2003; Vellutino, Scanlon, Sipay, Small, Pratt, &
Chen, 1996). The findings in the current study are significant because they identify specific
family processes that are either supportive or detrimental to children’s early literacy skills. Any
protective factor for these skills in the preschool period has the potential to strongly influence
later literacy skills that are crucial to academic and economic success (Storch & Whitehurst,
2001; 2002). Second, considering this study was conducted within a community sample with
relatively low levels of risk, the findings show that even small variation in marital quality and the
emotional environment are linked to child outcomes. And third, this study confirms the influence
of distal family processes on the more direct proximal process of the HLE, and ultimately
children’s skills. It is expected that distal processes will be less strongly associated with child
outcomes than proximal processes, yet their consideration is still vital for a complete picture of
how children’s home environments influence their early literacy skills (Bronfenbrenner &
Morris, 2006).
The Importance of Fathers
The necessity of including fathers in this type of research has been highlighted repeatedly
in the literature (Lamb, 2010; Marsiglio, Amato, Day, & Lamb, 2000), yet this call has gone
largely unanswered when it comes to family process factors that influence children’s early
literacy skills. While mothers continue to be children’s primary caregivers, the roles of fathers
have been changing drastically in the past 50 years (Cabrera et al., 2000). Fathers are
increasingly involved in parenting (Yeung, Sandberg, Davis-Kean, &Hofferth, 2001) and the
results of this study indicate that not including fathers in family research and family interventions
has several significant consequences. Without including fathers in research, our understanding of
42

how families influence child development is incomplete. Further, the results of this study show
that fathers are an important consideration when examining how best to support families of
young children in the face of marital difficulties.
The extant literature suggests that fathers contribute uniquely to child outcomes (Parke,
2002; Stolz, Barber, & Olsen, 2005) and this study adds to this body of research by identifying
specific family factors that are unique for fathers. In this study, I found that fathers’ own
perceptions of their marital relationship uniquely contributed to the emotional environment of the
family, which also uniquely contributed to parent-child interactions within the context of the
HLE, above and beyond that of mothers. This is consistent with research that indicates that the
influence of marital functioning on parenting and the family emotional environment is different
for mothers and fathers (Coiro & Emery, 1998; Jouriles & Farris, 1992). These findings suggest
that, while the marital relationship is important for the family emotional environment for both
mothers and fathers, the process through which this occurs is unique for fathers. This indicates
that theory and interventions based on a body of research almost entirely driven by data for
mothers may not actually be relevant for fathers.
Further, the results of the study indicate that fathers are particularly important for the
relations between the family emotional environment and HLE-related parenting that have been
noted in previous work (Froyen et al., 2013). This is in line with research suggesting that fathers’
parenting is more susceptible to influence from other family systems (Nelson et al., 2009).
Specifically, this study suggests that fathers’ emotional expressiveness, both positive and
negative, is related to the HLE over and above that of mothers. Further, when the unique effect
of fathers is taken into consideration, mothers’ report of the emotional environment is not related
to the HLE. While previous research suggests that mothers’ reports of positive family
43

expressiveness predict their own HLE-related parenting behaviors (Froyen et al. 2013), fathers
were not included in that study. Because the family emotional measure included in these studies
is designed to capture overall family emotions it is possible that the mother’s report of positive
expressiveness in Froyen and colleagues (2013) reflects some unmeasured effect of fathers.
Indeed, research and theory suggests that families have general styles of emotional expression
and that parents generally agree on the expression of emotion that is typical of their families
(Halberstadt, 1996). By including fathers in the current study, I am able to assess the family
emotional environment with greater accuracy by isolating the effect that is unique to fathers
above and beyond the effect of mothers and the shared expressiveness style of the family. In
doing so, I found that it is fathers’ perspective on family emotions that is related to HLE- related
parenting. This is consistent with previous research suggesting that fathers are more likely to
allow affect from one family context to “spillover” into other contexts (Jouriles & Farris, 1992).
This further highlights the importance of including fathers in research that considers the
influence of family factors on child development.
Limitations
Several limitations should be taken into consideration when interpreting the results of the
current study. First, the study sample was relatively homogenous. Although the demographics of
the sample were consistent with the census data for the area, parents in the sample were largely
well-educated and demonstrated relatively low levels of marital conflict and relatively high
marital satisfaction. It is possible the relations among the study variables would have been
different if the current sample had contained more of the risk factors that are often linked to
children’s early outcomes. For example, witnessing highly destructive marital conflict puts
children at greater risk for internalizing and externalizing disorders (Cummings & Davies, 1994;
44

Grych & Fincham, 1993). In addition, the connection between marital dysfunction and disruption
in parenting is stronger for families living in poverty (Buehler & Gerard, 2002). Further,
socioeconomic status is one of the most consistent risk factors that negatively impacts the HLE
and children’s outcomes (Jeynes, 2003; Roopnarine, Fouts, Lamb, & Lewis-Elligan, 2005). In
light of this, it is possible that results of the current study may be even stronger in populations
with more risk factors.
While the current study utilized multiple informants (mother and father) to construct
factors for all family level variables, reporter bias and social desirability are still potentially
problematic. It is possible that parents’ reports of marital functioning, family emotions, and the
HLE are biased (Bradley & Caldwell, 1984; Cummings, Goeke-Morey, & Papp, 2001). Future
work would benefit from the use of observational methodology to assess family level variables,
which may provide a more accurate picture of the family context in which children are
embedded (Cummings et al., 2001; Grych, 2001). In addition, the variables in current study were
collected concurrently and the results are correlational in nature, making it difficult to draw
definitive conclusions on causality (Cummings et al., 2001; Grych, 2001). As such, results
should be interpreted with caution. In the future it will be important to examine these important
family processes from a longitudinal and/or causally oriented perspective.
Practical Implications
The results of the current study emphasize the importance of considering the broader
family influence on children’s early literacy skills and point to potential considerations for
practitioners across multiple settings. Early literacy skills are incredibly important for future
academic success and there is a significant concern that large portions of children entering into
formal schooling are doing so without the skills necessary to succeed (Foster & Miller, 2007;
45

Storch & Whitehurst, 2001; Torgesen, Wagner & Rashotte, 1994). Family-based interventions
targeting children’s early literacy skills typically focus on mothers (Saracho, 2008), but there has
been a call in the literature that these family-based early literacy interventions should also
include fathers (Cabrera et al., 2000). Results of the current study confirm that including fathers
in early literacy interventions may be an important factor in helping the family support children’s
early literacy skills.
Research shows that taking a whole family perspective is important when working with
couples with young children (Faircloth, Schermerhorn, Mitchell, Cummings, & Cummings,
2011). When the findings of the current study are considered within the context of the vast
literature regarding the influence of marital and family functioning on children’s social and
emotional development is considered (Cummings & Davies, 1994), developing more
comprehensive interventions for children and families that target both whole family and child
wellbeing is crucial. Further, this study suggests that targeting certain aspects of broader family
functioning, such as the couple relationship and the family emotional environment, in addition to
the more traditionally-conceptualized HLE, may potentially be beneficial. Specifically, findings
suggest that children of parents experiencing marital dysfunction may benefit from improved
couple functioning.
Psychoeducation-based marital conflict interventions in which parents are made aware of
the effect of marital conflict on child social and emotional development have been successful in
improving marital satisfaction, constructive conflict tactics, and child adjustment (Faircloth et
al., 2011). The results of the current study suggest that couples and young children may also
benefit from psychoeducation regarding the influence of these marital, family, and parenting
factors for children’s academic success. Further, the current study indicates that marital and
46

family factors differ for mothers and fathers and that it will be important to develop interventions
that target these marital and family factors and parent-child interactions in ways that are relevant
for both mothers and fathers. For example, mothers of young children may benefit from
increased awareness of the way that dysfunction in their marital relationship influences how they
perceive positive and negative emotional expressivity in their family. In contrast, for fathers it
may be helpful to highlight the unique importance of their marital satisfaction for positive
expressiveness in the family. Further, fathers may also benefit from learning strategies to prevent
their positive and negative emotions from impacting their parenting, particularly where the HLE
is concerned. While the current study is an excellent starting point, additional research is needed
to fully determine specific marital and family level interventions that may be beneficial to
children’s early literacy skills.
Conclusion
Traditional studies examining home, parent, and family influences on children’s early
literacy have focused almost exclusively on mother report and the immediate home learning
environment. This study demonstrates the importance of taking a whole family perspective when
examining the influence of the family context on children’s early literacy skills. This includes
not only considering the role of the marital and emotional environments, but also the perspective
of both mothers and fathers. Results suggest that the marital relationship is important for
children’s early literacy skills through the influence of both positive and negative family
expressiveness on the HLE. In addition, we found that some of these family processes are
different for mothers and fathers. Notably, the influence of family expressiveness on HLErelated parenting seems to be primarily attributable to the influence of fathers. In sum, these
results suggest that the marital and emotional environment of the family as a whole has
47

important implications for the construction of the HLE that parents provide to children, as well
as children’s early literacy skills.

