Maternal and child contributions to cortisol response to emotional arousal in young children from low-income, rural communities

Relations of maternal and child characteristics to child cortisol reactivity to and recovery from emotional arousal were examined prospectively at approximately 7 months of age (infancy) and then again at approximately 15 months of age (toddlerhood). The sample was diverse and population based (N = 1,292 mother-infant dyads) and included families from predominantly low-income, rural communities. Maternal behavior, family income-to-need ratio and social advantage, and child temperament, attention, and mental development were assessed, and children's saliva was sampled before and after standardized procedures designed to elicit emotional arousal. Maternal engagement in infancy was associated with greater cortisol reactivity at the infancy assessment and with reduced overall cortisol level at the toddler assessment. Also at the toddler assessment, child attention, mental development, and temperamental distress to novelty were associated with increased cortisol reactivity and regulation, whereas temperamental distress to limitations and African American ethnicity were associated with reduced cortisol reactivity. Findings are consistent with prior work linking early caregiving to the development of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis stress response system and with a conceptual model in which developing temperament is characterized by the interplay of emotional reactivity and the emergence of the ability to effortfully regulate this reactivity using attention.     

STABILITY OF BIOLOGICAL FATHER PRESENCE AS A PROXY FOR FAMILY STABILITY: CROSS‐RACIAL ASSOCIATIONS WITH THE LONGITUDINAL DEVELOPMENT OF EMOTION REGULATION IN TODDLERHOOD

The current study, utilizing data from the National Early Head Start Research and Evaluation Project (Love et al., 2005) explored the relationship between biological father presence and emotion regulation over toddlerhood among children from low‐income families. Conceptualizing biological father presence as a proxy for family role development, results are interpreted from a role development theoretical perspective. The latent growth curve model was compared based on child ethnoracial status (African American, Caucasian, Hispanic) and child gender. Consistent biological father presence was associated with toddlers’ regulatory development across toddlerhood, and this relationship was most robust among Caucasian toddlers as compared to African American toddlers. Findings for Hispanic toddlers were not significantly different from those of Caucasian or African American families. Results bolster the literature on father presence and child outcomes. Analyses address consistency in father presence as a proxy for coherent role development and define a link between consistent father presence and children's regulatory development, demonstrating ethnoracial differences which are likely attributed to the social construction of family roles.     

African American, White and Latino Fathers’ Activities with their Sons and Daughters in Early Childhood

We examined the activities that low-income, ethnically diverse fathers of sons versus daughters engage in with their children in the preschool years. African American, Latino, and White fathers (N?=?426) from research sites across the United States, were interviewed about their caregiving, play, literacy, and visiting activities when their children were 2?years, 3?years, and preschool age. Fathers of boys engaged more frequently in physical play than fathers of girls, whereas fathers of girls engaged more frequently in literacy activities. Moreover, gendered patterns of father engagement were already evident at the 2-year assessment, suggesting that fathers channel their children toward gender-typed activities well before their children have a clear understanding of gender roles. Ethnic differences were also found in fathers’ activities with children, and child gender moderated ethnic patterns of behavior. For example, Black fathers of sons reported the highest levels of engagement in caregiving, play and visiting activities, and both Latino and African American fathers of sons engaged in more visiting activities compared to White fathers of sons. Fathers’ education and marital status were also associated with fathers’ activities. Married fathers and those with a high school diploma more frequently engaged in literacy activities than unmarried fathers without a diploma; moreover, although Latino fathers engaged less in caregiving activities than African American and White fathers, this difference attenuated after controlling for differences in fathers’ education. The activities children share with their fathers vary by child gender, race/ethnicity, and family circumstances and offer insight into early gendered experiences in the family.     

