Paternal and Maternal Cognitive Engagement and Preschoolers’ Literacy Skills Across Six Ethnic Groups in Suriname

Abstract

Using propositions in cultural-ecological and maternal and paternal engagement models, this study utilized the 2018 UNICEF Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys to examine which sociodemographic factors were associated with fathers’ and mothers’ cognitive engagement and the associations between parental and maternal cognitive engagement and preschoolers’ literacy skills in Amerindian, Maroon, Creole, Javanese, Hindustani, and Mixed-ethnic families in Suriname (N = 1,008). After establishing measurement invariance in constructs across ethnic groups, analyses revealed few consistent sociodemographic predictors of paternal and maternal cognitive engagement. Patterns of associations between paternal and maternal cognitive engagement and children’s literacy skills were not uniform across ethnic groups. Data have implications for understanding mothers’ and fathers’ contributions to children’s early literacy skills development and for developing parenting intervention programs in Suriname.

Keywords

paternal maternal cognitive engagement literacy skills Suriname

After decades of research on parent-child relationships across Caribbean Community (CARICOM) countries, the general focus remains on the harmful effects of family structural living arrangements and harsh parenting on childhood development (Anderson & Daley, 2015; Bailey et al., 2014; Leo-Rhynie & Brown, 2013; Lie-a-Ling et al., 2018; Roopnarine & Jin, 2016). This line of inquiry has largely ignored the factors that might have an impact on positive paternal and maternal engagement and their associations with children’s cognitive and social skills across CARICOM countries. Positive parenting encompasses a strength-based approach that identifies protective factors within families that may attenuate early risks to children living under difficult social and economic circumstances (Engle et al., 2013; Shonkoff, 2010; World Health Organization [WHO], 2010), and aligns well with the preventative science approach to addressing difficulties associated with early parenting and childhood outcomes (Conger et al., 2002; Masten, 2001). In this study, we used the latest United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys (MICS; 2018) to examine (a) which among common sociodemographic factors are associated with paternal and maternal cognitive engagement with preschoolers and (b) the associations between paternal and maternal cognitive engagement activities and preschoolers’ literacy skills across six ethnic groups in the CARICOM country of Suriname.

Research on diverse ethnic/cultural groups (e.g., African Americans, Hispanic Americans, and European Americans) in the United States indicates that the frequency and quality of paternal and maternal cognitive engagement activities, such as book reading, storytelling, and counting/naming objects, are positively associated with early literacy and numeracy skills, grades, and standardized achievement scores during the early and middle childhood periods (Baker, 2016; McWayne et al., 2013; Varghese & Wachen, 2016). This body of work has also indicated that there are strong associations between socioeconomic status and father presence and parental cognitive engagement with young children (McWayne et al., 2013). Paying particular attention to these relations, researchers in the United States and Europe have stressed the importance of early parental cognitive engagement during the preschool period for setting children on a good path to successful transition to formal schooling and for academic success (Mistry et al., 2004; Shonkoff, 2010). Whether these associations hold for families in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) is far from clear. Data on connections between parental cognitive engagement and children’s early language skills in LMICs would be useful in informing parenting programs and policies that aim to attend to antecedent risks to early schooling in economically challenging home environments (Ricketts & Anderson, 2008).

With greater emphasis on positive parenting as a promising practice for alleviating cognitive and social risks to young children in LMICs (Devlin et al., 2018; WHO, 2010), a few studies have provided preliminary insights into childrearing practices and childhood outcomes across CARICOM countries. A comparative analysis of families in Barbados, Belize, the Dominican Republic, Guyana, Jamaica, and Suriname showed inconsistent pathways of associations between paternal and maternal engagement activities and children’s literacy skills across these countries (Dede Yildirim & Roopnarine, 2017). Maternal cognitive engagement was positively associated with children’s literacy skills in Guyana, the Dominican Republic, and Belize, and paternal engagement was positively associated with children’s literacy skills in Barbados and Guyana only (Dede Yildirim & Roopnarine, 2017). In another study, paternal cognitive engagement was positively associated with children’s literacy skills among Indo- and Mixed-ethnic but not African-Caribbean families in Trinidad and Tobago (Roopnarine & Dede Yildirim, 2019a). These two studies also showed that family material resources and father presence in the home were favorably associated with maternal and paternal cognitive engagement activities with children but not uniformly so across cultural groups (Roopnarine & Dede Yildirim, 2019a).

Apart from the limited and inconsistent findings on childrearing practices and childhood outcomes, few studies have assessed the associations between father cognitive engagement activities and children’s early language skills in Caribbean families (see Anderson & Daley, 2015).The CARICOM country of Suriname presents a distinctive set of circumstances and characteristics to further assess the links between maternal and paternal engagement activities and children’s literacy skills among diverse ethnic groups. Suriname is one of the poorest nations in South America with a declining GDP and a high rate of poverty (United Nations Development Program, 2018). Although Suriname has a history of colonization, and social and economic characteristics that resemble those of other countries in the CARICOM, its diverse population, multilingual character, and ethnoreligious practices distinguish it from most other countries in the region. Suriname consists of indigenous people or Amerindians (4%), Creoles (African/White) and Maroons of African ancestry who are the descendants of enslaved people (37%), Indians (Hindustani, 27%), and Javanese (14%) who were both brought as contract laborers after slavery was abolished, and individuals of mixed-ethnic ancestry (13%), the result of interethnic marriages and relationships (World Population Review, Suriname, 2020). Among the different ethnic groups, the Maroons and Amerindians are the most socially isolated and economically vulnerable individuals in Suriname. The official language is Dutch, but Javanese Surinamese, Sarnami Hindustani, and Saramaccan are spoken as well. Surinamese embrace diverse religious practices embedded in Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, Winti, and Javanist principles, all having an influence on childrearing patterns within and between ethnic groups.

Despite their cultural and linguistic diversity, when it comes to parenting, Surinamese parents have some notable commonalities with those of mothers and fathers in other CARICOM countries. A predominant aspect of parenting across Caribbean countries (e.g., Barbados, Guyana, Jamaica, and Trinidad and Tobago) is the use of a combination of warmth and harshness during childrearing (Griffith & Grolnick, 2014; Roopnarine et al., 2014), and harsh parenting practices in the form of physical punishment and denigration have been documented among Maroons, Creoles, and Hindustanis in Suriname (Marshall & van der Wolf, 2013; van der Kooij et al., 2015, 2017, 2018). The use of harsh parenting not only undermines meaningful cognitive and social engagement with young children in the Caribbean region (Roopnarine et al., 2014), but as in other cultural communities around the world, it has detrimental effects on their social and cognitive development (see Roopnarine & Dede Yildirim, 2019b, for review).

Another area of overlap between Surinamese families and those in other CARICOM countries is in the domain of father involvement. Because of gender-based ideologies and marital and mating patterns (e.g., visiting unions, mate shifting), men have remained secondary to childrearing (Anderson & Daley, 2015; Chevannes, 2001). Research shows that among common-law, single-earner couples in Jamaica, mothers spent 2.46 hours in feeding (fathers 0.83), 1.97 hours washing/cleaning (fathers 0.37), and 3.7 hours holding/playing (fathers 2.6) with infants (Roopnarine et al., 1995), and across Barbados, Belize, the Dominican Republic, Guyana, Jamaica, and Suriname, between 5% and 33% of fathers (26% and 81% of mothers) engaged in book reading, between 7% and 26% (32% and 76% of mothers) told stories to children, and between 9% and 36% (27% and 83% of mothers) counted/named objects with preschool-aged children. The lowest level of paternal engagement occurred in Suriname (Dede Yildirim & Roopnarine, 2017). It is also worth mentioning that across Caribbean countries mothers and fathers strongly endorse and emphasize the acquisition of academic over social skills making these data all the more important for exploring the benefits of parental cognitive engagement for children during the preschool period (Leo-Rhynie et al., 2009).

