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.
Read