48

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49

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CHAPTER 3: STUDY TWO
Mothers’ and Fathers’ Depression and Children’s Early Literacy Skills

ABSTRACT
The current study examines the influence of mothers’ and fathers’ depressive symptoms
on preschoolers’ early literacy skills among 630 families. I utilize the Actor-Partner
Interdependence Model within a structural equation modeling framework to examine the relation
between parents’ depressive symptoms and their own and their partner’s home learning related
parenting behaviors. Further, I examine home learning-related parenting as a mediator of the
relation between parent depressive symptoms and children’s early literacy skills. Notably, I find
an actor effect of fathers’ depressive symptoms, but not mothers’, on home learning-related
parenting such that fathers who report more depressive symptoms engage in fewer home learning
activities. I also identify a partner effect of fathers’ depressive symptoms on home learningrelated parenting such that increases in fathers’ depressive symptoms predict decreases in
mothers’ home learning activities. Finally, fathers’ depressive symptoms negatively relate to
children’s early literacy skills by influencing mothers’ home learning-related parenting. Findings
from the present study highlight the importance of considering the potential negative effects of
parent depressive symptoms on children’s early literacy skills. Further, these findings highlight
the importance of including both mothers and fathers in future research, policy, and interventions
concerned with the influence of parents’ depressive symptoms on children’s development.

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Introduction
Parent depression is a growing concern, especially among parents of young children
when prevalence rates are higher for both mothers (Davé. Petersen, Sherr, & Nazareth, 2010;
Hasin, Goodwin, Stinson, & Grant, 2005) and fathers (Paulson & Bazemore, 2010; Paulson,
Dauber, & Leiferman, 2006; Perren, von Wyl, Burgin, Simoni, & von Klitzing, 2005; Pinheiro,
Magalhaes, Horta, Pinheiro, da Silva, & Pinto, 2006) relative to the adult population at large
(Hasin et al.,2005). This elevation in prevalence occurs during the period of development when
children are most susceptible to the negative effects of parent depressive symptoms (Bagner,
Pettit, Lewinsohn, & Seeley, 2010; Ghodsian, Zajicek, & Wolkind, 1984). In addition, research
shows that even sub-clinical levels of parental depressive symptoms have negative implications
for child development as well as nearly all levels of the family system. This includes the marital
relationship, family functioning (Cummings, Keller & Davies, 2005; Goodman, 2007; Goodman,
Rouse, Connell, Broth, Hall & Heyward, 2011; National Research Council and Institute of
Medicine, 2009), and, most pertinent to the current study, parenting (Lovejoy, Graczyk, O’Hare,
& Neuman; 2000). Taken together, these findings suggest that many young children, including
those in a community sample, are embedded in a context of parental depressive symptomatology
that is not conducive to optimal development.
Existing theory and research identify parenting as one of the primary pathways through
which parent depressive symptoms influence child outcomes (see Lovejoy et al., 2000,
Ramchandani & Psychogiou, 2009 and Wilson & Durbin, 2010 for reviews). This large body of
literature suggests that depressive symptoms are associated with an increase in negative
parenting (e.g. hostility, intrusiveness, and negative interactions) and a decrease in positive
parenting (e.g. warmth, sensitivity, and responsiveness; Wilson & Durbin, 2010). Although the
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majority of this literature is based on mother report (see Phares, Fields, Kamboukos, & Lopez,
2005), the few studies that include both mother and father reports indicate that the fathers’ levels
of depressive symptomatology are just as important as mothers’ (Cummings et al., 2005; Papp,
Cummings, & Goeke-Morey, 2005).
This pervasive negative effect on family functioning in general, and parenting
specifically, has significant implications for children who grow up in this environment
(Cummings et al., 2005; National Research Council and Institute of Medicine, 2009). It is well
established in the literature that parent depression increases children’s risk for negative
developmental outcomes (Cummings et al., 2005). Specifically, children of depressed parents
exhibit increased internalizing and externalizing symptoms (Cummings et al., 2005; Downey &
Coyne, 1990). Parent depression is also associated with deficits in social development, with
children of depressed parents demonstrating fewer prosocial skills and an increased risk for peer
exclusion (Cummings et al., 2005). In addition, children of depressed parents are more likely to
experience psychopathology in their lifetime than children of nondepressed parents (Lieb,
Isensee, Hofler, Pfister, & Wittchen, 2002).
There is also reason to believe that parental depressive symptoms would be detrimental to
children’s academic development, particularly their early literacy skills. A number of studies
have suggested that mothers’ depression is negatively related to children’s early literacy
outcomes (Baker & Iruka, 2013; Barbarini et al., 2006; Fagan, 2013; Fagan & Lee, 2013; Foster,
Lambert, Abbot-Shim, McCarty & Franze, 2005; Greenberg, et al., 1999). Specifically, children
of depressed mothers demonstrate less sophisticated early literacy skills than their peers with
non-depressed mothers (Barbarini et al., 2006). One caveat to these findings is that many of these
studies examine the influence of maternal depressive symptoms as a part of a factor comprised of
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several other risk factors (Barbarini et al., 2006; Fagan & Lee, 2013; Foster et al., 2005;
Greenberg, et al., 1999). These findings highlight the ways that maternal depressive symptoms
contribute to overall levels of risk experienced by children, but limit our ability to interpret the
specific role of maternal depressive symptoms in influencing children’s early literacy skills.
Further, this literature is based nearly entirely on maternal report with only one study examining
fathers’ depressive symptoms with in a high-risk sample of adolescent parents (Fagan & Lee,
2013). This study also found a negative relation between fathers’ depressive symptoms and
children’s early literacy skills. Cumulatively, these studies indicate that parent depressive
symptoms may be an important factor for children’s early academic skills.
However, other studies have not supported a direct relationship between mother
depressive symptoms and children’s early literacy (Cabrera, Scott, Fagan, Steward-Streng, &
Chien, 2012; Downer & Pianta, 2006; Son & Morrison, 2010). These findings are surprising
given (1) the consistent, negative relationship noted by others and (2) the fact that several of
these studies utilized subsamples of the same, large-scale national datasets. One possible reason
for these null findings may be that some of these studies simultaneously considered other aspects
of parenting (e.g. sensitivity and supportiveness) that are highly related to maternal depression
and may have masked effects of maternal depression in these studies (Downer & Pianta, 2006).
In addition, these studies exclusively focused on maternal depression. It is possible that an effect
of parent depressive symptoms may have emerged had fathers been included in these studies. In
sum, the lack of consensus on the specific role of mothers’ depressive symptoms on children’s
early literacy, and the paucity of research on fathers, indicates that the relationship between both
parent’s depressive symptoms on child early literacy outcomes is not yet well understood.