No doubt we have made progress in uncovering key parenting practices in Caribbean countries. However, to better understand the benefits of positive parenting more broadly in the Caribbean, we need to determine whether pathways of associations between maternal and paternal cognitive engagement and childhood development are similar across multiple ethnic groups who have distinct practices but share a national cultural space. Accordingly, we examined associations between a set of sociodemographic factors and fathers’ and mothers’ cognitive engagement and between fathers’ and mothers’ cognitive engagement and preschoolers’ literacy skills in Amerindian, Maroon, Creole, Javanese, Indian (Hindustani), and Mixed-ethnic families in Suriname. Following emphasis on the benefits of positive parenting (Devlin et al., 2018) our parental cognitive engagement construct consisted of book reading, storytelling, and counting/naming because these stimulation activities often involve the rich use of verbal narratives and each is associated with early language skills development in children (Duursma, 2014; Evans & Shaw, 2008; Mol & Bus, 2011). The child literacy measure consisted of activities (e.g., ability to name/identify letters in the alphabet, read simple words) that reflect early language skills necessary for academic success during formal schooling (Duursma, 2014; Evans & Shaw, 2008). In view of associations between household wealth, educational attainment, rural-urban residence, number of books in the home, marital status, and child gender and parental engagement with children and childhood outcomes in LMICs (Dede Yildirim & Roopnarine, 2017; Wolf & McCoy, 2019), these sociodemographic factors were entered in our assessment model as covariates (see Figure 1).

Figure 1.

The associations between mothers’ and fathers’ cognitive engagement and children’s literacy skills.

This study was guided by complimentary propositions in three major conceptual frameworks that all focus on the quality of parental engagement: cultural ecological model (Whiting & Whiting, 1975), early parenting and literacy model (Morrison & Cooney, 2002), and paternal involvement frameworks (Cabrera et al., 2007; Pleck, 2010). The cultural ecological model (Whiting & Whiting, 1975) has been used widely to catalog within and between culture variations in parenting by considering diverse factors within the developmental niche of children such as opportunities and hazards in the geographical setting, economic resources of families, the immediate learning environment of children, and ethnotheories or cognitions regarding socialization goals and practices of diverse caregivers (Whiting & Whiting, 1975). The early parenting and literacy model considers the home learning environment and the material and educational resources within it as critical for promoting children’s early learning and cognitive competence (Haveman & Wolfe, 1994; Morrison & Cooney, 2002). It is well documented that the quality of parental cognitive and language exchanges can facilitate or undermine early literacy skills development (Duursma, 2014; Mol & Bus, 2011). In a similar vein, but with a greater focus on fathers, Pleck (2010) and others (e.g., Cabrera et al., 2007) stress the importance of examining the characteristics of fathers and the qualitative aspects of father-child engagement activities in different cultural communities. Whereas much of the early work on fathering focused on levels of involvement (see volumes by Lamb, 2010; Shwalb et al., 2013), more recent research has explored the links between residential status, economic hardship, and father-child emotional and cognitive engagement and childhood development (e.g., Roopnarine & Dede Yildirim, 2019b). Increasingly, we have determined the contributions of fathers to childhood development in different cultural communities.

Based on tenets in the aforementioned frameworks (Whiting & Whiting, 1975), and on findings regarding the importance of socioeconomic conditions and different modes of paternal and maternal engagement for children’s cognitive and literacy skills development (Dede Yildirim & Roopnarine, 2017; Duursma, 2014; McMunn et al., 2015; Mol & Bus, 2011; Wolf & McCoy, 2019), we propose two hypotheses. It is predicted that across the six ethnic groups, household wealth, marital status, number of books in the home, educational attainment, and area of residence will all be positively associated with paternal and maternal cognitive engagement and children’s literacy skills. Bearing in mind the higher levels of involvement with young children by mothers compared with fathers in different ethnic groups in Caribbean cultural communities (Roopnarine, 2013; Chevannes, 2001; Roopnarine, 2013), we further hypothesize that maternal cognitive engagement activities will be higher and more consistently associated with children’s literacy skills than paternal cognitive engagement activities across all six ethnic groups.

Method

Participants and Procedure

We used data obtained from the Suriname MICS conducted between March and September 2018 (Ministry of Social Affairs and Public Housing, 2019). The MICS is a global household initiative that gathers nationally representative data that capture information about children, men, and women in LMICs around the world (UNICEF, 2006). The Suriname 2018 MICS collected data from 9,508 households in which surveys were administered to men and women between 15 and 49 years of age, and biological parents or other parent figures of children younger than 5 years and children aged 5 to 17 years. Data were collected from all 10 districts in Suriname: Paramaribo, Wanica, Nickerie, Coronie, Saramacca, Commewijne, Marowijne, Para, Brokopondo, and Sipaliwini. The surveys included a variety of topics about the well-being of children and their families including early childhood development, child labor, child discipline, maternal and child health, postnatal health care, low birth weight, and child mortality. The questionnaire for children younger than 5 years was administered to 3,300 biological mothers or parent figures who had at least one child younger than 5 years old in 3,083 households. Of those children, 20 biological mothers and 105 biological fathers were not alive at the time of data collection, 256 biological mothers and 1,423 biological fathers did not live in the same household with children. There were no available data on paternal involvement among nonresident fathers and, thus, they were excluded from the final sample.

The sample in the current study consisted of 1,008 preschool aged children and their parents who lived in the same household (68 Indigenous/Amerindian, 213 Maroon, 127 Creole, 318 Hindustani, 166 Javanese, and 116 Mixed-ethnic families). Mixed-ethnic was defined as individuals who have ancestry in at least two different ethnic groups (e.g., African-Indo, African-Javanese, African-Amerindian). Approximately 26% of families resided in Paramaribo (Capital City), 21.2% in Wanica, 10% in Nickerie, and 11.4% in Commewijne districts. The average age of children (50.8% male) in the sample was 47.03 months (SD = 6.69). The mean age of mothers and fathers were 31.81 (SD = 6.29) and 36.86 years (SD = 7.62), respectively. Twenty percent of mothers completed primary school (20.1% of fathers), 36.3% completed lower secondary (41% fathers), 26.2% completed upper secondary (20.2% fathers), and 11.8% completed higher education (6.7% fathers). A composite household wealth index measure was constructed consisting of items such as the source of drinking water, type of toilet facility, number of rooms for sleeping, type of main material for floor and roof, access to electricity, and household assets (see Sun et al., 2016). Twenty-one percent of households fell into the lowest wealth index quintile, 22.5% were in the second lowest quintile, 20.2% were in the middle quintile, 20% were in the fourth quintile, and 15.7% were in the highest quintile. Sample descriptive information by ethnicity is presented in Table 1.

Table 1.

Sample Characteristics by Ethnicity.

