Contextual risk and parenting as predictors of effortful control and social competence in preschool children

Using a short-term longitudinal design (6 months), this study examined cumulative contextual risk as a predictor of effortful control (EC) and social competence in a community sample of children (N = 80, ages 33-40 months at time 1). Maternal parenting was examined as a mediator of contextual risk. EC was assessed using laboratory tasks, and parenting was assessed using observational ratings. Time 1 contextual risk was negatively related to time 2 EC after controlling for time 1 EC. Mothers' limit setting and scaffolding predicted higher time 2 EC and accounted for the effect of contextual risk. Time 1 EC, contextual risk, and parenting predicted time 2 social competence, and contextual risk had an indirect effect on social competence through parenting. Results suggest that contextual risk predicts smaller relative increases in EC and that parenting accounts for this effect. Knowledge of the factors that divert or promote effortful control can provide targets for intervention to enhance effortful control abilities and better adjustment.     

Individual, Social, and Behavioral Factors Associated with Co-Occurring Conduct Problems and Callous-Unemotional Traits

Conduct problems (CP) and callous-unemotional (CU) traits can have a long-lasting negative impact into adulthood. Importantly, among youth with CP, those high on CU traits engage in a more severe, aggressive, and persistent pattern of antisocial behavior. The current study investigates the co-occurrence between CP and CU traits among a large sample of Greek-Cypriot adolescents (N?=?1,674; 50.1 % girls). Five distinct groups were identified with Latent Profile Analysis: low risk (48.7 %), average risk (33.8 %), co-occurring high CP-high CU (5.4 %), high CP-low CU (5.2 %), and low CP-high CU (6.9 %). Although more boys were identified in the higher risk groups, boys and girls within each group were not differentiated on levels of CP or CU traits during early adolescence. Youth in the identified groups were compared on early (Mean age?=?12.12) and middle (Mean age?=?14.02) adolescence individual and contextual factors. Youth with high CP-high CU were at higher risk for behavioral (bullying and substance use), individual (inattention, impulsivity, narcissism), and contextual (low family-support) problems compared to youth in the high CP-low CU and low CP-high CU groups, providing evidence that the combination of CP and CU traits might constitute a pathological group. These findings demonstrate the usefulness of sub-typing CP based on CU traits for the forthcoming fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual. Additional novel findings suggested that adolescents scoring high on CP, irrespective of CU, were not differentiated on hyperactivity, victimization, and anxiety/depression, and adolescents scoring high on CU traits, with or without CP, reported similar low levels of self-esteem and peer and family social-support.     

The developmental trajectories of attention focusing, attentional and behavioral persistence, and externalizing problems during school-age years

The developmental trajectories of attention focusing (by parents' and teachers' reports) and attentional and behavioral persistence (observed during a laboratory task)--2 indexes of effortful control--and externalizing problems from ages 5 to 10 years were examined for 356 children combined from a pair of 3-wave (2 years apart) longitudinal studies. The authors identified clusters of children with distinct trajectories for these variables and examined the links between the effortful control trajectories and the externalizing problem trajectories. Although attention focusing remained relatively stable, attentional and behavioral persistence continued to show mean-level changes (especially among the children with lower levels of persistence). Children with high and stable trajectories of effortful control tended to exhibit low and stable trajectories of externalizing problems, whereas those with lower and/or less stable trajectories of effortful control showed more elevated and/or fluctuating trajectories of externalizing problems.     

Nature and Nurturing: Parenting in the Context of Child Temperament

Accounting for both bidirectional and interactive effects between parenting and child temperament can fine-tune theoretical models of the role of parenting and temperament in children’s development of adjustment problems. Evidence for bidirectional and interactive effects between parenting and children’s characteristics of frustration, fear, self-regulation, and impulsivity was reviewed, and an overall model of children’s individual differences in response to parenting is proposed. In general, children high in frustration, impulsivity and low in effortful control are more vulnerable to the adverse effects of negative parenting, while in turn, many negative parenting behaviors predict increases in these characteristics. Frustration, fearfulness, and effortful control also appear to elicit parenting behaviors that can predict increases in these characteristics. Irritability renders children more susceptible to negative parenting behaviors. Fearfulness operates in a very complex manner, sometimes increasing children’s responses to parenting behaviors and sometimes mitigating them and apparently operating differently across gender. Important directions for future research include the use of study designs and analytic approaches that account for the direction of effects and for developmental changes in parenting and temperament over time.     

