Current Trends and Best Practices in Infant and Toddler Research (Essay Sample)

Current Trends and Best Practices in Infant and Toddler Research Student’s ID Institutional Affiliation Course Instructor Name Due Date Current Trends and Best Practices in Infant and Toddler Research Over the past few decades, research has focused more on infant and toddler research. Trends such as the role of parenting and the child’s emotional wellbeing have shone light on children’s early experiences, which have a great potential to shape their development from early childhood to adolescence. These trends highlight the vital role that parenting plays in shaping the children’s developmental and emotional outcomes. Key to building a strong emotional wellbeing is responsive parenting, which involves adapting to the infant’s cues and constantly providing care. Such responsive parenting helps the child develop social competence, trust, and resilience. Therefore, current trends in infant and toddler research, which include the role of parenting, children temperament and emotional well-being, and the family structure, are critical in supporting children’s growth and development. Research 1: Investigating correlates of children's emotional well‐being: Parenting stress and child temperament (Çelebi & Acar, 2024) The research is aimed at exploring child temperament and parenting stress and how they contribute to a child’s emotional well-being. The authors of this study wanted to understand how traits such as reactivity and persistence, which are associated with temperament, affect anxiety, aggression, dysregulation, and emotional regulation in children. The authors also studied parenting stress and how it is affected by child temperament. The study involved 219 Turkish preschool children. Among these children, 109 were boys while 110 were girls. The children were aged between 36 and 76 months. The study participants were mothers, who provided data on their levels of parenting stress and the temperament and well-being of their children. The mothers were provided with questionnaires, which were used to examine the levels of parenting stress, child temperament, and the child emotional wellbeing. To assess child temperament, characteristics such as reactivity and persistence were examined on standardized scales. The research study established that persistence of child temperament was associated with less aggression and better emotional regulation. On the other hand, high reactivity was associated with poor emotional regulation and increased levels of anxiety, aggression, and dysregulation. As a result, the authors came to a conclusion that both parenting stress and child temperament are significantly influenced by the emotional wellbeing of the child. Additionally, the researchers noted that parenting stress affected the relationship between child wellbeing and temperament. Consequently, these factors highlight the significance of supporting parents, especially parents dealing with elevated levels of stress. The research provides significant insights into the dynamics surrounding parenting stress and child temperament. The research could have, however, benefited from a broader research sample. Research 2: Family structure and material hardship: Child and adolescent pathways to health and well-being (Miller & Johnston, 2024) The research aims at examining the association between the structure of the family and material hardship. The authors explored the relationship between race or ethnicity, material hardship, and family structure. Additionally, the authors investigated how material hardship and family structure affect child self-reported health from middle childhood to adolescence. The study focused on various outcomes, including suicidal ideation, anxiety, and BMI. The researchers used a dataset of child wellbeing and the future of families. The main focus was children aged anywhere from birth to adolescence and from diverse ethnic and racial backgrounds. The authors examined the relationship between material hardship, family structure, and health outcomes using SEM (Structural Equation Modeling) and OLS (Ordinary Least Squares) regressions. The results showed that family structure at child birth could predict material hardship after one year. However, this association reduced when considering maternal characteristics. Additionally, family structure was indirectly associated with adolescent anxiety when considering material hardship. Ethnicity/race, however, did not affect this relationship. As a result, he authors of the study came to a conclusion that material hardship is critical for mediating the association between family structure and adolescent outcomes, especially anxiety. The study emphasizes the importance of social support that focus on addressing family needs and maternal health access, which can reduce medical risks related to material hardship. Therefore, the study provides important insights into the effect of material hardship and family structure on adolescent health. The study, however, did not explore other factors and their effect on adolescent health, including community resources and paternal involvement. Research 3: A Person-Centered Approach to Child Temperament and Parenting (Dalimonte-Merckling & Brophy-Herb, 2018) The research aims at assessing how variations such as a mother’s parenting stress and child temperament affect parenting behavior. The research authors wanted to establish whether meaningful subgroups of children with various temperaments exist and how the temperaments affect parenting. It involved the National Early Head Start Research and Evaluation project where they got a research sample was made up of 3,001 mother-child dyads...