	Amerindian	Maroon	Creole	Hindustani	Javanese	Mixed
	M (SD)	M (SD)	M (SD)	M (SD)	M (SD)	M (SD)
Child age (months)	46.72 (6.42)	47.22 (6.67)	48.13 (6.84)	46.71 (6.81)	46.66 (6.23)	47.07 (7.00)
Mothers’ age	32.47 (6.98)	32.80 (6.32)	33.17 (6.63)	30.87 (5.78)	30.89 (6.43)	32.03 (6.06)
Fathers’ age	38.06 (8.09)	38.34 (7.79)	37.86 (8.80)	35.81 (7.20)	36.26 (6.95)	36.10 (7.15)
Children’ sex (male), %	45.6	50.2	48.8	55.0	51.2	44.8
Area of residence (urban), %	77.9	61.0	33.9	38.7	41.6	27.6
Mothers’ education, %
Preprimary or none	4.4	14.6	1.6	.6
Primary	35.3	32.4	9.4	23.0	9.6	8.6
Lower secondary	36.8	29.1	33.9	35.8	47.0	37.9
Upper secondary	17.6	15.5	30.7	25.2	35.5	35.3
Higher	4.4	7.0	22.0	13.2	7.2	16.4
Fathers’ education, %
Preprimary or none	4.8	15.2	2.5	2.0	-	1.8
Primary	33.9	34.8	11.5	24.8	13.3	8.3
Lower secondary	43.5	32.6	50.8	46.2	52.7	41.3
Upper secondary	14.5	15.2	22.1	20.1	29.3	32.1
Higher	3.2	2.2	13.1	6.9	4.7	16.5
Household wealth, %
Poorest (0%-19%)	55.9	48.8	11.8	8.5	9.6	14.7
Second (20%-39%)	25.0	20.2	15.7	28.6	25.3	12.1
Middle (40%-59%)	10.3	16.4	22.0	18.9	25.9	26.7
Fourth (60%-79%)	7.4	10.3	25.2	24.5	23.5	22.4
Richest (80%-100%)	1.5	4.2	25.2	19.5	15.7	24.1

Measures

Mothers’ and fathers’ cognitive engagement

Mothers reported on their own and fathers’ cognitive engagement separately. Following research on parent-child literacy activities (Duursma, 2014), three binary items from the Questionnaire for Children (“read books to or looked at picture books with child,” “told stories to child,” and “named, counted, or drew things to or with child” in the past 3 days) were used to create the cognitive engagement construct. Mothers indicated whether (Yes/No) they and the child’s father engaged in these activities with children. These items have been shown to have good construct validity and internal consistency of the scores in other studies that have utilized these items across cultural communities (Cronbach’s α = .77; Jeong et al., 2016; McCoy et al., 2016). In this study, the Guttman’s Lambdas were good (.78 for mothers and .81 for fathers).

Children’s literacy skills

Mothers reported on children’s literacy skills development. Based on the importance of naming and identifying letters and numbers (Duursma, 2014; Evans & Shaw, 2008; Mol & Bus, 2011), children’s literacy skills consisted of three binary items: “child can identify or name at least 10 letters of the alphabet,” “child can read at least four simple popular words,” and “child knows the name and recognizes the symbol of all numbers from 1 to 10.” Mothers indicated whether (Yes/No) children displayed these skills. Similar items have been used in standardized assessments (see Kaufman & Kaufman, 1993) of children’s early language skills in different cultural communities in LMICs and have been shown to be culturally valid scores for use in LMICs (Dede Yildirim & Roopnarine, 2017). The items show good concurrent, external. and predictive validity of the scores (Janus et al., 2007). The internal consistency of children’s literacy skills in this study was acceptable (Guttman’s λ = .64).

Covariates

Mothers’ and fathers’ highest level of education (ranged from 0 = preprimary or no education to 4 = higher), area of residence (1 = urban, 0 = rural), children’s age (in months), sex (1 = male, 0 = female), mothers’ and fathers’ age, and household wealth index were included as covariates.

Data analyses

The analyses were conducted in three stages. First, we assessed weighted prevalence of paternal and maternal cognitive engagement across the six ethnic groups. This task was accomplished by employing the weighted chi-square difference test within R software program using “weights” package (Pasek, 2020). Second, the equivalence of the paternal and maternal cognitive engagement and child literacy skills constructs across the six ethnic groups were determined using multigroup confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) within Mplus version 8.1 (Muthén & Muthén, 2016). The paternal and maternal cognitive engagement constructs were assessed in the same model. For each, three sets of multigroup CFA models were conducted to assess measurement invariance with categorical items and equivalence of factor structures (configural invariance), factor loadings (metric invariance), and item thresholds (scalar invariance) across ethnic groups. Robust maximum likelihood estimates and scaled chi-square difference test were performed for model comparisons to assess model invariance across ethnic groups. Children’s sample weights and household cluster numbers were added to the models to adjust for the MICS’s two-stage stratified sampling design, and to obtain nationally representative estimates.

Third, the pathways of associations between maternal and paternal cognitive engagement and children’s literacy skills were assessed using multigroup structural equation modeling with latent variables. Initially, we tested the associations between sociodemographic factors (mothers’ and fathers’ age and education, marital status, child age and gender, area of residence, household wealth, and number of books in the home), and maternal and paternal cognitive engagement. Next, links were assessed between maternal and paternal cognitive engagement and children’s literacy skills, controlling for sociodemographic factors. For each path, two sets of structural equation models were conducted: a model where all paths were freely estimated across ethnic groups, and a model where all paths were constrained to be equal across ethnic groups. Scaled chi-square difference tests were conducted to compare models. Missing data (0.05%) were addressed by using full information maximum likelihood estimates (Enders, 2010).

For both multigroup CFA and SEM analyses, models were evaluated by using the chi-square test, comparative fit index (CFI), root mean square error of approximation (RMSEA), and Tucker-Lewis Index (TLI). A chi-square with p value < .05, CFI and TLI values larger than .90, RMSEA values less than .05, lower bound of 90% confidence interval (CI) of RMSEA less than 0.05, and upper bound of 90% CI of RMSEA less than .10 indicate good model fit (Kline, 2005).

Results

Across ethnic groups, 46.1% of mothers read books (range from 28.17% to 55.91%), 54.5% told stories (ranged from 41.31% to 62.99%), and 64.9% named, counted, or drew objects (ranged from 48.36% to 71.69%), whereas 17.8% of fathers read books (ranged from 9.39% to 21.70%), 23.3% told stories (ranged from 15.96% to 26.42%), and 28.9% named, counted, or drew objects with children (ranged from 17.84% to 35.43%) over the last 3 days. Book reading was positively associated with storytelling (mothers; ϕ = .664, p < .001, and fathers; ϕ = .716, p < .001), and naming/counting objects (mothers; ϕ = .444, p < .001, and fathers; ϕ = .495, p < .001). Storytelling was also positively associated with naming/counting objects (mothers; ϕ = .459, p < .001, and fathers; ϕ = .558, p < .001).

On average, 50.6% of children identified at least 10 letters (ranged from 40.30% to 61.95%), 25.4% read at least 4 words (ranged from 18.87% to 30.36%), and 62.6% recognized symbols of all numbers (ranged from 50.71% to 74.80%) across ethnic groups. There were positive correlations between identifying letters and reading words (ϕ = .364, p < .001), between identifying letters and recognizing symbols (ϕ = .419, p < .001), and between recognizing symbols and reading words (ϕ = .304, p < .001).

Maternal and Paternal Engagement Patterns

Table 2 shows weighted prevalence of maternal and paternal cognitive engagement across the six ethnic groups in Suriname. Mothers were more likely to engage in cognitive activities with children than were fathers across all ethnic groups. However, chi-square tests indicated that maternal and paternal engagement in cognitive activities with children were significantly different across the six ethnic groups. For instance, 28.17% of Maroon mothers reported engaging in book reading activities, while 55.91% of Creole mothers read books to children. The percentages of Maroon mothers and fathers who told stories and named or counted objects with children were significantly lower compared with mothers and fathers in the other ethnic groups.

Table 2.

Percentages of Mothers’ and Fathers’ Who Engaged in Cognitive Activities by Ethnicity.

	Amerindian, %	Maroon, %	Creole, %	Hindustani, %	Javanese, %	Mixed ethnicity, %	χ²(df = 5)
Mothers
Read books	47.06	28.17	55.91	50.63	49.40	48.28	64.92**
Tell stories	54.41	41.31	62.99	59.75	54.82	53.45	35.44**
Named/counted	64.71	48.36	70.87	71.07	71.69	62.07	68.37**
Fathers
Read books	13.24	9.39	19.69	21.70	19.28	20.69	67.70**
Tell stories	22.06	15.96	25.98	26.42	24.10	24.14	31.73**
Named/counted	26.47	17.84	35.43	33.96	29.52	28.45	52.14**

Note: df = degrees of freedom.

p < .05. **p < .001.