Growth in temperament and parenting as predictors of adjustment during children's transition to adolescence

The author examined relations among demographic risk (income, maternal education, single-parent status), growth in temperament (fear, irritability, effortful control), and parenting (rejection, inconsistent discipline) across 3 years and the prediction of children's adjustment problems in a community sample (N=190; ages 8-12 years at Time 1). Family income was related to higher initial levels of fear, irritability, rejection, and inconsistency and lower effortful control but was not related to changes in these variables. Higher initial rejection predicted increases in child fear and irritability. Higher initial fear predicted decreases in rejection and inconsistency. Higher initial irritability predicted increases in inconsistency, and higher initial effortful control predicted decreases in rejection. When growth of parenting and temperament were considered simultaneously, increases in effortful control and decreases in fear and irritability predicted lower Time 3 internalizing and externalizing problems. Increases in rejection and inconsistent discipline predicted higher Time 3 externalizing, although sometimes the effect appeared to be indirect through temperament. The findings suggest that temperament and parenting predict changes in each other and predict adjustment during the transition to adolescence.     

Childhood and adolescent predictors of early adult career pathways

Individual and contextual factors in childhood and adolescence that were hypothesized to contribute to career pathways were examined in a prospective study. Four career pathway groups were distinguished in a sample of 202 at-risk men (23-24 years of age); namely, young men with long-term unemployment, short-term unemployment, full employment, or a college education. Measures of educational attainment, family and peer characteristics, and personal adjustment during childhood and adolescence were used to determine if they would predict early adult career pathways. Findings indicated that the long-term unemployed young men, overall, showed the poorest levels of educational attainment, family and peer characteristics, and personal adjustment during childhood and adolescence.The most important predictors of differing career pathways were educational attainment, arrests, and mental health problems. Implications of the findings for conceptualizing the school-to-work transition within an integrative framework are discussed.     

Developmental Trajectories of Boys’ and Girls’ Delinquency: Sex Differences and Links to Later Adolescent Outcomes

This study examined gender differences in trajectories of delinquent behaviors over a 6-year period in adolescence and differential outcomes of these diverse developmental pathways. Participants were 754 children who were part of a longitudinal study of the development of early starting conduct problems. Four trajectory patterns were identified across grades 7–12: increasing, desisting, chronic, and nonproblem groups. Although the proportion of boys and girls varied across the pathways, both genders were represented on these trajectories. Boys were more represented on the chronic and desisting trajectories; girls were more represented in the nonproblem group. However, the proportion of boys and girls was similar in the increasing trajectory. Trajectory membership significantly predicted age 19 outcomes for partner violence, risky sexual behavior and depression, and the risk conferred on these negative adjustment outcomes did not vary by gender. The overall pattern was characterized by poor outcomes at age 19 for youth in both the chronic and the increasing trajectories. The major conclusion is that, other than base rate differences, developmental patterns and outcomes for girls mimic those previously found for boys.     

Driving self-regulation and risky driving outcomes

Self-regulation has been associated with risky driving outcomes in the past but there are no available measures to assess driving-specific self-regulatory capacity. The present study assessed the association of a newly developed driving self-regulation measure with driving violations, errors, and lapses. Overall, 330 UK drivers completed measures of risky driving outcomes, driving anger, trait impulsivity, sensation seeking, normlessness, domain-general trait self-regulation plus a new unidimensional measure of Driving Self-Regulation Questionnaire (DSRQ-16). Bivariate correlation analysis indicated that the DSRQ-16 showed expected associations with both driving-related outcomes and factors, as well as with impulsivity traits and general self-regulation. Bootstrapped hierarchical linear regression models showed that the DSRQ-16 was significantly associated with driving violations, errors, and lapses after controlling for the effects of other relevant predictors. This is the first study to demonstrate the association of driving-specific self-regulation with risky driving behaviour, driving anger, impulsivity and related personality traits. Driving-specific self-regulation may present a novel target for road safety interventions, as well as a theoretically relevant component of models of risky driving behaviour.     

