Quality of family context and cognitive development: A cross sectional and longitudinal study

Abstract

This study analyses the relationship between psychosocial quality of family context and the cognitive development of a sample of 551 children of school age. The data were gathered at school and at home in two waves, when the children were 5 (T1) and 8 (T2) years old, respectively. In T1, three factors related to quality of family context were obtained: absence of conflict, child –family adjustment, and sociability. Two factors of cognitive development were obtained in T1 and T2. In T1, associations were found between all three factors and cognitive development. In T2, associations were found between the quality of family context and cognitive development. Cognitive development in T2 was predicted by the absence of conflict T1 factor, with a negative association. Children who were exposed to more conflicts in T1, and who scored higher on the HOME scale in T2, were found to have improved their cognitive development scores over time in comparison with their group.