Measurement Invariance across Ethnic Groups

The configural invariance model where items loadings and thresholds of maternal and paternal cognitive engagement constructs were freely estimated across ethnic groups showed good model fit, χ²(degrees of freedom [df] = 42) = 75.643, p < .001, CFI = .994, TLI = .988, RMSEA = .069, 90% CI [.043, .094]. The metric invariance model where factor loadings were constrained to be equal across ethnic groups showed good fit, χ²(df = 62) = 102.852, p < .001, CFI = .993, TLI = .990, RMSEA = .063, 90% CI [.040, .084], but the scaled chi-square difference test between configural and metric invariance models was statistically significant, Δχ²(df = 20) = 33.277, p = .031, ΔCFI = .001, ΔTLI = .002, ΔRMSEA = .006. The metric model was modified by adding residual covariances for maternal and paternal storytelling for Maroons due to the pattern of covariance within the two compared with the other ethnic groups. Among Maroons, 55.87% of caregivers reported that neither the mother nor father engaged in storytelling (41.12% Amerindian, 35.71% Creole, 36.90% Hindustani, 40.36% Javanese, and 41.37% Mixed-ethnicity), which was significantly higher than in the other ethnic groups, χ²(df = 5) = 22.815, p < .001. The modified metric model showed better model fit compared with the metric model without residual correlations, χ²(df = 61) = 95.755, p < .05, CFI = .994, TLI = .991, RMSEA = .058, 90% CI [.034, .080], and the scaled chi-square difference test between configural and modified metric invariance models was not statistically significant, Δχ²(df = 19) = 27.184, p = .10, ΔCFI < .001, ΔTLI = .003, ΔRMSEA = .011, indicating that factor loadings are approximately equal across ethnic groups. The scalar invariance model where factor loadings and item thresholds were constrained to be equal across ethnic groups also showed a good model fit, χ²(df = 81) = 122.058, p = .002, CFI = .993, TLI = . 992, RMSEA = .055, 90% CI [.033, .074], but the scaled chi-square difference test between the metric and scalar invariance models was statistically significant, Δχ²(df = 20) = 32.981, p = .034, ΔCFI = .001, ΔTLI = .001, ΔRMSEA = .003, indicating that item thresholds were different across ethnic groups but factor structures and factor loadings for maternal and paternal cognitive engagement were equal across ethnic groups. Factor loadings ranged from .49 to .99 for the maternal and from .68 to .99 for the paternal cognitive engagement construct across groups. The correlation between maternal and paternal cognitive engagement was .687 for Amerindian, .339 for Maroon, .706 for Creole, .778 for Hindustani, .498 for Javanese, and .649 for Mixed ethnicity.

The second set of CFA models assessed measurement invariance of children’s literacy skills across ethnic groups using configural, metric, and scalar invariance tests. The configural invariance model was just identified with zero df. The metric invariance model showed a good model fit, χ²(df = 10) = 10.865, p > .05, CFI = .998, TLI = .996, RMSEA = .023, 90% CI [0, .089], and the scaled chi-square difference test between configural and metric invariance models was not statistically significant, Δχ²(df = 10) = 9.675, p = .469, suggesting that factor loadings were equal across groups. The scalar invariance model also showed a good model fit, χ²(df = 20) = 29.516, p = .078, CFI = .975, TLI = . 977, RMSEA = .053, 90% CI [0, .092], but the scaled chi-square difference test between the metric and scalar invariance models was statistically significant, Δχ²(df = 10) = 19.635, p = .033, ΔCFI = .021, ΔTLI = .019, ΔRMSEA = .030, indicating that item thresholds were different but factor structures and factor loadings for child literacy skills were equal across ethnic groups (loadings ranged from .75 to .81).

Sociodemographic Factors and Mothers’ and Fathers’ Cognitive Engagement

After establishing approximate metric invariance of the maternal and paternal cognitive engagement and child literacy skills constructs across the six ethnic groups, multigroup modeling was conducted to assess the associations between sociodemographic factors and mothers’ and fathers’ cognitive engagement. The model where the pathways of associations between sociodemographic factors and maternal and paternal cognitive engagement were freely estimated across ethnic groups showed a good model fit, χ²(df = 318) = 778.361, p < .001, CFI = .956, TLI = .937, RMSEA = .043, 90% CI [.029, .054], and so did the model in which pathways of associations between sociodemographic factors and paternal and maternal cognitive engagement were constrained to be equal across ethnic groups, χ²(df = 418) = 917.845, p < .001, CFI = .959, TLI = .955, RMSEA = .036, 90% CI [.022, .047]. The scaled chi-square difference test was statistically significant, Δχ²(df = 100) = 156.361, p < .001, indicating that the pathways of associations between sociodemographic factors and mothers’ and fathers’ cognitive engagement were not similar across ethnic groups. Pathways of associations are outlined for each ethnic group separately.

Amerindian

Mothers’ age (β = .03, standard error [SE] = .009, p = .001) was positively, and marital status (β = −.45, SE = .10, p < .001), and rural-urban residence (β = −.48, SE = .10, p < .001) were negatively associated with mothers’ cognitive engagement, suggesting that mothers who were older, not married, and lived in rural areas engaged in cognitive activities with children more frequently compared with mothers who were younger, married, and lived in urban areas. Fathers’ education was positively associated with mothers’ cognitive engagement (β = .36, SE = .17, p = .03), indicating that mothers engaged in cognitive activities with children more often when fathers had higher levels of education.

Maroon

Mothers who had higher levels of education (β = .20, SE = .06, p = .001) and were married (β = .64, SE = .32, p = .04) engaged in cognitive activities with children more frequently than those who had lower levels of education and were not married. Mothers and fathers engaged in cognitive activities with their sons more than with their daughters (β = .33, SE = .04, p < .001). Mothers who reported having more books in the home engaged in cognitive activities with children more frequently than those who reported having fewer books in the home (β = .03, SE = .01, p = .04).

Creole

Fathers who had higher levels of education (β = .21, SE = .01, p < .001) and lived in rural areas (β = −.05, SE = .02, p = .005) engaged in cognitive activities with children more frequently than those who had lower levels of education, and lived in urban areas. Fathers engaged in cognitive activities with children less frequently when mothers were older (β = −.04, SE = .001, p < .001), whereas mothers engaged in cognitive activities with children less frequently when fathers were older (β = −.01, SE = .004, p < .001).

Mothers who were married (β = .16, SE = .07, p = .02) and who lived in rural areas (β = −.18, SE = .06, p = .002) engaged in cognitive activities with children more frequently relative to those who were not married and lived in urban areas. Mothers who reported having more books in the home engaged in cognitive activities with children more frequently than those who reported having fewer books in the home (β = .07, SE = .02, p < .001). Mothers engaged in cognitive activities with older children (β = −.55, SE = .22, p = .01) and with their sons (β = −.27, SE = .06, p < .001) less often than with their younger children and with their daughters.

Hindustani

Fathers who had higher levels of education (β = .12, SE = .06, p = .048), lived in urban areas (β = .09, SE = .02, p < .001), had higher household wealth (β = .28, SE = .02, p < .001) engaged in cognitive activities with children more frequently compared with those who had lower levels of education, lived in rural areas, and had lower household wealth. Fathers engaged in cognitive activities with children more frequently when mothers had higher levels of education (β = .15, SE = .02, p < .001), whereas mothers engaged in cognitive activities with children more frequently when fathers were older (β = .22, SE = .01, p = .03).

