英文摘要 |
Family is the starting point of life for every child. The interactions among family members and the events that occur within the home significantly impact a child’s development. Therefore, understanding the early family environments that can significantly impact children’s cognitive development before the age of two is a crucial area of research. This study explores the effects of the family environment at 6 months old on children’s cognitive development trajectories from 6 to 24 months of age. Using data from the“Kids in Taiwan: National Longitudinal Study of Child Development and Care—3-month-old cohort,”we used a latent growth model to investigate the onset of cognitive development in infants at 6 months old and the growth trend of their cognitive development up to 24 months old. Moreover, a conditional latent growth model was used to further investigate the effects of early family environment factors on cognitive development in infants. The results showed that the cognitive development of the infants demonstrated linear growth. Of the family variables measured at 6-months old, environmental diversity, learning materials, learning stimuli, and parental responsivity had a significant relationship with the initial status of cognitive ability in infants at 6 months old and also had positive effects on subsequent growth trajectories. Conditional discipline, meanwhile, was shown to have negative effects on growth trajectories. This study used nationally representative samples to investigate the cognitive development trajectories of Taiwanese infants under two years to comprehensively explore how different family environment variables might affect the growth trajectory differently. Our results provide evidence-based guidance for educators designing intervention programs to facilitate young children’s cognitive development and serves as an empirical theoretical basis for governmental agencies in providing parental education programs. |