"I teach her at home": Home learning environments amid resource constraints

Area of Science:

• Child Development
• Socioeconomic Factors in Parenting
• Early Childhood Education

Background:

• Infancy and toddlerhood are critical periods for development, with home learning environments established early influencing future outcomes.
• Limited institutional support for infants and toddlers emphasizes the crucial role of parental investments.
• Resource availability significantly impacts parenting strategies and the creation of supportive home learning environments.

Purpose of the Study:

• To examine how mothers with low incomes perceive and implement investments of time and money for their infants and toddlers.
• To understand the strategies mothers use to foster home learning environments for young children.

Main Methods:

• Longitudinal, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 80 mothers.
• Participants were part of an unconditional cash transfer experiment.

Main Results:

• Mothers actively structured time, allocated resources, and organized spaces to create desired home learning environments.
• Four distinct patterns emerged describing how mothers invested in home learning environments for their infants and toddlers.

Conclusions:

• Mothers demonstrated agency by prioritizing and investing in home learning environments, thereby fostering infant and toddler growth.
• The study highlights how financial and time resources influence parenting decisions and practices.
• Policy interventions can empower parents by ensuring adequate resource provision to support child development.