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The problem
Intervention: Home learning environment (psychosocial stimulation through learning activities, books, and cognitive engagement at home)
Who it was tested with: 15,623 UK children and their parents from the Millennium Cohort Study, followed from 9 months to 5 years of age.
Children or communities are compared with a group that did not receive the intervention, or followed over years. This is the design that best separates what the intervention did from everything else that changed.
"Structural equation modelling indicated that the HLE significantly mediated the negative associations between PMH and children's cognitive abilities (mother: β = -0.01, 95% CI [-0.01, -0.01], p < 0.001; father: β = -0.004, 95% CI [-0.008, -0.001], p = 0.025), socio-emotional functioning (mother: β = -0.01, 95% CI [-0.01, -0.01], p < 0.001; father, β = -0.004, 95% CI [-0.007, -0.001], p = 0.022), and language skills." This longitudinal design with three measurement points strengthens the inference that the home learning environment is a pathway through which parental mental health affects child development.
Reliance on parent-reported measures for mental health and home learning environment; observational design cannot establish causation; specific to UK context; does not measure quality of positive parenting directly but uses home learning environment as proxy
Across countries and designs
2 studies · 3 countries