Marital conflict and parental responses to infant negative emotions: Relations with toddler emotional regulation

According to family systems theory, children's emotional development is likely to be influenced by family interactions at multiple levels, including marital, mother–child, and father–child interactions, as well as by interrelations between these levels. The purpose of the present study was to examine parents’ marital conflict and mothers’ and fathers’ distressed responses to their infant's negative emotions, assessed when their child was 8 and 24 months old, in addition to interactions between parents’ marital conflict and their distressed responses, as predictors of their toddler's negative and flat/withdrawn affect at 24 months. Higher marital conflict during infancy and toddlerhood predicted both increased negative and increased flat/withdrawn affect during toddlerhood. In addition, toddlers’ negative (but not flat) affect was related to mothers’ distressed responses, but was only related to father's distressed responses when martial conflict was high. Implications of this study for parent education and family intervention were discussed.     

Relationships among Negative Emotionality,Responsive Parenting and Early Socio‐cognitive Development in Korean Children

The present study examined the interplay among negative emotionality, responsive parenting and socio‐cognitive developmental outcomes (i.e., communication, personal‐social and problem‐solving outcomes) in about 1620 Korean children using three waves of longitudinal data spanning the first 2 years of their life. Results from the Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) demonstrated that there were moderate to low degrees of stability in negative emotionality, responsive parenting and socio‐cognitive developmental outcomes from infancy to toddlerhood. Evidence for reciprocity in the parent–child relationship was found; responsive parenting predicted higher levels of subsequent child communication (in infancy and toddlerhood), and infants' higher problem‐solving ability predicted higher responsive parenting in toddlerhood. Overall, the cross‐age associations among the variables were similar between boys and girls, but some different patterns were observed: when controlling for family contextual factors and the within‐time correlations, negative emotionality at an earlier point significantly predicted lower responsive parenting at a later point and vice versa only in girls during infancy, but neither in boys nor in toddlerhood. The implications of these findings are discussed. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Relations between coparenting and father involvement in families with preschool-age children

A sample (N = 112) composed primarily of European American and middle-class two-parent families with a resident father and a 4-year-old child (48% girls) participated in a longitudinal study of associations between coparenting and father involvement. At the initial assessment and 1 year later, fathers reported on their involvement in play and caregiving activities with the focal child, and coparenting behavior was observed during triadic family interactions. Structural equation modeling was used to test cross-lagged associations between coparenting behavior and father involvement. Overall, paths from father involvement to coparenting behavior were significant, but paths from coparenting behavior to father involvement were not. Specifically, greater father involvement in play was associated with an increase in supportive and a decrease in undermining coparenting behavior over time. In contrast, greater father involvement in caregiving was associated with a decrease in supportive and an increase in undermining coparenting behavior. Multigroup analysis further showed that these cross-lagged relations did not differ for dual-earner families and single-earner (father) families, but these relations appeared to differ for families with focal daughters and families with focal sons. These findings highlight the potential for fathering to affect coparenting and the importance of the role of contextual factors in coparenting-fathering relations.     

From Fathers to Sons: The Intergenerational Transmission of Parenting Behavior among African American Young Men

This study examined the intergenerational transmission of fathering among young, African American fathers in rural communities. A sample of 132 African American young men living in the rural South reported on the quality of their relationship with their biological and social fathers in the family of origin, their own involvement with their young children, and relational schemas of close, intimate relationships. Results of path analyses supported the hypothesized mediational model, such that a better relationship with one's biological (but not social) father predicted increased father involvement in the next generation, and this association was partially mediated through positive relational schema after controlling for a range of covariates. Tests of moderated mediation indicated that the link between relational schema and father involvement was significantly stronger among fathers of girls than fathers of boys. Findings highlight the unique influence of close, nurturing father–child relationships for downstream father involvement, and the role of relational schemas as a mechanism for intergenerational transmission among young, rural, African American fathers of girls.     

