影響兩歲前嬰幼兒認知成長趨勢的早期家庭環境因素：以潛在成長模式初探

Home Environmental Influences on Cognitive Development Trajectories Across the First 2 Years: An Exploratory Study on Latent Growth Modeling

家庭是每個孩子的人生起點，家庭成員之間的互動以及家中發生的事件都對孩子的發展產生重要影響，探究哪些早期家庭環境對於孩子兩歲前認知發展的顯著影響力是個重要的研究議題，因此本研究旨在探討6月齡時期家庭環境因素對於6至24月齡期間嬰幼兒認知能力成長趨勢的影響，使用「幼兒發展調查資料庫建置計畫：3月齡組」縱貫追蹤調查資料，以潛在成長模式探討6月齡嬰兒認知發展起始水準以及至24月齡時的成長趨勢，並進一步以條件式潛在成長模式初步探究早期家庭環境因素對嬰幼兒認知發展之後續影響。研究結果指出嬰幼兒認知能力呈現線性成長，6月齡時期測量的家庭環境變項中，環境多樣、學習材料、學習刺激及父母回應，與6月齡時的認知起始能力有顯著關聯，對於後續的認知成長速率也具影響力，而條件式管教則僅對認知成長速率有顯著的負向影響。本研究以具全國代表性樣本，檢視2歲前臺灣嬰幼兒認知能力隨時間遞變的成長趨勢，並初步全面性地探究不同家庭環境變項如何以不同方式影響此成長趨勢，不僅有助於教育者選擇正確的家庭環境面向，設計促進嬰幼兒認知發展的教育介入方案，亦可作為政府單位提供家庭親職教養知識時的實證理論基礎。

Family is the starting point of life for every child. The interactions among family members and the events that occur within the home significantly impact a child’s development. Therefore, understanding the early family environments that can significantly impact children’s cognitive development before the age of two is a crucial area of research. This study explores the effects of the family environment at 6 months old on children’s cognitive development trajectories from 6 to 24 months of age. Using data from the“Kids in Taiwan: National Longitudinal Study of Child Development and Care—3-month-old cohort,”we used a latent growth model to investigate the onset of cognitive development in infants at 6 months old and the growth trend of their cognitive development up to 24 months old. Moreover, a conditional latent growth model was used to further investigate the effects of early family environment factors on cognitive development in infants. The results showed that the cognitive development of the infants demonstrated linear growth. Of the family variables measured at 6-months old, environmental diversity, learning materials, learning stimuli, and parental responsivity had a significant relationship with the initial status of cognitive ability in infants at 6 months old and also had positive effects on subsequent growth trajectories. Conditional discipline, meanwhile, was shown to have negative effects on growth trajectories. This study used nationally representative samples to investigate the cognitive development trajectories of Taiwanese infants under two years to comprehensively explore how different family environment variables might affect the growth trajectory differently. Our results provide evidence-based guidance for educators designing intervention programs to facilitate young children’s cognitive development and serves as an empirical theoretical basis for governmental agencies in providing parental education programs.