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This gap in the literature is significant given that early literacy comprises the set of skills
most consistently linked with future educational and occupational success (Storch & Whitehurst,
2002). Children’s early literacy skills shape future reading development (National Early
Literacy Panel, 2008; Sénéchal, 2006; Storch & Whitehurst, 2002), and have been related to
academic performance in grade school (Denton, West, & Walston, 2003; Duncan et al., 2007)
through young adulthood (Baydar, Brooks-Gunn, & Furstenberg, 1993; Cunningham &
Stanovich, 1997), and is even predictive of career and economic potential (Storch & Whitehurst,
2001). Trajectories of reading development are surprisingly stable, resistant to change, and are
established in the pre-school years (Catts, Bridges, Little, & Tomblin, 2008; Skibbe, Grimm,
Stanton-Chapman, Justice, Pence & Bowles, 2008), indicating that children’s environment prior
to entering formal schooling is important to consider in preparing children for academic learning.
Parents play a crucial role in shaping children’s early literacy skills, and the most
powerful and frequently examined pathway for this influence is the home learning environment
(HLE; Bjorklund, Hubertz, & Reubens, 2004; Bjorklund & Rosenblum, 2001; Cannon &
Ginsburg, 2008; Collins, Maccoby, Steinberg, Hetherington, & Bornstein, 2000; Morrison &
Cooney, 2002; Storch & Whitehurst, 2001). The HLE is often conceptualized as shared-booking
reading alone (Payne, Whitehurst, & Angell, 1994; Scarborough & Dobrich, 1994), however the
construct is in actuality much broader and includes parenting practices that are specifically aimed
at enhancing early educational outcomes such as shared reading, instructional activities, and
educational games (Sénéchal, 2006; Sénéchal & LeFevre, 2002; Whitehurst & Lonigan, 1998).
Further, there is some suggestion in the literature that shared-book reading influences different
skills than other aspects of the HLE (Whitehurst & Lonigan, 1998). While shared reading has
been linked with children’s oral language development (Arnold, Lonigan, Whitehurst & Epstein,
64

1994; Paulson, Keefe, Leiferman, 2009), the literature indicates that the direct teaching activities
parents engage in with their children are of critical importance for explaining the acquisition of
early literacy skills (Sénéchal, LeFevre, Thomas, & Daley, 1998; Storch & Whitehurst, 2001;
Whitehurst & Lonigan, 1998).
Research has shown that maternal depression influences a variety of parenting practices,
including those practices that are conceptualized as a part of the HLE (Kohl, Lengua, &
McMahon, 2000). Specifically, the extant literature indicates that parent-child communication, in
amounts and complexity (Cox, Puckering, Pound, & Mills, 1987; Field, 1995), as well as rates of
shared-reading (Bigatti et al., 2001; Davis, Davis, Freed, & Clark; 2011; Kohl, Lengua, &
McMahon, 2000; Lyons-Ruth, Lyubchik, Wolfe, & Bronfman, 2002), drops precipitously among
depressed mothers. Furthermore, depressed mothers are less likely to engage in other HLErelated parenting behaviors, such as having a regular reading time, taking the child to the library,
and singing to their child (Bigatti et al., 2001). When shared-reading does occur, depressed
mothers read for shorter amounts of time and ask fewer questions during the reading interaction
than non-depressed mothers (Bigatti et al., 2001) In addition, the overall quality of the
interaction is lower than for non-depressed mothers (Reissland, Shepherd, & Herrera, 2003).
However, this research has been relatively limited, particularly when taking into consideration
the subsequent impact of depressed mothers’ HLE-related parenting on children’s early literacy
skills.
While the literature has not fully examined the process through which mothers’
depression influences children’s early literacy, there is some support in the literature that the
HLE may play an important role. Maternal depression has been shown to have a decided
negative effect on both the quantity and quality some of the parenting activities that comprise the
65

HLE and are also related to children’s early literacy (Bigatti et al., 2001; Middleton, Scott, &
Renk, 2009; Son & Morrison, 2010). In one of the few studies to examine the HLE in relation to
parent depression and early literacy, lower levels of maternal depressive symptoms were
associated with greater positive changes in the HLE over time. These positive changes in the
HLE were associated with gains children’s expressive and receptive language skills (Son &
Morrison, 2010). In contrast, other research suggests that the effect of maternal depression on
children’s early literacy is through other aspects of parenting, such as warmth (Baker & Iruka,
2013).
While there is some emerging evidence for the impact of maternal depression on the HLE
and, subsequently, children’s academic abilities, this body of research has primarily focused on
the influence of mothers’ depression, and rarely considers the role of fathers’ depression. The
role fathers play in child development is receiving increasing attention and this research is
showing that fathers contribute in unique ways to children’s development (Downer, Campos,
McWayne, & Gartner, 2008). In addition, research shows that father-child relationships may be
more susceptible to depression than mothers-child relationships (Cabrera, Tamis-LeMonda,
Bradley, Hofferth, & Lamb, 2000; Cummings, Goeke-Morey, & Raymond, 2004). Regarding the
influence of paternal depression on child educational outcomes specifically, there is some
research to indicate that fathers with higher levels of depressive symptoms engage in less sharedreading (Davis et al., 2011; Paulson et al., 2009) and this reduction of shared-reading is linked to
decreases in expressive vocabulary (Paulson et al., 2009), a skill that is closely related to literacy
(Catts, 1993). Taken together, these findings suggests that fathers’ role in supporting children’s
educational outcomes is significant and needs to be considered as part of the HLE that children
experience, particularly when fathers are experiencing depressive symptoms.
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Few studies have jointly considered mothers’ and fathers’ depression on child outcomes
and those that do consider each parent’s interactions with their child separately. While there are
some methodological benefits to this approach (i.e., eliminates the issue of multicollinearity),
family systems and human ecological perspectives advocate for including mothers and fathers in
this research (Bronfenbrenner & Morris, 2006; Lamb, 2010; Marsiglio, Amato, Day, & Lamb,
2000). Research suggests that one parent’s levels of depression can also influence the other
parent’s own level of depression (Brennan, Hammen, Katz, & LeBrocque, 2002; Katz, J., Beach,
S. & Joiner, 1999) and their parenting behaviors (Ponnet, Wouters, Mortelmans, Pasteels, De
Backer, Van Leeuwen, & Van Hiel, 2013). By constructing separate mother and father models,
the relationship between mothers’ and fathers’ depression and their partners’ parenting is not
taken into account. Dyadic data analysis approaches have been proposed as theoretically
appropriate methods that take into account the interdependent nature of these data (Kenny,
Kashy, and Cook, 2006). The Actor-Partner Interdependence Model allows for the simultaneous
examination of the influence of individuals’ depression on their own parenting, termed an actor
effect, and on their partners’ parenting, termed a partner effect (Kenny, 1996). Studies examining
the influence of parent depression on parenting from a dyadic framework are very limited, and
even more so when we are interested in specific actor and partner effects.
The literature is mixed as to whether the effect of depressive symptoms on parenting is
driven largely by one’s own depressive symptoms (i.e. actor effects) or by one’s partner’s
depressive symptoms (i.e. partner effects). Two studies have identified only partner effects for
both mothers and fathers, indicating that, for both parents, depression is more likely to influence
their partners’ parenting rather than their own (Nelson, O’Brien, Blankson, Calkins, and Keance,
2009; Ponnet, Wouters, Mortelmans, Pasteels, De Backer, Van Leeuwen, & Van Hiel, 2012).
67

Conversely, another study found both mothers’ and fathers’ levels of depression influenced both
their own and their partners’ parenting (Malmberg and Flouri, 2011). Regardless, these findings
indicate that both mothers’ and fathers’ parenting is susceptible to depressive symptoms
experienced by their partners.
It is important to note these studies focused on other aspects of parenting, such as support
(Nelson et al., 2009), parent-child communication (Ponnet et al., 2012), and parent-child
relationship quality (Malmberg & Flouri, 2011), rather than the specific parenting behaviors
associated with the HLE. The only other study to date to specifically examine the effect of parent
depressive symptoms on an aspect of parenting related to the HLE (shared reading) from a
dyadic data analysis perspective found that there were only actor effects for fathers and no
partner effects for either mothers or fathers (Paulson et al., 2009). The results of this study
indicated that fathers who reported more depressive symptoms engaged in fewer shared reading
interactions, but mothers’ shared reading was not influenced by their own depressive
symptomatology. This suggests that fathers’ shared reading may be more susceptible to
depressive symptoms than is mothers’. Further, neither mothers’ nor fathers’ depressive
symptoms influenced their partners’ shared reading. This conflicts with other dyadic research on
the nature of the mutual influence of parents’ depressive symptoms on their own and each
other’s parenting, indicating that this process may be unique for some aspects of the HLE.
I will also examine mediating mechanisms within these dyadic data, focusing specifically
on the mediating role of the HLE in the relation between parent depressive symptoms and
children’s early literacy. Mediation models offer the opportunity to examine the possible
pathways through which parent depressive symptoms may influence child outcomes
(Ledermann, Macho, & Kenny, 2011). This is important for gaining an understanding of not only
68