The relations of problem behavior status to children's negative emotionality, effortful control, and impulsivity: concurrent relations and prediction of change

The relations of children's internalizing and externalizing problem behaviors to their concurrent regulation, impulsivity (reactive undercontrol), anger, sadness, and fearfulness and these aspects of functioning 2 years prior were examined. Parents and teachers completed measures of children's (N = 185; ages 6 through 9 years) adjustment, negative emotionality, regulation, and behavior control; behavioral measures of regulation also were obtained. In general, both internalizing and externalizing problems were associated with negative emotionality. Externalizers were low in effortful regulation and high in impulsivity, whereas internalizers, compared with nondisordered children, were low in impulsivity but not effortful control. Moreover, indices of negative emotionality, regulation, and impulsivity with the level of the same variables 2 years before controlled predicted stability versus change in problem behavior status.     

Children’s Life Satisfaction: Developmental Trajectories and Environmental and Personality Predictors

Life satisfaction is a key indicator of children’s healthy development. Although the developmental changes of life satisfaction during adolescence have been investigated, the developmental trajectories of life satisfaction and related predictors during childhood remain unclear. Thus, the current study aimed to identify the developmental trajectories of life satisfaction covering the period from middle to late childhood as well as to examine the predictive roles of environmental factors (i.e., family dysfunction and basic psychological needs satisfaction at school), personality factors (i.e., neuroticism and extraversion), and their interactions in these developmental trajectories. An accelerated longitudinal design was used with Chinese elementary school students (N?=?1069, 45.8% girls, M _age?=?9.43, SD?=?0.95) of 3 cohorts (grade 3, grade 4, and grade 5) on 4 occasions at 6-month intervals. Growth mixture modeling analyses revealed three distinct trajectories of life satisfaction: “High-Stable” (88.8%), “High-Decreasing” (6.8%), and “Low-Increasing” (4.4%). Multivariate logistic regression analyses revealed that family dysfunction and neuroticism served as risk factors for adverse developmental trajectories of life satisfaction; whereas basic psychological needs satisfaction at school served as a protective factor. Furthermore, the interaction between family dysfunction and extraversion suggested that higher levels of extraversion buffered children against the negative effect of family dysfunction on the development of life satisfaction. The identification of three heterogeneous trajectory groups of children’s life satisfaction and key personality and environmental predictors associated with the trajectories suggests that specific interventions need to be tailored to the unique characteristics of the relevant trajectory groups.

     

How do different aspects of self-regulation predict successful adaptation to school?

Self-regulation plays an important role in successful adaptation to preschool and school contexts as well as in later academic achievement. The current study relates different aspects of self-regulation such as temperamental effortful control and executive functions (updating, inhibition, and shifting) to different aspects of adaptation to school such as learning-related behavior, school grades, and performance in standardized achievement tests. The relationship between executive functions/effortful control and academic achievement has been established in previous studies; however, little is known about their unique contributions to different aspects of adaptation to school and the interplay of these factors in young school children. Results of a 1-year longitudinal study (N=459) revealed that unique contributions of effortful control (parental report) to school grades were fully mediated by children's learning-related behavior. On the other hand, the unique contributions of executive functions (performance on tasks) to school grades were only partially mediated by children's learning-related behavior. Moreover, executive functions predicted performance in standardized achievement tests exclusively, with comparable predictive power for mathematical and reading/writing skills. Controlling for fluid intelligence did not change the pattern of prediction substantially, and fluid intelligence did not explain any variance above that of the two included aspects of self-regulation. Although effortful control and executive functions were not significantly related to each other, both aspects of self-regulation were shown to be important for fostering early learning and good classroom adjustment in children around transition to school.     

