Predictability in caregiver signaling: Investigating the relationship between socioeconomic status and entropy (2024)
Undergraduate: Masita Wicaksana
Faculty Advisor: Margaret Sheridan
Department: Psychology and Neuroscience
The quality and consistency of caregiving is essential for maintaining healthy child development. Novel research focusing on the unpredictability of caregiver behavior—more specifically the signaling—has demonstrated that unpredictable caregiving is associated with poor cognitive function across species. Given that macro-level determinants such as socioeconomic status (SES) also impact caregiving, the present study aimed to investigate the relationship between SES and entropy (a measure of unpredictability in sensory signals) in caregivers of 4- to 7-year-olds. The moderating role of partner support was also investigated to explore potential buffering effects from the social environment. Secondary data analyses from the Wellness Health and Life Experiences study (N = 95) were conducted utilizing questionnaires and video-recorded parent-child interactions. No significant relationships between any indicators of subjective and objective SES and caregiver entropy were found, and partner support did not demonstrate a moderating effect. However, this study represents a first step towards understanding the influence of social determinants on caregiving and highlights the importance of conducting future research to understand potential mediators and moderators in the relationship between SES and unpredictable caregiving. _x000D_
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Keywords: caregiving, entropy, unpredictability, socioeconomic status, partner support