Mothers who were younger (β = −.05, SE = .002, p < .001), had higher levels of education (β = .10, SE = .01, p < .001), and reported having more books in the home (β = .08, SE = .01, p < .001) engaged in cognitive activities with children more frequently than those who were older, had lower levels of education, and reported having fewer books in the home.

Javanese

Fathers who had lower levels of education (β = −.11, SE = .04, p = .001), were not married (β = −.17, SE = .03, p < .001), and lived in urban areas (β = .21, SE = .03, p < .001) engaged in cognitive activities with children more frequently compared with those who had higher levels of education, were married, and lived in rural areas. Fathers engaged in cognitive activities with children more frequently when mothers were older (β = .01, SE = .01, p < .001).

Mothers who were older (β = .01, SE = .004, p = .007), lived in urban areas (β = .15, SE = .04, p < .001), had lower levels of education (β = −.09, SE = .02, p < .001), were not married (β = −.27, SE = .03, p < .001), and reported having more books in the home (β = .07, SE = .03, p = .02) engaged in cognitive activities with children more frequently than those who were younger, lived in rural areas, had higher levels of education and were married, and had fewer books in the home.

Mixed ethnicity

Fathers who were older (β = .02, SE = .004, p = .001) and had higher levels of education (β = .19, SE = .01, p < .001) engaged in cognitive activities with children more often than those who were younger and had lower levels of education. Fathers engaged in cognitive activities with children more frequently when mothers were younger (β = −.03, SE = .003, p < .001) and had lower levels of education (β = −.22, SE = .005, p < .001).

Mothers who reported having more books in the home engaged in cognitive activities with children more frequently than those who reported having fewer books in the home (β = .04, SE = .003, p < .001). Mothers engaged in cognitive activities with children more often when fathers were younger (β = −.04, SE = .001, p < .001) and fathers had higher levels of education (β = .19, SE = .01, p < .001).

Mothers’ and Fathers’ Cognitive Engagement and Children’s Literacy Skills

The second set of models assessed the associations between mothers’ and fathers’ cognitive engagement and preschoolers’ literacy skills across ethnic groups, controlling for sociodemographic factors including mothers’ and fathers’ age and education, children’s age and gender, number of books in the home, household wealth, and area of residence. In the first model, the pathways of associations between paternal and maternal cognitive engagement and children’s literacy skills were freely estimated across ethnic groups, whereas in the second model the pathways of associations between paternal and maternal cognitive engagement and children’s literacy skills were constrained to be equal across ethnic groups. The scaled chi-square test between these two models was statistically significant, Δχ²(df = 160) = 242.216, p < .05, indicating that the pathways of associations between mothers’ and fathers’ cognitive engagement and children’s literacy skills were not similar across ethnic groups. Figure 1 presents standardized estimates for the associations between maternal and paternal cognitive engagement activities and children’s literacy skills by ethnic group. Table 3 shows the links among covariates, maternal and paternal cognitive engagement, and children’s literacy skills.

Table 3.

The Associations Between Mothers’ and Fathers’ Cognitive (Cog.) Engagement (Eng.) and Children’s Literacy Skills by Ethnicity.

	Amerindian			Maroon			Creole			Hindustani			Javanese			Mixed ethnic
	B	SE	β	B	SE	β	B	SE	β	B	SE	β	B	SE	β	B	SE	β
Maternal Cog. Eng.	.26**	.08	.21	.28	.20	.23	.21*	.08	.18	.30**	.00	.26	.15	.11	.14	.35	.24	.29
Paternal Cog. Eng.	.08*	.03	.06	.30**	.06	.23	.16*	.08	.14	.17	.13	.14	.28*	.08	.26	.08	.15	.06
Child age	−.03	.17	−.01	.38	.22	.14	.55**	.16	.21	.52*	.17	.20	.64	.39	.28	.39**	.12	.15
Child gender	−.41	.25	−.14	−.19	.30	−.07	−.40**	.07	−.15	.10	.24	.04	−.45**	.07	−.20	−.73**	.03	−.27
Fathers’ age	.07**	.02	.40	−.01	.02	−.03	−.02	.02	−.10	−.02*	.01	−.10	.01	.05	.09	.02	.01	.09
Mothers’ age	−.04**	.01	−.18	.02*	.01	.08	.01	.04	.06	.01	.01	.06	.00	.03	−.02	.05*	.02	.21
Fathers’ education	−.21	.14	−.13	.25**	.03	.18	−.25*	.13	−.18	.06*	.02	.04	.20*	.07	.13	.20	.17	.13
Mothers’ education	.67**	.02	.43	.18	.17	.15	.27	.23	.20	.15**	.00	.12	.01	.15	.01	−.24*	.09	−.16
Married	−.03	.19	−.01	−.31	.33	−.07	−.17	.26	−.06	.01	.11	.00	.13	.12	.06	.28**	.02	.10
Area of residence	−.45**	.10	−.13	−.04	.10	−.01	.36	.19	.13	.14*	.05	.05	.27**	.06	.12	.74**	.03	.25
Number of books	.09**	.03	.20	.08*	.04	.18	.03	.06	.10	.08**	.00	.24	−.03*	.01	−.09	.05**	.01	.15
Household wealth	.29**	.04	.25	.13	.08	.11	.56*	.22	.34	.06**	.02	.03	.03	.24	.02	.01	.30	.00

p < . 05. **p <. 001.

Amerindian

Paternal and maternal cognitive engagement were positively associated with children’s literacy skills (β = .08, SE = .03, p = .01 and β = .26, SE = .08, p = .001, respectively). The magnitude of association between paternal cognitive engagement and children’s literacy skills and maternal cognitive engagement and children’s literacy skills was significantly different, Δχ²(df = 1) = 10.159, p < .05. Mothers’ age (β = −.04, SE = .02, p = .002) and area of residence (β = −.45, SE = .10, p < .001) were negatively, and fathers’ age (β = .07, SE = .02, p < .001), mothers’ education (β = .67, SE = .02, p < .001), number of books in the home (β = .09, SE = .03, p = .001), and household wealth (β = .29, SE = .04, p < .001) were positively linked to children’s literacy skills. Put differently, children whose mothers were younger and had higher levels of education, whose fathers were older, lived in rural areas, had more books in the home, and lived in households with higher wealth were more likely to have better literacy skills compared with those whose mothers were older and had lower levels of education, whose fathers were younger, lived in urban areas, had fewer books in the home, and lived in households with lower wealth.

Maroon

Paternal cognitive engagement (β = .30, SE = .06, p < .001), fathers’ education (β = .25, SE = .03, p < .001), and number of books in the home (β = .08, SE = .04, p = .02) were positively associated with children’s literacy skills. That is, children whose fathers engaged in cognitive activities more frequently with them, whose fathers had higher levels of education, and had more books in the home had better literacy skills than those whose fathers engaged in cognitive activities less frequently with them, whose fathers had lower levels of education, and had fewer books in the home.

Creole

Paternal and maternal cognitive engagement were positively linked to children’s literacy skills (β = .17, SE = .08, p = .03 and β = .21, SE = .08, p = .01, respectively). However, the strength of the pathways between paternal cognitive engagement and children’s literacy skills and maternal cognitive engagement and children’s literacy skills was not significantly different, Δχ²(df = 1) = 0.01, p > .05. Child age (β = .55, SE = .16, p < .001) and household wealth (β = .56, SE = .22, p = .01) were related to children’s literacy skills. These associations suggest that children with better literacy skills had mothers and fathers who engaged in cognitive activities more often, were older, and lived in households with higher wealth than those whose mothers and fathers engaged in cognitive activities with them less frequently, were younger, and lived in households with lower wealth.