whether parent depressive symptoms influence child early literacy outcomes, but also the process
by which this influence occurs (Ledermann et al., 2011). Paulson and colleagues (2009)
examined the effect of parent depressive symptoms on children’s early outcomes from a
mediation framework, however they focused on children’s language skills. Interestingly, this
study showed that, when both mothers and fathers are considered together, only fathers’
depressive symptoms influenced children’s expressive language and that this relationship was
mediated by shared reading (Paulson et al., 2009). In regards to early literacy specifically, the
pathways through which parent depressive symptoms influence children’s skills have not been
determined.
The Current Study
The current study addresses this gap by approaching these factors from a dyadic approach
to mediation with two primary goals. The first is to examine the influence of parental depressive
symptoms on HLE-related parenting behaviors. I expect that HLE-related parenting will be
associated with parent depressive symptoms. Further, I expect to identify both actor and partner
effects of depressive symptoms on HLE-related parenting behaviors for both parents. The second
goal of this study is to determine whether parent depressive symptoms influence children’s early
literacy skills and if this relationship is mediated by the HLE. Because the HLE is strongly
associated with children’s academics it is hypothesized that parental depressive symptoms will
significantly influence children’s early literacy skills indirectly through the HLE. The results of
this study will advance our understanding of how these complex processes work together to
influence children’s early academic skills.
Method
Participants
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Participants included 788 families with children who attended one of three preschools
associated with a large, Midwestern university. Families and their child were recruited as part of
an ongoing, multi-site study on children’s academic and socioemotional development. Children
were 49% male and the average age was 49 months (SD = 6.8). Parents were generally well
educated, with 52% of mothers and 50% of fathers having attained a bachelor’s degree or higher.
The majority of children were White (80%), however 7% were Asian or Pacific Islander, 2%
were Hispanic or Latino, 3% were Black or African American, and 6.7% were multiracial.
English was the primary language spoken in the majority of homes (92%). The demographics for
children’s race, ethnicity, and primary language are reflective of U.S. census data for the
counties in which the data is collected (U.S. Census Bureau, 2011). Demographic information is
presented in Table 3.1
Procedures
Data collection began in the fall of 2009 and concluded in the spring of 2012. In the fall
of each year, all families associated with three preschools were invited to participate in the
current study. Parents who consented were given a series of questionnaires that assess their
levels of depressive symptomatology and their behaviors related to the HLE that they provided to
children. Seventy-four percent of mothers and 49% of fathers who consented returned the
questionnaires for a final sample size of 629. Independent samples t-tests indicated that there
were no significant differences between the literacy scores of children whose fathers returned the
questionnaires (Letters: M = .17, SD = .96; Decoding: M = 329.82, SD = 27.45; Phonological
Awareness: M = 12.57, SD= 6.10) and fathers who did not (Letters: M = .08, SD = .94, t(563) =
−.55; p = .91; Decoding: M = 328.97, SD = 24.85, t(505) = −.163; p = .49; Phonological
Awareness: M = 12.70, SD = 4.85, t(417) = .098; p = .17).
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TABLE 3.1
Descriptive information of study participants
Child Demographics
Age in Months (N = 625)
Min
Max
Mean
SD

30.94
74.97
48.99
6.88

Gender (N = 600)
Female
Male

306 (51.0%)
294 (49.0%)

Race (N = 614)
Black or African American
White (not Hispanic/not Latino)
Hispanic or Latino
Asian
Multi-racial
Other

16 (2.6%)
489 (79.6%)
14 (2.3%)
45 (7.3%)
41 (6.7%)
9 (1.4%)

Language (N = 629)
English
Korean
Chinese
Spanish
Other

579 (92.1%)
6 (1.0%)
6 (1.0%)
8 (1.3%)
30 (4.6%)

Parent Education

Highest Degree Obtained
Some high school
High school diploma or equivalent
Some college but no degree
College degree or higher

Maternal Education
(N = 589)

Paternal Education
(N = 371)

9 (1.5%)
43 (7.3%)
223 (37.8%)
314 (53.2%)

7 (1.1%)
31 (8.2%)
143 (37.9%)
190 (50.3%)

Similarly, independent samples t-tests indicated that there were no significant differences
between the literacy scores of children whose fathers returned the questionnaires (Letters: M =
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.25, SD = .95; Decoding: M = 332.52, SD = 27.31; Phonological Awareness: M = 12.40, SD =
6.03) and fathers who did not (Letters: M = .03, SD = .96, t(565) = −2.68; p= .83; Decoding: M
= 324.86, SD = 27.30, t(507) = −3.06; p = .59; Phonological Awareness: M = 12.94, SD = 6.02,
t(418) = .847; p = .75). Questionnaires were completed and returned via the mail individually by
mothers and fathers. Trained research assistants assessed children’s early literacy skills
individually in children’s classrooms.
Measures
Parental depressive symptoms. In order to determine the level of depressive
symptomatology experienced by mothers and fathers in the study, parents completed the Patient
Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9; Kroenke, Spitzer, & Williams, 2001). The PHQ-9 is a measure
of depressive symptoms that is based on DSM-IV criteria and corresponds well with depression
diagnoses across clinical and research settings. The PHQ-9 discriminates well between
individuals with and without major depression (.95) and has a test-retest reliability of .84
(Kroenke, Spitzer, & Williams, 2001). Cronbach’s alpha reliability in the current sample was .83
for both mothers and fathers.
Home learning environment. The HLE was measured using mothers’ and fathers’
responses on a subscale of the Parenting Questionnaire (Morrison & Cooney, 2002), which is a
self-report measure of parenting behaviors. The HLE subscale includes seven items such as, “My
child and I play number games such as ‘This Old Man’ and ‘One, Two, Buckle My Shoe’,” and
“How frequently do you teach your child letter sounds.” Parents were asked to rate, on a scale
from 1 to 5, how likely they were to engage in these activities at home. See Froyen and
colleagues (2013) for the full measure. Higher scores indicate that parents provided more
learning activities within their homes. In previous research, the HLE subscale has directly
72

predicted children’s general literacy skills, including letter knowledge and decoding (Hindman &
Morrison, 2012; Morrison & Cooney, 2002). Cronbach’s alpha reliability in the current sample
was .84 for mothers and .83 for fathers.
Early literacy skills. Children completed a battery of three gold-standard assessments:
letter knowledge, phonological awareness, and decoding, which were used to create a latent early
literacy factor. Utilizing a latent factor with multiple indicators to measure early literacy
improves our ability to ensure more reliable and accurate measurement of this construct (von
Oertzen, Hertzog, Lindenberger, & Ghisletta, 2010). Loadings on the early literacy factor were
strong for all three indicators (letter knowledge: .88, p < .001; phonological awareness: .41, p <
.001; decoding: .92, p < .001).
Children’s letter knowledge was measured utilizing a letter identification task wherein
children are asked to identify the name of the uppercase or lowercase letter shown. In fall of
2009 and 2010 children were asked to name all 52 upper and lowercase letters. In the fall of
2011 an eight-item subset of letters was used. This subset contained letters that spanned the
range of the construct and have been used in previous research (Bowles, Pentimonti, Gerde, &
Montroy, 2014; Phillips, Piasta, Anthony, Lonigan, & Francis, 2012). In all years children were
randomly assigned to receive one of eight randomly ordered forms. Rasch scores were
constructed based on previous research (Bowles et al., 2014) so that children’s letter knowledge
could be examined on the same scale regardless of which format of assessment children
received.
Children’s phonological awareness was measured via the Test of Preschool Early
Literacy (TOPEL; Lonigan, Wagner, Torgesen, & Rashotte, 2007). The phonological awareness
subtest of the TOPEL assess children’s blending and elision skills and demonstrates good
73

psychometric properties in the three to five age range, with internal consistency ranging from
0.86 to 0.88 and test-retest reliability of 0.83.
Finally, children’s decoding skills, including their early knowledge of letters, words, and
decoding abilities; were assessed with the Letter-Word Identification subtest of the WoodcockJohnson III Tests of Achievement (WJ-III; Woodcock, McGrew, & Mather, 2001). Reliability
for the Letter-word Identification subtest ranges from 0.96- 0.99 among children aged three to
eight (Woodcock, McGrew, Schrank, & Mather, 2001, 2007).
Analysis Plan
To address the research questions outlined above I constructed an Actor-Partner
Interdependence Model (Kenny, 1996) utilizing structural equation modeling (SEM) to examine
the effect of mothers’ and fathers’ depressive symptoms on their own and each other’s HLE and
children’s early literacy skills. There were additional paths from both mothers’ and fathers’
depressive symptoms to children’s early literacy skills. This model is depicted in Figure 1.
Overall model fit was examined using the chi-square test of absolute fit, the comparative fit
index (CFI), and root mean square error of approximation (RMSEA). These fit indices were
evaluated utilizing the guidelines suggested by Browne and Cudeck (1993) and Hu and Bentler
(1998). In addition to examining overall model fit, the relations between the individual variables
were examined. I also tested whether the effect of depressive symptoms on children’s early
literacy skills was mediated by the HLE for both mothers and fathers using the bootstrapping
approach to indirect effects (Bollen & Stine, 1990). This approach to indirect effects is noted for
being more appropriate in models with complex mediation, such as the model the current study
(Preacher & Hayes, 2008).
Missing data were accounted for using the likelihood-based estimation approach
74