儿童青少年内外化心理病理问题“共发”现象研究现状与展望

儿童青少年内外化心理病理问题存在共发现象,已受到发展心理学和心理病理学研究者的广泛关注。本文对当前关于儿童青少年内外化问题的描述性研究和解释性研究进行了梳理,对儿童青少年共发现象发生率、发展特点、预测因素和发展结果等方面的重要研究发现进行系统性介绍。最后,基于发展级联和个体与环境因素交互作用视角,对未来本领域的研究进行展望,以期系统、完整地揭示内外化问题共发的原因。     

学前儿童努力控制的发展轨迹与父母养育的关系：一项多水平分析

通过3年追踪研究, 采用问卷法考察了474名学前儿童努力控制发展变化的轨迹, 以及初始父母养育方式对其发展水平和发展速率的影响。多水平分析的结果表明：(1)学前儿童的努力控制呈线性增长, 其发展水平和增长速度均存在明显的个体差异, 努力控制初始水平较高的儿童, 其增长速度也较快。(2)初始的父母鼓励与接纳对儿童努力控制的最后发展水平有促进作用, 而父母的拒绝与惩罚则起反作用。(3)父亲鼓励与接纳能加速儿童努力控制的平均增长速率, 而母亲鼓励与接纳则会延缓其平均增长速率。(4)初始的父亲养育方式可分别解释儿童努力控制发展水平和发展速率10%和2%的变异, 初始的母亲养育方式可分别解释其14%和3%的变异, 父母养育方式累计可分别解释其19%和10%的变异。     

Early family context and development of adolescent ruminative style: moderation by temperament

We know very little about the development of rumination, the tendency to passively brood about negative feelings. Because rumination is a risk factor for many forms of psychopathology, especially depression, such knowledge could prove important for preventing negative mental health outcomes in youth. This study examined developmental origins of rumination in a longitudinal sample (N=337; 51% girls) studied in preschool (ages 3? and 4? years) and early adolescence (ages 13 and 15 years). Results indicated that family context and child temperament, assessed during the preschool period, were risk factors for a ruminative style in adolescence. Specifically, early family contexts characterised by over-controlling parenting and a family style of negative-submissive expressivity predicted higher levels of later rumination. These associations were moderated by children's temperamental characteristics of negative affect and effortful control. Further, the interaction of these temperament factors exerted an additional influence on later rumination. Implications for prevention and intervention efforts are discussed.     

Reactive temperament traits and behavioural problems in children: the mediating role of effortful control across sex and age

This study examines the mediating role of effortful control between reactive temperament traits (negative affectivity and extraversion) and children’s internalizing and externalizing behavioural problems. The sample was composed of 424 non-clinical children from 3 to 6 years of age (60% male). Use of a structural equation model revealed effortful control-mediated relations between reactive temperament traits and behavioural problems. Nevertheless, uniquely and directly, negative affect predicted externalizing problems and extraversion predicted internalizing problems. Assessment of invariance by children’s sex showed that the mediating role of effortful control tends to be stronger for externalizing problems in boys than in girls. Results showed no significant age differences. According to these results, effortful control as a method of self-regulation seems to be an essential process through which reactive temperament traits affect a child’s psychological adjustment.     

Does HPA‐Axis Dysregulation Account for the Effects of Income on Effortful Control and Adjustment in Preschool Children?