Postnatal trajectories of maternal depressive symptoms: Postpartum antecedents and differences in toddler adjustment

Infants are uniquely vulnerable to maternal depression's noxious effects, but few longitudinal studies have tried to identify discrete postnatal trajectories of maternal depressive symptoms (MDS) beginning in infancy. This study extends evidence of heterogeneous change in postnatal MDS by examining their cross-contextual antecedents in infancy and their consequences for children's early behavior problems and language skills in late toddlerhood. A community sample of mother–child dyads (N = 235, 72% Caucasian) was assessed when children were 7, 15, and 33 months old. Mothers reported their socioeconomic status (SES), social support, marital relationship quality, family dysfunction, parenting stress, and infants’ functional regulatory problems at 7 months postpartum, and children's internalizing and externalizing symptoms at 33 months. Children completed a receptive vocabulary assessment at 33 months in the lab. Latent class growth analysis identified three postnatal MDS trajectory classes that fit the data best: low-decreasing, moderate, and increasing. Psychosocial measures at seven months postpartum primarily predicted membership to these postnatal trajectory classes, which subsequently differed in children's internalizing, externalizing, and receptive vocabulary in late toddlerhood, controlling for family SES and functional regulatory problems in infancy. We discuss salient antecedents and consequences of postnatal depression for mothers and their offspring.     

The structure and stability of temperament from infancy to toddlerhood: a one-year prospective study

This study investigated the factor structure and longitudinal stability of temperament in a multi-informant (i.e., as reported by mothers and fathers), one-year prospective study from infancy (8-13 months) to toddlerhood (20-25 months). Confirmatory factor analyses (CFAs) replicate and extend earlier studies; in that evidence was found for a three-factor structure for both infant and toddler temperament, consisting of Surgency/Extraversion, Negative Affectivity and Effortful Control. There were, especially in toddlerhood, few differences between mother and father reports in average scores on the three temperament factors, which were in part related to differences in parental involvement between mothers and fathers. In addition, there were few differences between average scores for boys and girls on these temperament factors, with the exception that both mothers and fathers rated girls higher on Effortful Control, and fathers rated boys higher on Extraversion/Surgency, especially in toddlerhood. Finally, results showed that the three factors showed high relative, absolute, and structural stability over a one-year period. The implications of these findings for contemporary temperament research are discussed.     

Emerging effortful control in infancy and toddlerhood and maternal support: A child driven or parent driven model?

This study examined the association between children's temperamental characteristics of rudimentary effortful control (EC) and mothers’ supportive reactions to their children's negative emotions in infancy and toddler period. One hundred and fifty eight (78 girls) Taiwanese children's EC was assessed at 12 and 24 months with mothers’ report on the very short-form scales of Infant Behavior Questionnaire (IBQ) and Early Childhood Behavior Questionnaire (ECBQ) respectively. The mothers also completed questionnaires to assess their comforting behaviors at 12 months and both comforting and cognitive assistance to their children's expression of negative emotions when the child was 24 months old. A structural model was used to examine within- and across-time relations between children's EC and the maternal support. The results showed continuity of EC related temperament from infancy to toddlerhood and the 12-month rudimentary EC positively predicted mothers’ comforting and cognitive assistance at 24 months, suggesting that mothers modulate their use of support in accordance with their prior knowledge of their children's regulatory capacities. The results indicated an influence of infants’ temperament on adult behaviors, supporting potential evocative child effects on mothers’ emotion coaching behaviors.     

A Longitudinal Study of Racial Discrimination and Risk for Death Ideation in African American Youth

Although multiple studies have found that African Americans commonly experience racial discrimination, available studies have yet to examine how perceived racism might be related to suicide vulnerability in African American youth. The purpose of this study was to examine a framework for how perceived racial discrimination contributes to symptoms of depression and anxiety as well as subsequent suicide ideation and morbid ideation. Data were obtained from 722 African American youth at mean age 10.56 years (SD = 0.64); a second wave of data was obtained 2 years later. Results revealed both a direct effect and mediated effects of perceived racism on later suicide and morbid ideation. For boys and girls, the effect of perceived racism was mediated by symptoms of depression. However, the association was mediated by anxiety for girls, but not for boys in the current sample. Implications for future research and interventions are discussed.     

