Mother-child play and emerging social behaviors among infants from maltreating families

Mother-child play of 12-month-old infants (N=130) from maltreating (N=78) and non-maltreating (N=52) families was analyzed as a context that integrates infants' developing social and cognitive skills. Play was coded from semistructured and unstructured play paradigms. No group differences were found in infants' play maturity. Infants from abusing families demonstrated more imitative play than infants from non-maltreating families, and engaged in less independent play than infants from both neglecting and non-maltreating families, suggesting a delay in emerging social behaviors. Mothers from abusing and non-maltreating families differed in attention directing behaviors. Maternal behaviors predicted child play style variables, but did not mediate the effects of maltreatment. Findings discuss the influence of an early maltreating environment upon the development of the emergent self. Implications for early intervention are underscored.     

婴儿期母亲将心比心对儿童5岁共情的预测:母亲陪伴总时间的调节作用

使用追踪设计，以68对母婴为被试，探讨母亲养育质量、陪伴时间影响儿童共情发展的机制。在婴儿期（9、14个月）评估母亲将心比心并调查母亲每周陪伴婴儿的总时间与母亲参与的互动时间；在儿童5岁时，采用“陌生人假装受伤情境”范式测查儿童共情。结果发现：（1）婴儿期母亲恰当的心理相关评论能够正向预测5岁时儿童的行为共情，而对情绪共情与认知共情的预测则受到婴儿期母亲陪伴总时间的调节：母亲恰当的心理相关评论能够显著正向预测陪伴总时间短的儿童的情绪共情与母亲陪伴总时间长的儿童的认知共情；（2）婴儿期母亲不协同的心理相关评论能够显著正向预测儿童5岁时的认知共情；（3）婴儿期母亲陪伴总时间能够显著正向预测5岁时儿童的情绪共情。     

Fathers’ Challenging Parenting Behavior Prevents Social Anxiety Development in Their 4-Year-Old Children: A Longitudinal Observational Study

Recent models on parenting propose different roles for fathers and mothers in the development of child anxiety. Specifically, it is suggested that fathers’ challenging parenting behavior, in which the child is playfully encouraged to push her limits, buffers against child anxiety. In this longitudinal study, we explored whether the effect of challenging parenting on children’s social anxiety differed between fathers and mothers. Fathers and mothers from 94 families were separately observed with their two children (44 % girls), aged 2 and 4 years at Time 1, in three structured situations involving one puzzle task and two games. Overinvolved and challenging parenting behavior were coded. Child social anxiety was measured by observing the child’s response to a stranger at Time 1, and half a year later at Time 2, and by parental ratings. In line with predictions, father’s challenging parenting behavior predicted less subsequent observed social anxiety of the 4-year-old child. Mothers’ challenging behavior, however, predicted more observed social anxiety of the 4-year-old. Parents’ overinvolvement at Time 1 did not predict change in observed social anxiety of the 4-year-old child. For the 2-year-old child, maternal and paternal parenting behavior did not predict subsequent social anxiety, but early social anxiety marginally did. Parent-rated social anxiety was predicted by previous parental ratings of social anxiety, and not by parenting behavior. Challenging parenting behavior appears to have favorable effects on observed 4-year-old’s social anxiety when displayed by the father. Challenging parenting behavior emerges as an important focus for future research and interventions.     

Perceived social support mediates between prior attachment and subsequent adjustment: a study of urban African American children.

The processes whereby attachment and other social and cognitive factors contribute to social and emotional adjustment were examined. Participants were 56 African American children from low-income urban families. Attachment and sociability were assessed in the strange situation when children were 4.5 years old. Two years later, children were interviewed regarding their perceptions of social support and their attributions about others' intentions. Also assessed at Time 2 were child verbal intelligence, defensive response style, children's self-reports, and parent reports of child adjustment. As expected, attachment uniquely predicted perceived social support. Insecure attachment predicted self-reports of behavior problems and parental report of internalizing problems. Perceived social support was associated positively and significantly with viewing ambiguously depicted actions as prosocial rather than aggressive. Perceived social support was found to mediate the relation between attachment and adjustment. Results suggest that behaviorally mediated strategies for relating to caregivers in early childhood predict generalized social perception, thought, and emotion at later ages.     

Social factors in the development of early executive functioning: a closer look at the caregiving environment

This study investigated prospective links between quality of the early caregiving environment and children's subsequent executive functioning (EF). Sixty-two families were met on five occasions, allowing for assessment of maternal interactive behavior, paternal interactive behavior, and child attachment security between 1 and 2 years of age, and child EF at 2 and 3 years. The results suggested that composite scores of parental behavior and child attachment were related to child performance on EF tasks entailing strong working memory and cognitive flexibility components (conflict-EF). In particular, child attachment security was related to conflict-EF performance at 3 years above and beyond what was explained by a combination of all other social antecedents of child EF identified thus far: child verbal ability and prior EF, family SES, and parenting behavior. Attachment security may thus play a meaningful role in young children's development of executive control.     