Hindustani

Maternal cognitive engagement (β = .30, SE = .004, p < .001), fathers’ education (β = .06, SE = .02, p = .02), mothers’ education (β = .15, SE = .001, p < .001), rural-urban residence (β = .14, SE = .05, p = .009), number of books in the home (β = .06, SE = .001, p < .001), child age (β = .52, SE = .17, p = .002), and household wealth (β = .06, SE = .02, p < .001) were positively associated with children’s literacy skills. In other words, children who were older, whose mothers and fathers had higher levels of education, whose mothers engaged in cognitive activities more frequently with them, lived in urban areas, lived in households with more books and higher wealth had better literacy skills than those children who were younger, whose mothers and fathers had lower levels of education, whose mothers engaged in cognitive activities less frequently, who lived in rural areas, and lived in households with fewer books and lower wealth.

Javanese

Paternal cognitive engagement (β = .28, SE = .08, p = .001), fathers’ education (β = .20, SE = .07, p = .005), and area of residence (β = .27, SE = .06, p < .001) were positively, and child gender (β = −.45, SE = .07, p < .001) and number of books in the home (β = −.03, SE = .01, p = .03) were negatively associated with children’s literacy skills. What this indicates is that children whose fathers had higher levels of education and engaged in cognitive activities more frequently, who lived in urban areas and in households with more books had better literacy skills than those whose fathers had lower levels of education and engaged in cognitive activities less frequently, lived in rural areas and in households with fewer books.

Mixed ethnicity

Mothers’ age (β = .05, SE = .02, p = .02), marital status (β = .28, SE = .02, p < .001), area of residence (β = .73, SE = .03, p < .001), number of books in the home (β = .05, SE = .01, p < .001), and child age (β = .39, SE = .12, p = .001) were positively associated with, and child gender (β = −.73, SE = .003, p < .001) and mothers’ education (β = −.24, SE = .09, p = .005) were negatively associated with children’s literacy skills. That is, children who were older, lived in urban areas, lived in households with more books, whose mothers were younger, were married, and had lower levels of education had better literacy skills than those who were younger, who lived in rural areas, lived in households with fewer books, whose mothers were older, not married, and had higher levels of education.

Discussion

This secondary data analysis focused on the associations between paternal and maternal cognitive engagement activities and children’s literacy skills across Amerindian, Maroon, Creole, Hindustani, Javanese, and Mixed-ethnic families in the CARICOM country of Suriname. Assessing whether the pathways of associations between paternal and maternal cognitive engagement and childhood outcomes are similar across ethnic groups with high poverty rates can assist in further evaluating the utility of the parental stimulation model for arresting risks to children’s development during the preschool years in different cultural groups in LMICs. Moreover, such data can assist in teasing out the role of fathers in early cognitive development in cultural communities in which caregiving roles are largely traditional and men have remained distant from daily childrearing activities. Studies of father-child relationship in the developing world have overwhelmingly focused on social rather than cognitive developmental outcomes in young children (see Ong’ayi et al., 2019).

Across ethnic groups, the percentages of fathers who engaged in cognitive activities were considerably lower than the percentages of mothers who engaged in these activities with children. The mother-father discrepancies in engagement activities were not surprising given that early child care and socialization responsibilities are still deeply rooted in traditional gendered-based ideologies about men’s and women’s roles in different Caribbean cultural communities (Anderson & Daley, 2015; Chevannes, 2001). In prior research, mothers were five times more likely to read to children, to tell stories, and to name/count objects than were fathers among diverse ethnic groups in Suriname (Dede Yildirim & Roopnarine, 2017), and a markedly discrepant pattern was noted for mothers’ and fathers’ engagement in literacy-type activities in Trinidad and Tobago (Roopnarine & Dede Yildirim, 2019a). Maroon fathers and mothers were the least likely to engage in cognitive stimulation activities with children, and Hindustani, Javanese, and Mixed-ethnic fathers and mothers were the most likely to engage in cognitive stimulation activities with children relative to parents in the other groups. As indicated earlier, the Maroons are one of the two most economically and socially disadvantaged groups in Suriname and their geographic isolation and limited access to educational opportunities are probably responsible for their lower levels of engagement with children compared with the other groups of parents.

Unlike findings from the high-income countries (e.g., United States, England, and Australia), there were no clear and consistent sociodemographic predictors of paternal and maternal cognitive engagement. For instance, an index of household wealth and marital status were rarely and sometimes inversely associated with maternal and paternal cognitive engagement with children. The same was true for parental education, urban-rural residence, and number of books in the home. The lack of significant associations between sociodemographic factors and maternal and paternal cognitive engagement is contrary to what has been found in the high-income countries where socioeconomic indicators and material resources in the home learning environment are regularly related to children’s language and academic skills (Reardon, 2011; Reardon & Robinson, 2008). It is possible that in the poorer nations of the world, other factors such as day to day economic strains and challenges, economic aspirations, and perceptions of economic outlook are better predictors of parental investment in children than global sociodemographic indicators per se. Out of necessity, families living in difficult economic circumstances may focus more attention on meeting daily family needs than on overall material assets.

Findings on the associations between paternal and maternal cognitive engagement, that consisted of reading to children, telling stories, and counting/naming objects, and children’s early literacy skills ran counter to prediction. Fathers’ cognitive engagement was associated with children’s literacy skills in Amerindian, Maroon, Creole, and Javanese families, whereas mothers’ cognitive engagement was associated with children’s literacy skills in Amerindian, Creole, and Hindustani families. In past analyses (Dede Yildirim & Roopnarine, 2017), paternal and maternal cognitive engagement also showed irregular patterns of associations with children’s literacy skills across Barbados, Belize, the Dominican Republic, Guyana, Jamaica, and Suriname, and between fathers’ cognitive engagement and children’s literacy skills in different ethnic groups in Trinidad and Tobago (Roopnarine & Dede Yildirim, 2019a). Nonetheless, that significant pathways of associations were evident between the two constructs for fathers across four ethnic groups that differ in sociocultural practices point to the efficacy and utility of early paternal cognitive stimulation for the development of children’s early literacy skills during the preschool years in the developing nation of Suriname. Our hypothesis on differences in the associations between maternal and paternal cognitive engagement and children’s literacy skills in different ethnic groups in Suriname was not supported. Interestingly, only in two ethnic groups were both paternal and maternal cognitive engagement associated with children’s literacy skills. It could be that the global indices of parental engagement utilized in the MICS failed to capture the qualitative aspects of cognitive activities within families.

As with parental engagement, there were few consistent sociodemographic predictors of children’s literacy skills. Better living conditions and job opportunities in the urban areas of Suriname (e.g., Paramaribo, Nickerie) seem to predispose children to perform better on the literacy skills tasks. Children living in urban areas performed better on the literacy skills measure than those living in rural areas for most ethnic groups. Not surprisingly, in a few ethnic groups maternal and paternal educational attainment, age of the child, and number of books in the home also predicted children’s early literacy skills. Whether it is in the Latin American, African, or Caribbean countries, parents’ educational attainment and material resources seem to be some of the most powerful predictors of preschool-aged children’s literacy skills (see Dede Yildirim & Roopnarine, 2017; de Oliveira, 2018; Rubiano & Quinn, 2018; Wolf & McCoy, 2019). Why major sociodemographic factors such as household wealth, marriage, and educational attainment were not generally associated with children’s literacy skills in Suriname is puzzling. In LMICs, such as Suriname, where economic hardship is prevalent across ethnic groups, this may further illustrate the potency and possible compensatory role of engagement in cognitive stimulation activities for young children’s early language skills in difficult ecocultural niches (Ricketts & Anderson, 2008).

