The potential of early parent-child interactions for children’s development is widely acknowledged (e. g. NICHD-ECCRN, 2003; Lehrl, Ebert, Blaurock, Rossbach, & Weinert, 2020). However, little is known about the internal structure and potential interrelations of different features of these interactions. Yet for child ages under three it has not been modeled as a learning environment of its own. In longitudinal educational research a general factor approach to parent-child interaction is commonly used in statistical analyses (e. g. Linberg, Lehrl, & Weinert, 2020; Nordahl, Owen, Ribeiro, & Zachrisson, 2020; Weinert, 2017). Nevertheless, differentiation, both in learning environments and in domains of development, prevails in older age groups from preschool onwards.

Drawing on the general “SSCO model of learning environments” (Bäumer et al., 2019) as well as approaches in other educational contexts like preschool, which confirm a three dimensional structure in group-settings (e. g. Bihler, Agache, Kohl, Willard, & Leyendecker, 2018), the differentiation of two dimensions of parental interaction behavior (cognitive stimulation and emotional support) is proposed for the dyadic setting. This model builds on, both theoretical (e. g. Bornstein, 2002) and empirical (e. g. Landry, Smith, Swank, & Guttentag, 2008) foundations. So far, only a few investigations have studied the factorial structure of early parent-child interactions (e. g. Linberg, 2018).

The following research question leads the investigation: “Is there empirical support for a differentiated structure of parental interaction behavior in the NEPS-SC1 observational data of parent-child interactions?” 

Using observational data from the first three waves of NEPS-SC1 (n = 739; Blossfeld, Roßbach, & von Maurice, 2011; Hachul et al., 2019) the proposition is evaluated through longitudinal structural equation modeling. Child age in the three waves was 7, 17, and 26 months, respectively. Parent-child interaction was based on semi-structured play situations of 5-10 minutes in the families' home, similar to the “three boxes procedure” in the North American benchmark study NICHD. Video material from non-participating observations was coded on a 5-point Likert-scale by extensively trained raters using a German adaptation of the macro-analytic NICHD rating instrument (Linberg et al., 2019). Interrater reliability exceeded 90% of agreement. This rating procedure provides both a holistic and economical measurement of qualitative aspects of parent-child interaction and thereby pedagogical process quality in the early home learning environment. Longitudinal cross-lagged structural equation modeling was applied using the software Stata® in order to foster deeper understanding of interrelations between the variables coded over multiple measurement points and give insight into latent structures. Missing data in the sample was handled through full information maximum likelihood estimation.

Preliminary results favor a two-factor model of parental interactional behavior in the all three waves (Χ2 (38) = 186.92, p < .0001, CFI = .952, RMSEA = .073, AIC = 18614.807, BIC = 18854.283) over a general factor model (Χ2 (52) = 304.48, p < .0001, CFI = .924, RMSEA = .081, AIC = 18704.371, BIC = 18879.373). This gives reason to use a two-factor model of parental interaction behavior in the study of the early developmental contexts of infants and toddlers within the family, which allows for a more detailed analysis of this first learning environment. Further development, implications and potential difficulties of this approach are discussed. Differential modeling of parent-child interactions adds value to the assessment of specific effects of its dimensions on different domains of child development as well as, both the questions of timing and of potential interaction effects between behavior dimensions, under a longitudinal perspective (e. g. Vallotton, Mastergeorge, Foster, Decker, & Ayoub, 2017). As large-scale results in early childhood development mainly stem from North American studies, such as NICHD-SECCYD or ECLS-B, it is relevant to enrich the existing body of research with results from a comparable German study, and thus build a basis for comparative analyses like the one by Nordahl et al. (2020), which uses data from both the Norwegian BONDS sample and the NICHD.

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