Relation of birth weight, maternal intelligence and mother–child interactions to cognitive and play competence of Jamaican two-year old children

The present study assessed whether birth weight, maternal child rearing behaviors, and maternal intelligence combine in an additive or in a non-linear interactive fashion to influence cognitive performance in a sample of 24-month old full-term appropriate and low birth weight Jamaican children. Child cognitive performance was measured using the Griffiths Scale and a laboratory based assessment of the amount of time the child utilized different levels of play behavior. Mothers were videotaped while playing with their children under different instructional conditions and videotapes were coded for 8 maternal interaction patterns. Maternal verbal intelligence was assessed using the PPVT. Results supported the operation of both additive co-action as well as non-linear interactive processes. Birth weight, maternal behaviors toward her child and maternal intelligence predicted child cognitive performance. In addition, low birth weight infants were either less sensitive to facilitative aspects of maternal behaviors and/or more sensitive to maternal inhibitory behaviors than were appropriate birth weight infants. Further, child rearing behaviors of more intelligent mothers were a stronger influence on their child's cognitive performance than those of less intelligent mothers, even when there were no differences in the level of behaviors of more or less intelligent mothers.     

Child temperament predicts maternal socialization values

The longitudinal study examined whether and how children’s temperament traits in particular but also their age, sex as well as maternal education and age predict maternal socialization values. The sample was drawn from the IDEFICS study and included 567 mothers from Estonia whose children were 2–9 years old at Time 0 and 4–11 years old at Time 1. The findings showed that children’s temperament at Time 0 predicted maternal socialization values at Time 1, but not vice versa. Mothers who perceived their child to be more imaginative at Time 0 considered self-maximization socialization values more important and social conformity-related values less important at Time 1. Child’s conscientiousness and extraversion were linked positively to social conformity-related socialization values. Older mothers and those with higher level of education put more emphasis on self-maximization socialization values. Children’s age and sex were not related to socialization values.     

Influences of parent and child negative emotionality on young children's everyday behaviors

Negative emotionality is linked to unfavorable life outcomes, but studies have yet to examine negative emotionality of parents and children as predictors of children's problem behaviors and negative emotion word use in everyday life. This study used a novel naturalistic recording device called the Electronically Activated Recorder to investigate the separate and interactive influences of parent and child negative emotionality on daily child behaviors in a sample of 35 preschool-aged children over two time points separated by 1 year. Fathers' negative emotionality predicted children's whining at Time 1; mothers' negative emotionality predicted children's negative emotion word use at Time 1 and increases in children's arguing/fighting from Time 1 to Time 2. Parents' ratings of child negative emotionality also were associated with increases in children's arguing/fighting from Time 1 to Time 2, and child negative emotionality moderated the association between mothers' negative emotionality and children's arguing/fighting. Further, children with mothers high in negative emotionality displayed higher levels of problem behaviors when their mothers self-reported low levels of positive emotional expressiveness and/or high levels of negative emotional expressiveness. These findings offer preliminary evidence linking parent and child negative emotionality to everyday child behaviors and suggest that emotional expressiveness may play a key role in moderating the links between maternal negative emotionality and child behavioral problems. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved).     

Mother, child, and situational correlates of toddlers' social competence

Mother, child, and situational correlates of toddlers' social competence in the second year were investigated in a sample of 24 children (11 girls, 13 boys). At 12 months, children's temperament (perceived difficulty) was assessed by questionnaire. Between 14 and 17 months, the children's everyday interaction experiences (maternal responsiveness and involvement) were observed at home. At 24 months, the children's social competence (responsiveness, use of social resources) and the quality of maternal behavior (responsiveness, availability) were assessed in a laboratory play room. The children's social competence was positively related to the contemporary (24 months) as well as the preceding (during the second year) maternal behavior. High-quality maternal behavior during the second year was associated with the child's low perceived difficulty at 12 months. Relationships between child and mother behavior particularly occurred in situations providing some challenge to the child.     