Limitations

There are obvious limitations to this study due to unequal sample sizes across groups, single source reports, and lack of standardized assessments of children’s early literacy skills. Moreover, some of the associations were quite small which may undermine generalizability of the findings. This aside, the UNICEF MICS data offer an opportunity to assess the benefits of positive parenting activities for children’s early literacy skills development in LMICs with high levels of poverty and nutritional and health challenges that often present barriers to effective parenting (see Engle et al., 2013). Along with those of other studies in LMICs (Roopnarine & Dede Yildirim, 2019a; 2019b), these data provide evidence, albeit inconsistently across ethnic groups, of the potential value that paternal and maternal cognitive engagement activities, that involve book reading, storytelling, and labelling objects, may have in laying a good foundation for early learning in the poorer nations of the world. What is instructive in these data is the potential role that fathers may play in enhancing early language skills development in preschool-aged children in cultural communities with low rates of father involvement and traditional gender roles.

Implications for Research and Practice

These findings extend our understanding of the links between mothers’ and fathers’ early cognitive engagement and children’s early language skills development in a multi-ethnic CARICOM country with a sizeable population of individuals with African ancestry. Data on variability in maternal and paternal investment in early literacy skills development across different ethnic groups in LMICs can aid in building more inclusive theories and models on the value of positive parenting and childhood outcomes. Because of the diverse family structural living arrangements and low levels of father engagement with children across Caribbean countries, these findings further accentuate the importance of involving fathers in early intervention efforts geared at reducing early risks to children’s cognitive development in home environments with poor material resources and limited access to preschool education. Future work may want to concentrate on the frequency and quality of maternal, paternal, and other caregivers’ interactions with children using micro-burst assessment techniques to gather data over several consecutive days in order to determine the primacy of which cognitive engagement activities maximize language outcomes in Surinamese preschoolers.

Footnotes

Acknowledgements

Pearls S. Falk Professorship in the David B. Falk College of Sport and Human Dynamics at Syracuse University support is gratefully acknowledged.

Declaration of Conflicting Interests

The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Funding

The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: The second author was supported by funds made available through a Pearls S. Falk Professorship in the David B. Falk College of Sport and Human Dynamics at Syracuse University.

ORCID iD

Elif Dede Yildirim

References

Anderson

Daley

(2015). African-Caribbean fathers: The conflict between masculinity and fathering. In Roopnarine

J. L.

(Ed.), Fathers across cultures: The importance, roles, and diverse practices of dads (pp. 13-62). Praeger/ABC-Clio.

Bailey

Robinson

Coore-Desai

(2014). Corporal punishment in the Caribbean: Attitudes and practices. Social and Economic Studies, 63(3 & 4), 207-233.

Baker

C. E.

(2016). African American and Hispanic fathers’ work characteristics and preschool children’s cognitive development. Journal of Family Issues, 37(11), 1514-1534. https://doi.org/10.1177/0192513X15576198

Cabrera

Fitzgerald

H. E.

Bradley

R. H.

Roggman

(2007). Modeling the dynamics of paternal influences on children over the life course. Applied Development Science, 11(4), 185-189. https://doi.org/10.1080/10888690701762027

Chevannes

(2001). Learning to be a man: Culture, socialization, and gender identity in five Caribbean communities. University of West Indies Press, Jamaica.

Conger

R. D.

Wallace

L. E.

Sun

Simons

R. L.

McLoyd

V. C.

Brody

G. H.

(2002). Economic pressure in African American families: A replication and extension of the family stress model. Developmental Psychology, 38(2), 179-193. https://doi.org/10.1037/0012-1649.38.2.179

Dede Yildirim

Roopnarine

J. L

. (2017). Paternal and maternal engagement across six Caribbean countries and childhood outcomes. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 53, 64-73. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.appdev.2017.08.007

de Oliveira

Z. D. M

. (2018). Early childhood education in Brazil: New challenges for a national curriculum definition. In Roopnarine

J. L.

Johnson

J. E.

Quinn

Patte

(Eds.), Handbook of international perspectives on early childhood education (pp. 31-40). Routledge.

Devlin

A. M.

Wight

Fenton

(2018). Are parenting practices associated with the same child outcomes in sub-Saharan African countries as in high-income countries? A review and synthesis. BMJ Global Health, 3(6), Article e000912. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjgh-2018-000912

10.

Duursma

. (2014). The effects of fathers’ and mothers’ reading to their children on language outcomes of children participating in early head start in the United States. Fathering, 12(3), 283-302.

11.

Enders

C. K.

(2010). Applied missing data analysis. Guilford Press.

12.

Engle

Rao

Petrovic

(2013). Situated analysis of children in a changing world. In Britto

P. R.

Engle

P. L.

Super

C. M.

(Eds.). Handbook of early childhood development research and its impact on global policy (pp. 35-64). Oxford University Press.

13.

Evans

M. A.

Shaw

(2008). Home grown for reading: Parental contributions to young children’s emergent literacy and word recognition. Canadian Psychology, 49(2), 89-95. https://doi.org/10.1037/0708-5591.49.2.89

14.

Griffith

S. F.

Grolnick

W. S.

(2014). Parenting in Caribbean families: A look at parental control, structure, and autonomy support. Journal of Black Psychology, 40(2), 166-190. https://doi.org/10.1177/0095798412475085

15.

Haveman

Wolfe

(1994). Succeeding generations: On the effects of investments in children. Russell Sage Foundation.

16.

Janus

Brinkman

Duku

Hertzman

Santos

Sayers

Schroeder

Walsh

(2007). The Early Development Instrument: A population-based measure for communities: A handbook on development, properties, and use. Oxford Centre for Child Studies.

17.

Jeong

McCoy

D. C.

Yousafzai

A. K.

Salhi

Fink

(2016). Paternal stimulation and early child development in low- and middle-income countries. Pediatrics, 138(4), e20161357. https://doi.org/10.1542/peds.2016-1357

18.

Kaufman

A. S.

Kaufman

N. L.

(1993). K-SEALS: Kaufman survey of early academic and language skills. American Guidance Service.

19.

Kline

R. B.

(2005). Principles and practice of structural equation modeling (2nd ed.). Guilford Press.

20.

Lamb

M. E.

(2010). The role of the father in child development, 5th. edition. Wiley.

21.

Leo-Rhynie

Brown

(2013). Child rearing practices in the Caribbean in the early childhood years. In Logie

Roopnarine

J. L.

(Eds.), Issues and perspectives in early childhood education in the Caribbean (pp. 30-62). Caribbean Publishers.

22.

Leo-Rhynie

Minott

Gift

McBean

Scott

A-K.

Wilson

(2009). Competencies of children in Guyana, rural Jamaica and St. Vincent and the Grenadines making the transition from pre- to primary school with special emphasis on gender differences. Dudley Grant Memorial Trust for Caribbean Child Support Initiative of the Bernard van Leer Foundation.

23.

Lie-a-Ling

H. J. M.

Zuubier

Roopnarine

J. L.

(2018). A contemporary look at parenting beliefs and practices and childhood outcomes in Caribbean cultural communities. Caribbean Journal of Psychology, 10(1), 54-90.

24.

Marshall

van der Wolf

(2013). The perception of child-rearing goals among Surinamese teachers and parents. International Journal About Parents in Education, 7(2), 1-7.

25.

Masten

A. S.

(2001). Ordinary magic: Resilience processes in development. American Psychologist, 56(3), 227-238. https://doi.org/10.1037/0003-066X.56.3.227

26.

McCoy

D. C.

Peet

E. D.

Ezzati

Goodarz

Black

M. M.

Sudfeld

C. R.

Fink

. (2016). Early childhood developmental status in low- and middle-income countries: National, regional, and global prevalence estimates using predictive modeling. PLoS Medicine, 14(1), e1002233. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1002034

27.

McMunn

Martin

Kelly

Sacker

(2015). Fathers’ involvement: Correlates and consequences for child socioemotional behavior in the United Kingdom. Journal of Family Issues, 38(8), 1109-1131. https://doi.org/10.1177/0192513X15622415

28.

