Monogr Soc Res Child Dev. 2013 Oct;78(5):1-150, vii. doi: 10.1111/mono.12046.
About 20% of children in the United States have been reported to live in rural communities, with child poverty rates higher and geographic isolation from resources greater than in urban communities. There have been surprisingly few studies of children living in rural communities, especially poor rural communities. The Family Life Project helped fill this gap by using an epidemiological design to recruit and study a representative sample of every baby born to a mother who resided in one of six poor rural counties over a 1-year period, oversampling for poverty and African American. 1,292 children were followed from birth to 36 months of age. This monograph described these children and used a cumulative risk model to examine the relation between social risk and children's executive functioning, language development, and behavioral competence at 36 months. Using both the Family Process Model of development and the Family Investment Model of development, observed parenting was examined over time in relation to child functioning at 36 months. Different aspects of observed parenting were examined as mediators/moderators of risk in predicting child outcomes. Results suggested that cumulative risk was important in predicting all three major domains of child outcomes and that positive and negative parenting and maternal language complexity were mediators of these relations. Maternal positive parenting was found to be a buffer for the most risky families in predicting behavioral competence. In a final model using both family process and investment measures, there was evidence of mediation but with little evidence of the specificity of parenting for particular outcomes. Discussion focused on the importance of cumulative risk and parenting in understanding child competence in rural poverty and the implications for possible intervention strategies that might be effective in maximizing the early development of these children.
据报道，美国约有 20%的儿童居住在农村社区，其儿童贫困率高于城市社区，与资源的地理隔离程度也大于城市社区。尽管居住在农村社区的儿童，尤其是贫困农村社区的儿童，数量之少令人惊讶，但针对他们的研究却少之又少。家庭生活项目通过采用流行病学设计，招募并研究了在一年期间居住在六个贫困农村县中的每位母亲所生的每一个婴儿，对贫困和非裔美国儿童进行了超额抽样，从而填补了这一空白。1292 名儿童从出生到 36 个月大时一直被跟踪。这份专题论文描述了这些儿童，并使用累积风险模型来检查社会风险与儿童执行功能、语言发展和 36 个月时的行为能力之间的关系。该研究使用家庭发展过程模型和家庭发展投资模型，考察了在 36 个月时与儿童功能相关的随时间变化的观察性养育方式。观察到的养育方式的不同方面被作为风险预测儿童结果的中介/调节因素进行了研究。结果表明，累积风险对预测儿童三个主要领域的结果非常重要，积极和消极的养育方式以及母亲语言复杂性是这些关系的中介因素。发现积极的母亲养育方式对预测行为能力方面最具风险的家庭具有缓冲作用。在一个同时使用家庭过程和投资措施的最终模型中，有证据表明存在中介作用，但几乎没有证据表明养育方式对特定结果的特异性。讨论重点关注了累积风险和养育方式在理解农村贫困儿童能力方面的重要性，以及对可能有效的干预策略的影响，这些策略可能会有效促进这些儿童的早期发展。