implemented in Mplus. Two variables (decoding and phonological awareness) had missing data
rates above 20% because of limitations in testing time. These data are considered to be missing
completely at random (MCAR; Enders, 2010). In the first year of the study the measure of
depressive symptoms was not included, resulting in missing data for 35% of the families in the
sample. This constitutes planned missingness, which can be considered missing at random and
can be included in the analyses without bias (see Enders, 2010 for review of missing data
mechanisms). Likelihood-based approaches to missing data handle planned missing data well
without sacrificing power (Enders, 2010).
I also performed additional analyses controlling for child gender, race, and parent
education. Child gender and race were not related to any of the study variables, their inclusion
did not alter results, and including them in the model did not improve model fit. While mothers’
education was related to children’s literacy skills and fathers’ education was related to fathers’
own HLE, their inclusion did not change the pattern of results and worsened fit drastically. For
the purposes of parsimony these controls were removed from the final models.
Results
The means, standard deviations, and correlations among variables included in the study
are presented in Table 3.1.
Influence of Parent Depression on HLE-Related Parenting
The model, depicted in Figure 3.1, provided an adequate fit for the data (χ2 = 13.7, df = 8,
p = .09; CFI = .99; TLI = .98; RMSEA = 0.03). The standardized and unstandardized loadings
and regression coefficients are presented in Table 3.2.

75

TABLE 3.2
Means, Standard Deviations, and Intercorrelations of Study Variables (N = 629)
Variables
Min
Max
Mean
SD
1
2
Mother Depression
.00
20.00
2.73
3.47
Father Depression
.00
18.00
2.20
2.99
.13
Mother HLE
1.00
5.00
3.38
.84
-.10
-.22**
Father HLE
1.00
5.00
3.19
.82
-.09
-.21**
Phonological Awareness
.00
26.00
12.59
6.03
-.07
-.09
Decoding
264.00 478.00 329.80 27.29
-.11
-.15
Letters
-1.48
2.76
.1688
.96
-.18** -.20**
Note. * p < .05. ** p < .01

3

4

5

.42**
.08
.26**
.31**

-.03
.20**
.22**

.34**
.28**

6

7

.80** -

Results indicate that there is an actor effect of fathers such that when fathers’ experience more depressive symptoms they
engage in fewer HLE-related parenting behaviors (β = -.19, p < .001), however there was no actor effect of mothers’ depressive
symptoms (β = -.06, p = .32). As for partner effects, higher levels of fathers’ depressive symptoms were related to lower HLE
behaviors for mothers (β = -.18, p < .001), such that when fathers experience more depressive symptoms mothers tend to engage in
fewer HLE-related activities. This constitutes a partner effect for fathers’ depressive symptoms. Conversely, there was no partner
effect of mothers’ depressive symptoms on fathers’ HLE (β = -.05, p = .50). Finally, mother’s HLE significantly predicted children’s
literacy outcomes (β = .24, p <
.001) but the effect of fathers’ HLE on child skills was not significant (β = .10, p = .12).

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TABLE 3.3
Unstandardized, Standardized, Significance Levels for the Model in Figure 3.1 (N = 629)
Pathways
Unstandardized
SE
Standardized
Mother Depression → Mother HLE
-0.01
0.01
-0.06
Mother Depression → Father HLE
-0.01
0.02
-0.05
-0.05
0.02
-0.18
Father Depression → Father HLE
-0.05
0.02
-0.19
Father Depression → Mother HLE
Mother HLE →Early Literacy
0.61
0.16
0.24
Father HLE → Early Literacy
-0.24
0.16
0.10
Mother Depression → Early Literacy
-0.06
0.04
-0.10
Father Depression → Early Literacy
-0.08
0.05
-0.11
Note. X2(8) = 13.7. CFI = .99. TLI = .98. RMSEA = .034.

77

p
.32
.50
.00
.00
.00
.12
.14
.16

FIGURE 3.1. APIM: Effect of Parent Depression on Children’s Early Literacy Mediated by the HLE.
Note. Coefficients are standardized estimates; LNK: Letter Knowledge; PA: Phonological Awareness; * p <.01, ** p <.001;
X2(8) = 13.7. CFI = .99. TLI = .98. RMSEA = .034.

78

Effect of Parent Depression on Children’s Early Literacy Skills
The next step in the analyses examined whether HLE- related parenting behaviors
mediated the relation between parental depressive symptoms and early literacy for mothers
and fathers. First I simultaneously estimated the direct effect of both mothers’ and fathers’
depressive symptoms on children’s early literacy skills. Fathers’ depressive symptoms
significantly predicted children’s early literacy skills (β = -.17, p = .03) when the HLE was
not in the model, but mothers’ depressive symptoms did not (β = -0.12, p = .08). When
mothers’ and fathers’ reports of the HLE were added into the model and mother and father
depressive symptoms was allowed to freely predict their own and each others HLE, and
children’s literacy skills directly, fathers’ depressive symptoms no longer significantly
predicted children’s early literacy skills (β = -0.10, p = .25) and the influence of mothers’
depressive symptoms was also reduced β = -0.11, p = .15). According to the traditional Baron
and Kenny (1986) approach to mediation this constitutes complete mediation. The indirect
effect of mother’s HLE accounts for 23% of the total effect of father’s depressive symptoms
on children’s literacy skills.
I further confirmed the existence of an indirect effect by estimating the indirect effect
and constructing a 95% confidence interval containing the true effect utilizing 10,000
bootstrap samples. Bootstrapping is a resampling procedure that repeatedly resamples from
the dataset to estimate the indirect effect. When this resampling is repeated enough times a
sampling distribution is approximated and used to construct confidence intervals for the
indirect effects of interest. Once constructed, if the confidence interval for the indirect effect
does not contain zero it can be surmised that the indirect effect is significantly different than
zero and is thus significant.
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The estimated indirect effect of fathers’ depressive symptoms on children’s literacy
through mothers’ HLE was -0.035. This implies that children’s early literacy skills are
expected to decrease by .035 for every one standard deviation increase in father’s depressive
symptoms when only mother’s HLE is taken into consideration. Based on 10,000 bootstrap
samples with replacement, the bootstrapped confidence interval did not include a zero (95%
CI: [-0.078, -0.011]), which implies that the estimated indirect effect is significantly different
than zero. This finding suggests that the effect of fathers’ depressive symptoms on children’s
literacy skills is significantly mediated by mothers HLE-related parenting behaviors such that,
when fathers reported higher levels of depressive symptomatology, mothers report engaging
in fewer HLE-related parenting behaviors, which negatively influences children’s early
literacy skills. This finding will be more fully discussed below. It is also important to note
that, in addition to being the only significant indirect effect observed, this indirect effect is at
least 2.5 times the size of the other indirect effects.
Discussion
Previous research has repeatedly noted the deleterious effect of parent depressive
symptoms on a variety of children’s outcomes (Baker & Iruka, 2013; Barbarini et al., 2006;
Cummings, et al., 2005; Fagan & Lee, 2013; National Research Council and Institute of
Medicine, 2009; Paulson, et al., 2009). This study extends previous work by demonstrating
that children’s early literacy skills are negatively impacted by parent depressive symptoms
and that this influence occurs via the HLE. Notably, I found that fathers’ depressive
symptoms negatively influence both their own (actor effect) and mothers’ (partner effects)
HLE related parenting. Further, the influence of fathers’ depressive symptoms on children’s
early literacy skills is through mothers’ HLE-related parenting skills rather than their own.
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The results of this study extend our understanding of both the influence of maternal and
paternal depressive symptoms on children’s early academic skills, and the pathway through
which this influence occurs. Further, these findings highlight the importance of including both
mothers and fathers in studies examining the influence of parents on children’s development.
By including both mothers and fathers I was able to detect a partner effect of depressive
symptoms on HLE-related parenting and determine the pathway through which fathers’
depressive symptoms influence children’s early literacy skills.
Actor Effects
Fathers’ depressive symptoms were related to their own HLE- related parenting
behavior such that higher levels of paternal depressive symptoms were associated with
decreases in their own HLE-related parenting behaviors. Research on the influence of
depression on aspects of parenting outside of the HLE is mixed, with some studies suggesting
actor effects (Malmberg & Flouri, 2011), while others do not (Nelson et al., 2009; Ponnet et
al., 2012). This study suggests that, for fathers at least, depressive symptoms influence their
own HLE-related parenting. These findings confirm previous research in this area showing
that depressive symptoms negatively influence the set of parenting behaviors related to the
HLE (Bigatti et al., 2001, Paulson et al., 2009). There are specific symptoms characteristic of
depression, such as reduced energy and interest in normal activities (American Psychological
Association, 2013) that may directly contribute to changes in parenting.
In contrast, mothers’ own depressive symptoms were not significantly associated with
their own HLE behaviors. This reflects recent meta-analytic findings that suggest that motherchild relationships are less vulnerable to the parents’ own depression than are father-child
relationships (see Lovejoy et al., 2000; Ramchandani & Psychogiou, 2009; Wilson & Durbin,
81

