The relationship between toothbrushing and parental praise

“We examined how variations in parent talk and stress, and child mood and sleep, separately impacted fluctuations in brushing time. Surprisingly, parents were not able to accurately predict which variables shaped brushing in their own children.”

The study included eighty one three-year-olds learning to brush their own teeth. The sample was 80 per cent white, 14 per cent multiracial, 10 per cent Hispanic or Latinx, 2 per cent Asian, 1 per cent black and 1 per cent preferred not to answer. Data was collected from families in Pennsylvania (94 per cent) with the remaining in New Jersey, Delaware, Massachusetts, Maryland, and Florida. Parental education averaged from 12 to 20 years and the annual income ranged from $14,000 to $200,000. Data was collected throughout a 16-day period in two waves: January-June 2019 and March-May 2020 (during the Covid-19 pandemic). Families were recruited through partnerships with local preschools and through social media.