Racial Discrimination and African American Adolescents’ Adjustment: Gender Variation in Family and Community Social Support, Promotive and Protective Factors

The current investigation explores the promotive and protective role of family and community-specific social support on the association between perceived racial discrimination and African American adolescents’ adjustment (e.g., depressive symptoms, school suspensions, school engagement). One thousand nine-hundred forty-two African American adolescents (ages 12–18, M = 15.12; SD = 1.83; 59 % female) from a large Midwestern city participated in this investigation. Regression analyses revealed that perceived racial discrimination was associated with less positive adjustment outcomes for boys and girls. Additionally, there was partial support for gender variation in the promotive role of social support and adolescent adjustment. In particular, while only maternal support was associated with boys’ adjustment, both maternal and paternal support was associated with girls’ adjustment. Also, there was partial support for gender differentiation in the strength and directionality of protective factors. Though in an unpredicted direction, father support moderated the relationship between perceived racial discrimination and girls’ adjustment. Community supports (religious connection and mentor presence) emerged as protective factors for boys’. Findings highlight the role of gender in understanding potential promotive and protective factors for African American adolescents.     

Impact of neighborhood disadvantage on overt behavior problems during early childhood

Researchers have yet to examine the impact of neighborhood disadvantage on early child behavior problems (BPs) longitudinally. We examined the impact of neighborhood disadvantage on overt BPs in a low-income, urban sample of 281 African American and European American boys followed longitudinally from toddlerhood to school entry. Measures included census data and maternal report of BPs, sociocultural factors, parental criminality, and maternal depressive symptomatology. After controlling for age 2 overt BPs, family selection variables, and residential instability, neighborhood effects on boys' behavior emerged, but only at age 6 and only at the extreme of neighborhood disadvantage (i.e., underclass). Findings suggest boys in underclass neighborhoods are at risk for overt BPs as they make the transition to elementary school.     

The contribution of parental discipline, parental monitoring, and school risk to early-onset conduct problems in African American boys and girls

The association of parental discipline and monitoring with the early conduct problems of 123 boys and girls was assessed in a highly disadvantaged, African American sample. Prospective analyses indicated that, after earlier conduct problems were controlled for, coercive parent discipline and poor parental monitoring at age 4 1/2 were independent, reliable predictors of age 6 conduct problems for both boys and girls. The association of parental monitoring with later child conduct problems was mediated, in part, by parents' choice of higher risk schools for their children's kindergarten education. The association of family income with child conduct problems was mediated by parental discipline and monitoring. These models are consistent with previous research on older, European American, more advantaged, male samples, which supports the generality of the association of family processes with child conduct problems across child gender, age, and ethnicity.     

儿童早期情绪性对学步期父母养育方式的影响

运用追踪设计和分层回归分析, 探究了281名儿童6个月和14个月时的受限后沮丧、恐惧和微笑大笑如何影响24个月时父母养育方式, 以及这种影响是否随儿童年龄增长而变化。研究结果显示:(1)6个月时, 仅受限后沮丧能正向预测24个月时母亲严厉的养育方式, 14个月时受限后沮丧仍能正向预测母亲的严厉, 恐惧也能正向预测母亲的保护担忧, 而微笑大笑能正向预测母亲的接受, 负向预测母亲的严厉和保护担忧;(2)6个月时, 儿童的受限后沮丧能正向预测24个月时父亲的严厉和保护担忧, 14个月儿童的受限后沮丧仍能正向预测24个月时父亲的严厉。     

The Impact of a Child’s Cancer on the Father’s Relationship with His Spouse in Korea