2010, for recent reviews). It has been suggested that, due to traditional gender roles in
parenting, mothers may be less likely, and indeed less able, to withdraw from their parenting
role while experiencing depressive symptoms than are fathers (Paulson et al, 2009).
Partner Effects
While researchers examining other aspects of parenting have observed partner effects
of parent depressive symptomatology, the only other study to investigate the effect of
depressive symptoms on parenting related to the HLE from a dyadic perspective did not
identify a partner effect of depressive symptomatology on HLE-related parenting (Paulson et
al., 2009). These researchers found that the amount of time mothers spent reading to their
children was not related to fathers’ depressive symptoms. In contrast, the current study did
identify a partner effect of fathers’ depressive symptoms on mothers’ HLE-related parenting.
This partner effect indicates that when fathers report higher levels of depressive symptoms
mothers tend to engage in fewer HLE-related parenting behaviors. There are several possible
explanations for this intriguing finding.
Research suggests that parents’ stress increases as their ability to meet the demands of
parenting decreases (Cooper, McLanahan, Meadows, & Brooks-Gunn, 2009) and that parents
in situations often associated with higher parenting stress, such as poverty or parenting a child
with special needs, engage in fewer HLE activities (Marvin & Mirenda, 1993). One reason for
this may be that parents in these stressful situations prioritize more essential parenting, such
as caring for the physical needs of the child, over the less essential parenting associated with
the HLE. In light of this, it is possible that when fathers experience higher levels of depressive
symptoms they may disengage from their parenting roles, essentially denying mothers the
support of a co-parent and forcing the mother to take on more parenting overall. This would
82

potentially force mothers to prioritize more essential parenting tasks and leave less time for
HLE-related parenting.
In contrast to the findings of the current study, previous research has not supported a
partner effect of fathers’ depressive symptoms on mothers’ HLE (Paulson et al., 2009).
However, these authors chose to focus on one aspect of the HLE, shared reading, while I
focused on HLE-related parenting more broadly. While shared reading is a part of our
measure of the HLE, shared reading is only one aspect of the HLE that is frequently linked to
child outcomes (Morrison & Cooney, 2002). Shared book reading is frequently highlighted in
the media, popular parenting sources, and even government initiatives (US DHHS, 2010;
Klass, 2002). Given all of this hype, it is possible that, in the face of fathers’ depressive
symptoms and possible increased parenting responsibilities, mothers may continue to engage
in shared reading while possibly neglecting other domains of the HLE. In sum, this finding is
novel in the literature and broadens our understanding of the complex interaction between
parent depressive symptoms and their own and their partner’s HLE-related parenting.
Influence of Parent Depression on Early Literacy
Despite the preponderance of evidence that the HLE is crucial in preparing young
children for school (Storch & Whitehurst, 2001), we do not currently have a complete
understanding of the influence of parent depressive symptoms on this specific type of
parenting, and how this ultimately impacts children’s early literacy. The current study is the
first to identify fathers’ depressive symptoms as having a significant, negative indirect effect
on children’s early literacy skills. This negative effect was mediated by mothers’ report of
their own HLE-related parenting behaviors such that increases in father depressive symptoms
were related to decreases in mothers’ HLE-related parenting behavior. This decrease in
83

mothers’ HLE-related parenting behaviors as a result of fathers’ depressive symptoms was
related to a decrease in early literacy skills for children in these families. The results of this
study indicate that father’s depressive symptoms constitutes a risk factor for children’s early
literacy skills.
As expected, given the non-clinical nature of the community sample studied, effects of
depressive symptoms were relatively small. However, the results show that even small
differences in fathers’ depressive symptoms have an effect on both mothers’ HLE and,
subsequently, children’s early literacy skills. Current epidemiological research indicates there
is a high prevalence of clinical depression among parents of young children (Davé, Petersen,
Sherr, & Nazareth, 2010; Paulson & Bazemore, 2010), and it is reasonable to assume that
even higher proportions of the population are experiencing symptoms of depression at a
subclinical level, similar to the parents in the current study. This study shows that even
subclinical levels of depression have significant potential to negatively influence children’s
early literacy skills. This is important given research that shows small differences in these
early literacy skills may translate to large differences later in life (Foster & Miller, 2007;
Storch & Whitehurst, 2001; Torgesen, Wagner & Rashotte, 1994).
Limitations
There are several important limitations to consider when interpreting these findings.
The sample was fairly homogenous in terms of race, parent education and levels of depressive
symptoms. It is possible that results would be even stronger in a more ethnically diverse
and/or at-risk sample (Evans, Li, & Whipple, 2013). It is also possible that actor and partner
effects of mothers’ depressive symptoms may emerge in a sample with higher levels of
depressive symptoms as the effects of depression tend to be more subtle in community
84

samples (Gelfand, & Teti,1990; Cummings et al., 2005). In addition, parent measures were
self-report and may be subject to corresponding bias. Future research in the area should
consider obtaining reports from multiple informants, such as partner or clinical diagnostic
reports of depression, and observational methods for the HLE, which would allow for greater
confidence in the veracity of results. Finally, this research examined concurrent data and a
longitudinal research design may be able to further clarify the relationship between parent
depressive symptoms and children’s early academic skills. Taking such an approach may
reveal that the effect of parent depressive symptomatology is additive over time, as indicated
by previous research (Sektnan, McClelland, Acock & Morrison, 2010), such that longer
parents are depressed, the more detrimental that depression is to children’s early literacy
skills. This would be in line with research indicating that living in deleterious circumstances
in a persistent fashion is increasingly detrimental to child development (Evans, 2013).
Practical Implications
This study potentially has important implications for clinicians and practitioners in
both clinical and school settings. The results of this study indicate that children in a typical
community sample may benefit from interventions that target both parent mental health and
the HLE. Indeed research shows that changes in parent depressive symptoms are linked with
changes in the HLE over time (Son & Morrison, 2010). There is also an indication that
parents of young children, especially fathers, may benefit not only from education regarding
the negative effect of even non-clinical depression, but also the effect their depressive
symptoms may have on their partners’ parenting. In addition, this work highlights the
importance of screening for and detecting depressive symptoms among parents of young
children. While increased attention has been given to the incidence and effects of depression
85

