Table 4.
Predictors of child’s health, physical growth, and cognitive development (weighted means and standard deviations reported; significance tests relative to Whites)
| Ethnic groups | Latino children | Statistical differences viz. Whitesa | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Asian and Pacific Islander | African-American | White | Mexican-American | Other Latinas | Spanish speaking | English speaking | Mexican-American | Other Latinas | Latino children: Spanish speaking | Latino children: English speaking | |
| Mother’s prenatal practices and early feeding (n = 8,422) | |||||||||||
| Smoked in last trimester (packs reported per 1,000 mothers) | 8 | 35 | 70 | 7 | 18 | 1 | 25 | 64.62*** | 1.05 | 95.45*** | 6.73** |
| Drank alcohol at least once per week, last trimester (per 10,000 mothers) | 75 | 66 | 161 | 16 | 94 | 0 | 87 | 13.34*** | 0.50 | 4.40* | 3.66 |
| Breastfed infant in last 7 days (% at 9-month interview) | 23 | 7 | 18 | 17 | 14 | 20 | 12 | 0.91 | 3.06 | 0.42 | 13.07*** |
| Feeds unhealthy beverages: soda, artificial juice (%) | 19 | 32 | 20 | 39 | 22 | 40 | 26 | 65.95*** | 2.21 | 68.13*** | 6.86** |
| Maternal relationships, support, mental health (at 9 months) | |||||||||||
| Father resident in home (%) | 90 | 44 | 90 | 83 | 76 | 85 | 75 | 35.56*** | 32.29*** | 7.39** | 77.36*** |
| Mother employed (%): | |||||||||||
| Full-time | 35 | 41 | 31 | 26 | 36 | 26 | 36 | 0.94 | 0.20 | 5.62* | 5.79* |
| Part-time | 14 | 16 | 24 | 13 | 18 | 13 | 16 | 20.44*** | 2.51 | 22.37*** | 6.84** |
| Ratio of childen:adult resident in the home (%) | 0.9 | 1.5 | 1.0 | 1.1 | 0.9 | 1.0 | 1.2 | 1.26 | 1.38 | −0.18 | 2.58 |
| Mother’s closeness to own mother (% close or very close) | 96 | 95 | 93 | 90 | 91 | 88 | 92 | 12.00*** | 0.01 | 12.30*** | 3.16 |
| Mother’s efficacy in raising child (% reporting “very difficult”) | 9 | 7 | 6 | 8 | 11 | 10 | 7 | 2.61 | 0.53 | 3.29 | 0.57 |
| Mental health, depressive symptoms CESD score | 16.8 (5.0) | 18.5 (6.1) | 16.7 (5.2) | 16.8 (5.8) | 16.5 (5.5) | 16.3 (5.6) | 17.2 (5.6) | 1.22 | −1.30 | −0.11 | 2.58 |
| Parental discipline and pre-literacy practices (at 9 months) | |||||||||||
| Mother punishes misbehavior (%) | 60 | 63 | 60 | 56 | 56 | 56 | 52 | 3.71 | 0.22 | 1.18 | 3.66 |
| Harsh discipline index score (1–3) | 0.5 0.7) | 0.9 (0.8) | 0.6 (0.7) | 0.4 (0.6) | 0.4 (0.7) | 0.4 (0.6) | 0.5 (0.7) | −5.56*** | −0.14 | −7.26*** | −1.41 |
| Preliteracy—reading, storytelling, singing index score (24 months) | 9.3 (2.0) | 8.7 (1.9) | 9.8 (1.8) | 8.4 (2.1) | 8.6 (2.0) | 8.0 (2.0) | 9.1 (1.9) | −12.88*** | −3.59*** | −14.03*** | −5.43*** |
| NCATS teaching-task scores: | |||||||||||
| Praises effort, encouragement | 2.0 (1.9) | 1.8 (1.8) | 2.1 (1.9) | 1.8 (1.8) | 2.0 (1.8) | 1.6 (1.7) | 2.0 (2.0) | −5.01*** | −1.29 | −5.03*** | −0.98 |
| Responds to child distress | 4.2 (1.6) | 3.8 (1.7) | 3.9 (1.6) | 3.8 (1.7) | 3.8 (1.5) | 3.6 (1.7) | 4.0 (1.6) | −2.85** | −1.42 | −4.19*** | 0.06 |
| Mother–father SES, standardized z-scores | 0.4 (0.9) | −0.5 (0.8) | 0.2 (0.8) | −0.7 (0.6) | −0.3 (0.7) | −0.7 (0.6) | −0.3 (0.7) | −26.74*** | −5.58*** | −31.63*** | −10.97*** |
| Acculturation indicators (at 9 months) | |||||||||||
| Dominant language spoken in the home (%): | |||||||||||
| English | 47 | 96 | 97 | 33 | 41 | – | – | – | – | – | – |
| Spanish | 0 | 0 | 0 | 40 | 39 | – | – | – | – | – | – |
| Other Language | 53 | 4 | 3 | 25 | 18 | – | – | – | – | – | – |
| Mother, foreign born (%) | 71 | 10 | 5 | 64 | 63 | 90 | 19 | 937.55*** | 134.41*** | 1583.89*** | 41.42*** |
| Years resident in the U.S.b | 17.7 (11.2) | 24.4 (7.6) | 28.3 (7.4) | 16.7 (10.5) | 17.3 (10.7) | 10.5 (8.2) | 24.2 (7.6) | −28.96*** | −6.83*** | −41.94*** | −7.63*** |
aReporting t-values for continuous variables; chi-square statistics for binary variables. * P < .05, ** P < .01, *** P < .001
bIf mother is native born, then years resident in the United States is set to her age