McWayne

Downer

J. T.

Campos

Harris

R. D.

(2013). Father involvement during early childhood and its association with children’s early learning: A meta-analysis. Early Education and Development, 24(6), 898-922. https://doi.org/10.1080/10409289.2013.746932

29.

Ministry of Social Affairs and Public Housing. (2019). Suriname Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey 2018, Survey findings report. Author.

30.

Mistry

R. S.

Biesanz

J. C.

Taylor

L. C.

Burchinal

Cox

M. J.

(2004). Family income and its relation to preschool children’s adjustment for families in the NICHD study of early child care. Developmental Psychology, 40(5), 727-745. https://doi.org/10.1037/0012-1649.40.5.727

31.

Mol

S. E.

Bus

A. G.

(2011). To read or not to read: A meta-analysis of print exposure from infancy to early adulthood. Psychological Bulletin, 137(2), 267-296. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0021890

32.

Morrison

F. J.

Cooney

R. R.

(2002). Parenting and academic achievement: Multiple paths to early literacy. In Borkowski

J. G.

Ramey

S. L.

Bristol-Power

(Eds.), Parenting and the child’s world: Influences on academic, intellectual, and social-emotional development (pp. 141-160). Lawrence Erlbaum.

33.

Muthén

L. K.

Muthén

B. O.

(2016). Mplus user’s guide (8th ed.). Muthén & Muthén.

34.

Ong’ayi

D. M. M.

Dede Yildirim

Roopnarine

J. L.

(2019). Mothers’, fathers’, and other household members’ involvement in reading, storytelling, and play and preschoolers’ literacy skills in Kenya. Early Education and Development. https://doi.org/10.1080/10409289.2019.1669125

35.

Pasek

(2020). Weights: Weighting and weighted statistics (R package version 1.0.1) [Computer software manual]. https://cran.r-project.org/web/packages/weights/weights.pdf

36.

Pleck

J. H.

(2010). Paternal involvement: Revised conceptualization and theoretical linkages with child outcomes. In Lamb

M. E.

(Ed.), The role of the father in child development (5th ed., pp. 58-93). Wiley.

37.

Reardon

S. F.

(2011). The widening academic achievement gap between rich and poor: New evidence and possible explanations. In Duncan

G. J.

Murnane

R. J.

(Eds.), Whither opportunity? Rising inequality, schools, and children’s life chances (pp. 91-115). Russell Sage Foundation.

38.

Reardon

S. F.

Robinson

J. P.

(2008). Patterns and trends in racial⁄ethnic and socioeconomic academic achievement gaps. In Ladd

H. F.

Fiske

E. B.

(Eds.), Handbook of research in education finance and policy (pp. 497-516). Lawrence Erlbaum.

39.

Ricketts

Anderson

(2008). The impact of poverty and stress on the interaction of Jamaican caregivers with young children. International Journal of Early Years Education, 16(1), 61-74. https://doi.org/10.1080/09669760801892276

40.

Roopnarine

J. L.

(2013). Fathers in Caribbean cultural communities. In Shwalb

Shwalb

Lamb

M. E.

(Eds.), Fathers in cultural perspectives (pp. 203-227). Rutledge.

41.

Roopnarine

J. L.

Brown

White

P. S.

Riegraf

N. B.

Crossely

Hossain

Webb

(1995) Father involvement in childcare and household work in common-law low income dual-earner and single-earner Jamaican families. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 16, 35-52.

42.

Roopnarine

J. L.

Dede Yildirim

(2019a). Fathers’ Cognitive Engagement and Preschoolers’ Literacy Skills in Three Ethnic Groups in Trinidad and Tobago. Journal of Black Psychology, 45(6-7), 494-517. https://doi.org/10.1177/0095798419887067

43.

Roopnarine

J. L.

Dede Yildirim

(2019b). Fathering across cultures: Developmental and clinical issues. Routledge.

44.

Roopnarine

J. L.

Krishnakumar

Narine

Logie

Lape

(2014). Relationships between parenting practices and preschoolers’ social skills in African, Indo, and Mixed-Ethnic families in Trinidad and Tobago: The mediating role of ethnic socialization. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 45(3), 362-380.

45.

Roopnarine

J. L.

Jin

(2016). Family socialization practices and childhood development in Caribbean cultural communities. In Roopnarine

J. L.

Chadee

(Eds.), Caribbean psychology: Indigenous contributions to a global discipline (pp. 71-96). American Psychological Association.

46.

Rubiano

C. I.

Quinn

S. F.

(2018). Columbian early childhood education and the quest for social justice. In Roopnarine

J. L.

Johnson

J. E.

Quinn

Patte

(Eds.), Handbook of international perspectives on early childhood education (pp. 41-55). Routledge.

47.

Shonkoff

J. P.

(2010). Building a new biodevelopmental framework to guide the future of early childhood policy. Child Development, 81(1), 357-367.

48.

Shwalb

D. W.

Shwalb

B. J.

Lamb

M. E.

(2013). Fathers in cultural context. Routledge.

49.

Sun

Liu

Chen

Rao

Liu

(2016). Factors related to parents’ engagement in cognitive and socio-emotional caregiving in developing countries: Results from multiple indicator cluster 3. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 36, 21-31.

50.

United Nations Development Program. (2018). The next frontier: Human development and the anthropocene. http://hdr.undp.org/sites/all/themes/hdr_theme/country-notes/SUR.pdf

51.

United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund. (2006). Monitoring the situation of women and children. Author. https://mics.unicef.org/files?job=W1siZiIsIjIwMTUvMDQvMDIvMDYvMzcvMDYvMTE5L011bHRpcGxlX0luZGljYXRvcl9DbHVzdGVyX1N1cnZleV9NYW51YWxfMjAwNS5wZGYiXV0&sha=dd2e54d1ddd61cdb

52.

United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund, Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys. (2018). Suriname Multiple Indicator Surveys. Ministry of Social Affairs and Public Housing. https://mics-surveys-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/MICS6/Latin%20America%20and%20Caribbean/Suriname/2018/Survey%20findings/Suriname%202018%20MICS%20Survey%20Findings%20Report_English.pdf

53.

van der Kooij

I. W.

Nieuwendam

Bipat

Boer

Lindauer

R. J.

Graafsma

T. L

. (2015). A national study on the prevalence of child abuse and neglect in Suriname. Child Abuse & Neglect, 47, 153-161.

54.

van der Kooij

I. W.

Nieuwendam

Moerman

Boer

Lindauer

R. J.

Roopnarine

J. L.

Graafsma

T. L

. (2017). Perceptions of corporal punishment among Creole and Maroon professionals and community members in Suriname. Child Abuse Review, 26(4), 275-288.

55.

van der Kooij

I. W.

Chotoe-Sanchit

R. K.

Moerman

Lindauer

R. J. L.

Roopnarine

J. L.

Graafsma

T. L. G

. (2018). Perceptions of adolescents and caregivers of corporal punishment: A qualitative study of Indo Caribbean in Suriname. Victims and Violence, 33, 686-707.

56.

Varghese

Wachen

(2016). The determinants of father involvement and connections to children’s literacy and language outcomes: Review of the literature. Marriage & Family Review, 52(4), 331-359. https://doi.org/10.1080/01494929.2015.1099587

57.

Whiting

B. B.

Whiting

J. W. M.

(1975). Children of six cultures: A psycho-cultural analysis. Harvard University Press.

58.

Wolf

McCoy

D. C.

(2019). Household socioeconomic status and parental investments: Direct and indirect relations with school readiness in Ghana. Child Development, 90(1), 260-278. https://doi.org/10.1111/cdev.12899

59.

World Health Organization. (2010). Parenting for lifelong health (PLH). Author.