in the postnatal period, for both mothers (Zimmer, & Minkovitz, 2003) and fathers (Paulson
& Bazemore, 2010), this study suggests that we should be continuing to screen for parent
depressive symptoms as children age. This is particularly true for fathers whose depressive
symptoms are repeatedly being shown to influence child outcomes (Wilson & Durbin, 2010).
For clinicians working with parents of young children this study highlights the
importance of considering the impact of depressive symptoms on the rest of the family
system. There is some research to suggest that dyadic approaches to treating depression are
more effective and one reason for this may be that the partner of a depressed person may be in
need of additional supports (Gollan, Friedman, & Miller, 2002; Keller, Cummings, Peterson,
& Davies, 2009). In addition, it may be beneficial for clinicians to make their clients aware of
the trickle-down effect of depressive symptoms and provide strategies to buffer their children
from these negative effects. Traditional interventions aimed at enhancing engagement in
HLE-related parenting behaviors often attempt address the contextual barriers to involvement
that parents face, with mixed results (Hindman, Miller, Froyen, & Skibbe, 2012 2012). This
study shows that parent depressive symptoms may be one of these barriers in need of
attention.
Conclusion
Findings from the present study highlight the importance of considering the potential
negative effects of parent depressive symptoms on children’s early literacy skills. As a
complement to research indicating that maternal depression has deleterious effects on child
development (Gelfand, & Teti,1990), this research emphasizes the importance of considering
fathers’ mental health as a factor in children’s early academic wellbeing. Further this study
highlights the interaction between fathers’ mental health and mothers’ parenting. In addition,
86

results show that it is fathers’ depressive symptoms, not mothers’, that influence children’s
early literacy, indicating that by failing to include fathers in research we may not have a
complete picture of how children’s early literacy skills are influenced by parent depressive
symptoms. This study demonstrates that parent depressive symptoms influence the early
literacy skills that set children on the road for academic success, underlining the importance
of early interventions that take context of the child into consideration. This study indicates
that interventions that fail to target fathers specifically have the potential to not be as effective
in increasing the efficacy of the HLE as it relates to children’s skills. These findings have
important implications for policy given the ever increasing concern that large portions of
children entering into formal schooling do not have the skills necessary to succeed (National
Reading Panel, 2000; Storch & Whitehurst, 2001; US DHHS, 2010).

87

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Storch, S. A., & Whitehurst, G. J. (2002). Oral language and code-related precursors to
reading: Evidence from a longitudinal structural model. Developmental Psychology,
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CHAPTER FOUR: CONCLUSION
There is an ever-increasing emphasis placed on ensuring that children are prepared
when they enter into formal schooling. This has to do with the strong relationship between
early skill level and later academic and economic success (National Reading Panel, 2000;
Storch & Whitehurst, 2001). Chief among these skills is early literacy. The skills contained
within the construct of early literacy have been identified as some of the strongest predictors
of future success in both reading specifically and academics generally (Foulin, 2005; National
Reading Panel, 2000; Wagner, Torgesen, & Rashotte, 1994). In addition, these skills are
related to academic success through elementary, middle, and high school; college, and even
future career prospects (Storch & Whitehurst, 2001; 2002). There has been a strong call to
understand the ways we can support this skill set that is crucial to school readiness. One of the
most frequently suggested methods for achieving this is through supporting parents to take an
active role in preparing their children for school (U.S. DHHS, 2010).
The home learning environment (HLE) has been identified as one of the primary ways
we can target these skills. Research overwhelmingly indicates that the HLE- related activities
in which parents engage their children, such as shared-reading and active educational
instruction, are directly related to the skills children display as they transition to formal
schooling (Bjorklund, Hubertz, & Reubens, 2004; Bjorklund & Rosenblum, 2001; Cannon &
Ginsburg, 2008; Collins, Maccoby, Steinberg, Hetherington, & Bornstein, 2000; 2& Cooney,
2001; Storch & Whitehurst, 2002). However, our understanding of how the broader family
system, namely parent mental health, marital functioning, and the emotional environment,
influences both the HLE and children’s subsequent skills is unclear at this time (Belsky &
Fearon, 2004; Froyen, et al., 2013). The studies in the present dissertation contribute
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significantly to our understanding of how these complex family processes influence children’s
early literacy skills.
Family Process and Children’s Early Literacy
Existing research indicates that marital and family functioning and parent mental
health (e.g., depressive symptoms) has a significant impact on children’s overall academic,
social, and emotional wellbeing and development (Cummings & Davies, 2002; Cummings,
Keller & Davies, 2005; National Research Council and Institute of Medicine, 2009). The line
of research contained within this dissertation adds to this literature by demonstrating that
parent and family functioning similarly influence children’s early literacy skills. I first
examine the role of broader family relationships and functioning from the perspective of both
mothers and fathers. Specifically, Study One shows that the quality of the marital relationship
is important for children’s early literacy skills because of its influence on the emotional
atmosphere of the family, which then influences the HLE-related parenting behaviors that
support early literacy skills. This study is in line with previous research suggesting that the
marital relationship influences the broader family emotional environment and general
parenting (Belsky, 1984; Cummings, Davies, & Campbell, 2000; Erel & Burman; 1995).
Further, Study One highlights the importance of considering the family as a whole when
examining contextual factors that influence children’s early literacy.
In Study Two, I consider aspects of each parent’s own individual functioning that may
interfere with children’s early literacy. While past research has linked parental depressive
symptoms to children’s early literacy skills (Baker & Iruka, 2013; Barbarini et al., 2006;
Fagan, 2013; Fagan & Lee, 2013; Foster, Lambert, Abbot-Shim, McCarty & Franze, 2005;
Greenberg, et al., 1999) this literature is based nearly entirely on maternal report with only
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one study examining fathers’ depression (Fagan & Lee, 2013). Study Two showed that
fathers’ depressive symptoms have a significant, negative indirect effect on children’s early
literacy skills. Research examining the influence of both mothers’ and fathers’ depressive
symptoms on the HLE and children’s early outcomes in the same model is scarce. The one
other study to attempt this showed that mothers’ depressive symptoms was not related to the
HLE, as conceptualized by shared-reading (Paulson, Keefe, & Leiferman, 2009). Using a
broader measure of the HLE, Study Two also found that fathers’ depressive symptoms, but
not mothers’, influence the HLE, but we also found that fathers’ depressive symptoms
influences mothers’ HLE. This study shows that the negative effect of fathers’ depressive
symptoms on children’s early literacy skills is through mothers’ HLE-related parenting,
highlighting the importance of including both parents in studies examining parent mental
health and child outcomes. When considered together these studies indicate that
understanding the role of the broader family environment, in terms of mental health, marital
functioning, and family emotions, is critical if we are to support families in fostering their
children’s early literacy skills.
Importance of Including Fathers
Research suggests that a variety of family factors are important for child functioning
in terms of social, emotional, and academic wellbeing (Cummings & Davies, 1994;
Cummings et al., 2005; Grych & Fincham, 1990). However, the majority of this work is
predicated on two core, and possibly unfounded, assumptions that (1) studying only mothers
adequately captures these family factors and (2) fathers do not make a unique contribution to
these family processes (Lamb, 2010). The inclusion of fathers in this line of research
constitutes a significant contribution to the literature in that I identify unique contributions of
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fathers in Study One and highlight the effect of fathers’ depressive symptoms on mothers’
HLE-related parenting in Study Two.
While previous research indicates that the ways in which marital and family
functioning influences child outcomes may differ for mothers and fathers (Coiro & Emery,
1998; Cummings et al., 2005), this research primarily examines these differences in separate
models, an approach that fails to consider the interrelated nature of these data (Kenny, Kashy,
and Cook, 2006). As a result of including fathers in the present studies we can conclude, for
the first time, that fathers make a unique contribution to the way that the family system
influences the HLE and children’s functioning. In Study One, I found differences for how
fathers’ own perceptions of their marital relationship contributed to the emotional
environment of the family and the parent-child interactions within the context of the HLE.
The extant literature suggests that the influence of marital functioning on parenting and the
family emotional environment is different for mothers and fathers (Coiro & Emery, 1998;
Jouriles & Farris, 1992), and this study adds to this body of research by identifying specific
family factors that are unique for fathers. The findings of Study One suggest that, while the
marital relationship is important for setting the tone of the family emotional environment for
both mothers and fathers, the process through which this occurs is unique for fathers.
Specifically, fathers’ with higher relationship satisfaction were more likely to perceive higher
levels of positive expressiveness in their families. In addition, Study One suggests that
fathers’ perceptions of emotional expressivity in the family are particularly crucial for the
HLE. When fathers perceive the home as more positive and less negative both parents report
engage in more HLE-related parenting.