The effects of low income on children's adjustment might be accounted for by disruptions to hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal (HPA)‐axis activity and to the development of effortful control. Using longitudinal data and a community sample of preschool‐age children (N = 306, 36–39 months) and their mothers, recruited to over‐represent low‐income families, we explored the associations among diurnal cortisol levels and effortful control, and we tested a model in which diurnal cortisol and effortful control account for the effects of family income on child adjustment. Continuous indicators of morning cortisol level and diurnal slope, as well as dichotomous indicators reflecting low morning levels and flat diurnal slope, were examined as predictors of rank‐order changes in two dimensions of effortful control, executive control and delay ability. Low income was related to a flat diurnal cortisol slope, and above the effects of family income, a flat diurnal cortisol slope predicted lower social competence. Low morning cortisol level predicted smaller gains in executive control and higher total adjustment problems. Further, delay ability predicted lower adjustment problems above the effects of income and diurnal cortisol levels. The results suggest that HPA‐axis dysregulation and effortful control contribute additively to children's adjustment. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Parental influences on self-regulation and achievement in children with adolescent mothers

The predictors of academic achievement and self-regulation in 95 high-risk children studied from birth were investigated during the second grade. Parenting, early maternal adjustment, child adjustment and temperament were hypothesized to predict the emergence of self-regulation. Although parenting, maternal adjustment, and child adjustment were related to achievement and classroom adjustment, they were not related to children's self-regulation, which was the strongest predictor of teacher ratings of academic performance, standardized achievement in math and reading, and classroom adjustment.     

Developmental trajectories of aggression from late childhood through adolescence: similarities and differences across gender

Although numerous investigations of overt aggressive and antisocial trajectories have been undertaken, there is a dearth of literature examining gender differences and similarities in trajectory patterns and their correlates. To address these gaps, we investigated gender differences in the prevalence rates, predictive validity during transition to adulthood, childhood risk factors, and adolescent correlates of different trajectories of teacher-reported overt aggression (i.e., fights, argues, gets in trouble) among 220 participants (116 girls and 104 boys) evaluated annually from grade 4 to grade 12. Four patterns of trajectories were identified: low, increasing (i.e., adolescent-onset), decreasing (i.e., childhood-limited), and high (i.e., childhood-onset). A large proportion of youth, particularly girls, displayed low levels of aggression over time. A small proportion followed the childhood-onset trajectory. Across gender, the childhood-onset trajectory was associated with the highest rates of maladjustment during the transition to adulthood, the highest number of childhood risk factors, and multiple problems during adolescence. The adolescent-onset trajectory was associated with few childhood risk factors, but with high levels of independent status during adolescence. In contrast, the childhood-limited trajectory was associated with several childhood risk factors, but high levels of parental monitoring and school engagement during adolescence. Romantic involvement differentiated the adolescent-onset and childhood-limited trajectories among girls.     

Early family context and development of adolescent ruminative style: Moderation by temperament

We know very little about the development of rumination, the tendency to passively brood about negative feelings. Because rumination is a risk factor for many forms of psychopathology, especially depression, such knowledge could prove important for preventing negative mental health outcomes in youth. This study examined developmental origins of rumination in a longitudinal sample (N=337; 51% girls) studied in preschool (ages 3½ and 4½ years) and early adolescence (ages 13 and 15 years). Results indicated that family context and child temperament, assessed during the preschool period, were risk factors for a ruminative style in adolescence. Specifically, early family contexts characterised by over-controlling parenting and a family style of negative-submissive expressivity predicted higher levels of later rumination. These associations were moderated by children's temperamental characteristics of negative affect and effortful control. Further, the interaction of these temperament factors exerted an additional influence on later rumination. Implications for prevention and intervention efforts are discussed.     

青少年早期冲动性的发展轨迹:界定亚群组及其影响因素

以发展的整体互动论和生态系统理论为基础,考察青少年早期冲动性的发展轨迹及其影响因素。采用Barratt冲动性量表、家庭环境量表、青少年感知校园氛围问卷对天津市某中学210名初中生进行了为期1年的3次追踪调查,使用潜变量增长模型、潜类别增长模型、多元Logistic回归进行数据分析。结果发现:(1)青少年早期冲动性的发展呈线性增长趋势,并可分为三个亚群组:恒低组(16.67%)、恒高组(41.43%)和居中升高组(41.91%);(2)家庭环境亲密度和教师支持对亚群组有显著预测作用。本研究揭示了在青少年早期冲动性的动态变化性、个体差异性及其相关影响因素。