Maternal Life Stress and Subsequent Chinese Toddlers’ Social Adjustment: The Moderating Role of Inhibitory Control

The current study examined the links between maternal life stress and subsequent toddler behavior problems and social competence, as well as the potential moderating effects of cool and hot inhibitory control (IC) in mainland China. Participants included 89 mothers and their infants (42 boys, 47 girls). Mothers completed self-report measure of maternal life stress when their children were 1 year of age (M?=?1.18, SD?=?.07 at Time 1), and reported on their children’s social adjustment using the Chinese version of Infant-Toddler Social and Emotional Assessment (CITSEA) at Time 1 and again a year later (M?=?2.06, SD?=?.09 at Time 2). Toddler IC was assessed with laboratory tasks at Time 2. Structural equation modeling with a bootstrap resample of 1000 indicated that cool IC significantly moderated the longitudinal association between maternal life stress (T1) and latent construct of toddler behavior problems (T2), controlling for behavior problems at Time 1, child age and maternal age. Specifically, maternal life stress was associated with subsequent behavior problems only for toddlers who were low in cool IC. In comparison to the results of behavior problems, high levels of maternal life stress predicted subsequent low levels of social competence. Neither cool IC nor hot IC served as the moderator in the association between maternal life stress (T1) and toddler social competence (T2). These findings indicated that toddler cool IC may promote resilient adaptation and modify the links between maternal life stress and toddler behavior problems but not social competence.     

Welfare policies and very young children: experimental data on stage-environment fit

The authors examined the effects of welfare programs that increased maternal employment and family income on the development of very young children using data from 5 random-assignment experiments. The children were 6 months to 3 years old when their mothers entered the programs; cognitive and behavioral outcomes were measured 2-5 years later. While there were no overall program impacts, positive or negative, on the development of children in this age group, there was a pair of domain- and age-specific effects: The programs decreased positive social behavior among 1-year-olds and increased school achievement among 2-year-olds. After exploring several explanations for these results, the authors suggest that the contextual changes engendered by the programs, including children's exposure to center-based child care, interacted differentially with specific developmental transitions.     

Trajectories of emotional well-being in mothers of adolescents and adults with autism

Raising an adolescent or adult child with a developmental disability confers exceptional caregiving challenges on parents. We examined trajectories of 2 indicators of emotional well-being (depressive symptoms and anxiety) in a sample of primarily Caucasian mothers (N = 379; M age = 51.22 years at Time 1) of adolescent and adult children with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD; M age = 21.91 years at Time 1, 73.2% male). We also investigated within-person associations of child context time-varying covariates (autism symptoms, behavior problems, residential status) and maternal context time-varying covariates (social support network size and stressful family events) with the trajectories of emotional well-being. Data were collected on 5 occasions across a 10-year period. Average patterns of stable (depressive symptoms) and improved (anxiety) emotional well-being were evident, and well-being trajectories were sensitive to fluctuations in both child and maternal context variables. On occasions when behavior problems were higher, depressive symptoms and anxiety were higher. On occasions after which the grown child moved out of the family home, anxiety was lower. Anxiety was higher on occasions when social support networks were smaller and when more stressful life events were experienced. These results have implications for midlife and aging families of children with an ASD and those who provide services to these families.     

母亲元情绪理念与学前儿童社会适应的相互作用关系

采用追踪设计对438名学前儿童母亲进行问卷调查研究,主要探讨了母亲元情绪理念与学前儿童社会适应的相互作用关系。交叉滞后分析结果表明：（1）相邻两次测量的母亲各元情绪理念之间,社会适应各指标之间均具有中等程度的稳定性;（2）同一时间点的母亲各元情绪理念与儿童社会适应各指标之间均显著相关;（3）母亲元情绪理念与儿童社会适应之间部分存在着相互作用关系：控制了变量自身的连续性后,前测的母亲情绪教导显著正向预测后测的儿童敏感合作;前测的母亲情绪不干涉显著正向预测后测的儿童愤怒攻击、焦虑退缩行为;反过来,前测的儿童敏感合作能正向预测后测的母亲情绪教导,显著负向预测情绪不干涉、情绪摒除和情绪紊乱;前测的焦虑退缩能显著正向预测后测的母亲情绪摒除和情绪紊乱。     

The effectiveness of early head start for 3-year-old children and their parents: lessons for policy and programs

Early Head Start, a federal program begun in 1995 for low-income pregnant women and families with infants and toddlers, was evaluated through a randomized trial of 3,001 families in 17 programs. Interviews with primary caregivers, child assessments, and observations of parent-child interactions were completed when children were 3 years old. Caregivers were diverse in race-ethnicity, language, and other characteristics. Regression-adjusted impact analyses showed that 3-year-old program children performed better than did control children in cognitive and language development, displayed higher emotional engagement of the parent and sustained attention with play objects, and were lower in aggressive behavior. Compared with controls, Early Head Start parents were more emotionally supportive, provided more language and learning stimulation, read to their children more, and spanked less. The strongest and most numerous impacts were for programs that offered a mix of home-visiting and center-based services and that fully implemented the performance standards early.     