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In Study Two, fathers’ depressive symptoms, but not mothers’, were related to
children’s early literacy skills. While previous research has suggested that fathers’ depressive
symptoms influence children’s early language outcomes through their own HLE (Paulson et
al., 2009), the current study suggests that, at least for early literacy, the deleterious effect of
fathers’ depressive symptoms are through mothers’ HLE. This novel finding is exceedingly
important as it indicates that fathers’ depressive symptoms are not only negatively influencing
their own parenting, but their partners’ as well, and that this has significant implications for
children’s early literacy achievement. In contrast to some previous research, findings from my
work indicate that maternal depressive symptoms were not related to children’s early literacy
outcomes, or to the HLE. Taken together, the results of these two studies highlight the
importance of approaching research that examines family influences on children’s early
academic skills from a whole family perspective and that including fathers in this work is
crucial if we are to fully understand these family processes.
Contributions to Theory
Family systems theory, the bioecological model of human development, and family
process models (Belsky, 1984; Bronfenbrenner & Morris, 2006; von Bertalanffy, 1976)
heavily informed the studies contained within the current dissertation. I utilized these theories
to inform a conceptual framework developed for this dissertation, which then served to guide
the goals of the two studies (Figure 1.3). The findings of this dissertation are in line with
current conceptualizations of family systems and human ecological theory that suggest that
individuals are influenced by the systems that surround them (Bronfenbrenner & Morris,
2006; von Bertalanffy, 1976). In addition, these studies lend support to the appropriateness of

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the use of these theories when examining the influence of the family on children’s early
literacy.
Study One identifies marital and family emotional functioning as factors that influence
children’s early literacy skills, highlighting the importance of considering the family
microsystem as a whole in children’s early literacy achievement. Previous research on the role
of the family in children’s early literacy has focused almost exclusively on the proximal
processes contained within the HLE (Belsky & Fearon, 2004; Froyen et al. 2013). This study
broadens the scope of this work and confirms the theoretical supposition that more distal
processes are also important for children’s early development (Bronfenbrenner & Morris,
2006).
Study Two demonstrates that individual parent functioning, in the form of depressive
symptomatology, also influences children’s early literacy skills by directly impacting parentchild educational interactions. The results of the second study fit with human ecological and
family systems theories and family process models (Belsky, 1984; Bronfenbrenner & Morris,
2006; von Bertalanffy, 1976) by highlighting the often-complex ways that children are
influenced by the systems in which they are embedded. Further, Study Two highlights the
transactional nature of these relationships, with fathers’ depressive symptoms influencing
children not through their own HLE, but by influencing mothers’ HLE.
Collectively the findings of the current studies confirm the accuracy of family process
models (Belsky, 1984; Cummings et al., 2000), which propose parenting as one of the
primary ways that disturbances in other parts of the family system trickle down to children.
Previous research has confirmed that various aspects of parenting, such as warmth and
discipline, are one of the paths through which family and individual parent functioning
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influences child outcomes (Cummings et al., 2000; Erel & Burman; 1995; Wilson & Durbin,
2010). However, HLE-related parenting behaviors are often not included in
conceptualizations of parenting in studies that investigate the role of marital and family
emotional functioning in child wellbeing (Froyen et al., 2013). There is a preponderance of
research to support the role of the HLE in children’s early academic skills (Storch &
Whitehurst, 2001), but there is an obvious disconnect between this literature and the marriage
and family literatures.
Study One attempts to bridge these two literatures and demonstrates that these
marriage and family processes influence HLE-related parenting in much the same way as they
influence other aspects of parenting. While there is some previous research to confirm the
influence of parent depressive symptoms on HLE-related parenting (Paulson et al., 2009),
Study Two shows that father’s mental health not only influences his own HLE- related
parenting, but his partners’ as well, confirming the mutual influence of co-parenting dyads
suggested by family process models (Belsky, 1984; Cummings et al., 2005). Taken together,
these findings suggest that family process models are also relevant for HLE-related parenting
behaviors and children’s early literacy outcomes.
Implications
While the size of the indirect effects for these two studies are small, there are three
crucial factors to consider when interpreting these results. First, and foremost, the early
literacy indicates that gaps in these skills widen with age (Foster & Miller, 2007; Torgesen,
Wagner & Rashotte, 1994). Early intervention studies suggest that the gains made in literacy
skills in early childhood hold as children age and may prevent long-term literacy challenges
(Cartledge, Yurick, Singh, Keyes, & Kourea, 2011; Berrninger, Abbott, Vermeulen, Ogier,
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Brooksher, & Zook, 2002; Vellutino, Scanlon, & Jaccard, 2003; Vellutino, Scanlon, Sipay,
Small, Pratt, & Chen, 1996). The results of these studies are significant as they identify
specific family processes that are either supportive or detrimental to children’s early literacy
skills. Any factor that is protective for these skills has the potential to strongly influence later
literacy skills that are crucial to academic and economic success (Storch & Whitehurst, 2001;
2002). Second, this study focused on a community sample with relatively low levels of risk,
yet the results indicate that even small variation in depressive symptoms, marital quality, and
the emotional environment are linked to child outcomes. And finally, this study confirms the
influence of distal family processes on the more direct proximal process of the HLE, and
ultimately children’s early literacy skills. It is expected that proximal processes will be more
strongly associated with child outcomes than distal processes, yet these works indicate that
the consideration of these distal processes is vital for a complete picture of how families
influence preschoolers’ early literacy skills (Bronfenbrenner & Morris, 2006).
Practice. The results of the current dissertation emphasize the importance of
considering the broader family influence on children’s early literacy skills and point to
potential considerations for practitioners across multiple settings. Early literacy skills are
incredibly important for future academic success and there is a significant concern that large
portions of children entering into formal schooling are doing so without the skills necessary to
succeed (Foster & Miller, 2007; Storch & Whitehurst, 2002; Torgesen, Wagner & Rashotte,
1994). Family-based interventions targeting children’s early literacy skills typically focus on
mothers (Saracho, 2008) irrespective of the fact that the necessity of including fathers has
been highlighted in the literature (Cabrera, Tamis-LeMonda, Bradley, Hofferth, & Lamb,
2000). The results of the current study underscore the importance of including fathers in
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interventions. Further, the results of these studies indicate that children may benefit from
interventions that target both parent and family functioning, particularly as these constructs
relate to the HLE.
Specifically, Study One indicates that it will be important to develop interventions that
target marital and family processes and parent-child interactions in ways that are relevant for
both mothers and fathers. Study Two also highlights the importance of considering the impact
of one parent’s depressive symptoms on the rest of the family system. Research shows that
taking a whole family systems perspective is important when working with couples with
young children (Faircloth, Schermerhorn, Mitchell, Cummings, & Cummings, 2011). This
recommendation seems particularly justified given the findings of the current studies. When
considered together, these studies suggest that couples, families, and young children may
benefit from psychoeducation regarding the negative effect of even low levels of marital
dysfunction and/or depressive symptoms on children’s academic success. Additionally, results
suggest that parents may benefit from learning specific strategies for managing the multitude
of stressors present in the lives of families with young children in order to prevent those
stressors from impacting children’s early academic success.
In addition, these works suggest that practitioners need to be aware of factors that may
interfere with family functioning, parenting, and child outcomes, even when these factors are
not severe enough to be considered clinical in nature. For clinicians working with parents of
young children these studies highlight the importance of considering the impact of depressive
symptoms and marital distress on the rest of the family system and, more specifically, their
HLE-related parenting behaviors, especially when young children are present in the home.
For teachers, these studies highlight the importance of considering the child as a whole person
106

embedded in a family context that may be influencing their performance in school. In cases
where a child is struggling it will be crucial to investigate how the child, and the family, could
benefit from more comprehensive and integrated supports.
Future research. As a whole, these studies suggest it may be useful for researchers
interested in examining the role of the HLE in fostering children’s skills to begin approaching
these studies from a family process perspective that conceptualizes HLE-related parenting as
being embedded in a context of broader family functioning. The use of observational
methodologies would add to the robustness of future studies in this area (Bradley & Caldwell,
1984; Cummings, Goeke-Morey, & Papp, 2001; Grych, 2001. In order for these findings to be
generalized to the broader population, it will be critical for these family processes to be
investigated in samples that are more diverse in terms of demographics, and more at-risk in
terms of parent depression and marital conflict. It is possible that in samples with clinical
levels on these factors we may see effects differ in strength or pattern. It will also be
important for future work to begin to examine these findings within research designs that will
allow for conclusions about causality to be made (Cummings, et al., 2001; Grych, 2001).
Finally, as more research in this area is conducted, the field should begin to translate this
research into meaningful, family-based interventions that target whole child wellbeing.

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