Nurturing Cognitive Competence in Preschoolers: A Longitudinal Study of Intergenerational Continuity and Risk

The current investigation was designed to examine the provision of cognitive stimulation to preschool-aged children from high-risk families. Participants were drawn from the Concordia Longitudinal Risk Project, a prospective, longitudinal investigation of individuals recruited in 1976–77 from lower SES neighbourhoods who were rated by childhood peers on standardised scales of aggression and social withdrawal. Based on a subsample of women followed from childhood to motherhood ( N = 51), we found that childhood behaviour patterns, particularly a history of aggression, negatively predicted cognitive stimulation to preschool-aged offspring, in the context of(1) scaffolding during a structured teaching task, and (2) the quality of the home environment provided for children. In the second part of the study, concurrent analyses focusing on children’s cognitive competence ( N = 80) revealed that parental stimulation predicts the intellectual functioning of preschool-aged offspring within a community-based, high-risk sample. Taken together, the current findings provide evidence for the existence of a pathway of intergenerational transfer of risk operating through cognitive stimulation.