Longitudinal relations among parental emotional expressivity,children's regulation,and quality of socioemotional functioning

The role of regulation as a mediator of the relations between maternal emotional expressivity and children's adjustment and social competence was examined when children (N = 208) were 4.5 to just 8 years old (Time 1, T1) and 2 years later (Time 2, T2). At T2, as at T1, regulation mediated the relation between positive maternal emotional expressivity and children's functioning. When T1 relations and the stability of variables over time were controlled for in a structural equation model, T2 relations generally were nonsignificant, although parents' dominant negative expressivity predicted high regulation. In contrast, in regressions, the findings for parent positive expressivity, but not negative expressivity, held at T2 when T1 variables were controlled. Thus, relations for negative expressivity, but not positive expressivity, changed with age.     

心理理论对幼儿白谎行为的影响：认知移情的部分中介作用

采用失望礼物研究范式考察心理理论与幼儿白谎行为的关系,及认知移情和情绪移情在其中的中介作用。结果发现：（1）幼儿的白谎行为发生率、心理理论、认知移情和情绪移情能力随年龄的增长而提高;（2）控制年龄与言语能力后,幼儿的心理理论与认知移情呈显著正相关、与白谎行为也呈显著正相关,且认知移情与白谎行为呈显著正相关;（3）幼儿的认知移情在心理理论和白谎行为间起部分中介的作用。结果表明：幼儿的心理理论可直接影响其白谎行为,也可通过认知移情的中介作用间接影响其白谎行为。     

Parental Alcoholism and Co-Occurring Antisocial Behavior: Prospective Relationships to Externalizing Behavior Problems in their Young Sons

The hypothesis that parental alcoholism and co-occurring antisocial behavior would be indirectly linked to child externalizing behavior problems through child lack of control, current levels of parent depression, family conflict, and parent–child conflict was tested using manifest variable regression analysis. Participants were a community sample of 125 families with an alcoholic father and 83 ecologically matched but nonsubstance abusing families involved in the first 2 waves of an ongoing longitudinal study (with 3 years between each wave). All families had a biological son who was 3–5 years old at study onset. Results revealed that child lack of control mediated the relation between paternal alcoholism and the son's subsequent externalizing behavior problems. Family conflict was a significant mediator of maternal and paternal lifetime antisocial behavior effects and father–son conflict mediated paternal lifetime antisocial behavior effects. Study implications are discussed within the context of parental socialization of antisocial behavior.     

Within-Family Differences in Internalizing Behaviors: The Role of Children’s Perspectives of the Mother-child Relationship

The goal of this exploratory, within-family, longitudinal study was to examine whether children’s perspectives of the mother-child relationship explained within-family differences in children’s responses to a shared family stressor (maternal depressive symptoms) over time. Children (ages 8 to 15 years; N = 68) residing in 34 families were drawn from a general population study in the UK. Predictor variables were assessed at Time 1 and change in internalizing behavior from Time 1 to Time 2 (2 years later) was examined. As children were nested within families, data were analyzed using multilevel modeling, controlling for previous child behavior. Child perspective of the mother-child relationship, in interaction with maternal depressive symptoms, was found to explain within-family differences in internalizing over time. Children with a negative perspective (compared to mothers’ perspectives) were the most vulnerable to the adverse effects of maternal depressive symptoms.     

Modeling Family Dynamics in Children with Fragile X Syndrome

Few studies have examined the impact of children with genetic disorders and their unaffected siblings on family functioning. In this study, the reciprocal causal links between problem behaviors and maternal distress were investigated in 150 families containing a child with fragile X syndrome (FXS) and an unaffected sibling. Both children's behavior problems appeared to have strong, direct effects on maternal distress, but maternal distress did not appear to have any reciprocal causal effects on either child's behavior problems. Surprisingly, there were no significant differences in the effects of the two children's behavior problems on maternal distress. These data suggest that the problem behaviors of children with FXS, as well as their unaffected siblings, can have a substantial and additive impact on maternal depression and anxiety. Future research efforts should employ longitudinal research designs to confirm these findings.     

Chronicity, severity, and timing of maternal depressive symptoms: relationships with child outcomes at age 5

The relationships between severity, chronicity, and timing of maternal depressive symptoms and child outcomes were examined in a cohort of 4,953 children. Mothers provided self-reports of depressive symptoms during pregnancy, immediately postpartum, and when the child was 6 months old and 5 years old. At the age 5 follow-up, mothers reported on children's behavior and children completed a receptive vocabulary test. Results suggest that both the severity and the chronicity of maternal depressive symptoms are related to more behavior problems and lower vocabulary scores in children. The interaction of severity and chronicity of maternal depressive symptoms was significantly related to higher levels of child behavior problems. Timing of maternal symptoms was not significantly related to child vocabulary scores, but more recent reports of maternal depressive symptoms were associated with higher rates of child behavior problems.