A father of a child with cancer experiences psychological stress related to his child’s cancer diagnosis and treatment, which may affect his relationship with his spouse. Nevertheless, little attention has been paid to how having a child with cancer affects the marital relationship from the perspective of the father. We examined the impact of the child’s cancer on the father’s relationship with his spouse in Korea. We conducted in-depth interviews with 20 fathers (mean age?=?41.35 years; SD?=?4.49) of children who were diagnosed with cancer before the age of 19 and were within 5 years of the diagnosis. The mean age of the child with cancer was 9.1 years (SD?=?3.68), and the mean age at diagnosis was 6.4 years (SD?=?4.08). The analysis of the interviews revealed the following four themes (and eight subthemes): conflicts between spouses (lack of father’s participation in caregiving, financial and work-related stress), mental suffering (heartbroken, torn between caregiving and work), change in communication (child-focused communication, avoiding communication), and change in the marital relationship (neglected relationship, new trust built in the relationship). A father’s increased conflict in the marital relationship after his child’s diagnosis of cancer was intensified by his limited involvement in child care and parenting responsibilities. An understanding of the change in the father’s relationship with his spouse can inform the development of a psychosocial intervention that may strengthen a father’s emotional intelligence and resilience, which could improve the marital relationship.     

Maternal sensitivity in responding during play and children’s pre-mathematical skills: a longitudinal study from infancy to preschool age

This longitudinal study explored how mothers’ sensitivity in responding to their child’s cognitive and emotional needs in infancy and toddlerhood predicts children’s pre-mathematical skills at early preschool age. The sample consisted of 65 mother–child dyads (N = 130 individuals) videotaped during joint play at ages 1;0 and 2;0. The children’s pre-mathematical skills were tested at age 3;0. The path analyses showed that, in infancy, mothers’ autonomy support and scaffolding are more strongly related than emotional support to children’s later performance on spatial and numerical tasks. The findings are discussed in relation to how maternal sensitivity in responding fosters children’s pre-mathematical development in an optimal way.     

Emotional Expression and Language: A Longitudinal Study of Typically Developing Earlier and Later Talkers from 15 to 30 Months

Children's emotional expression and language both develop during infancy and early childhood, yet these two communication systems have been studied primarily in isolation. This study focuses instead on assessing the relation between them just as productive language emerges during toddlerhood. Seventy‐seven typically developing, firstborn toddlers and their families were recruited at 13 months of age. Using an extreme groups design, earlier and later talkers were selected based on their MacArthur Communicative Development Inventory production scores. Laboratory visits occurred at 15, 21, and 30 months; home visits occurred at 3‐month intervals from 15 to 30 months. Observational and parent report measures assessed child language, emotional expression, temperament, and overall developmental functioning. Parents also reported on parenting stress and family life events. Overall, results support a significant relation between emotional expression and productive language that varies according to the specific emotion, a finding that may resolve earlier contradictory results in this area. Earlier talkers expressed more joy/pleasure than did later talkers, but later talkers expressed more fear and anger than did earlier talkers. Potential contributions of various child/family factors were explored. Child temperament is proposed as influencing this relation through its effects on the child's transactions with the caregiving environment.     

FATHER–CHILD INTERACTIONS AT 3 MONTHS AND 24 MONTHS: CONTRIBUTIONS TO CHILDREN'S COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT AT 24 MONTHS

The quality of father–child interactions has become a focus of increasing research in the field of child development. We examined the potential contribution of father–child interactions at both 3 months and 24 months to children's cognitive development at 24 months. Observational measures of father–child interactions at 3 and 24 months were used to assess the quality of fathers’ parenting (n = 192). At 24 months, the Mental Developmental Index (MDI) of the Bayley Scales of Infant Development, Second Edition (N. Bayley, 1993 ) measured cognitive functioning. The association between interactions and cognitive development was examined using multiple linear regression analyses, adjusting for paternal age, education and depression, infant age, and maternal sensitivity. Children whose fathers displayed more withdrawn and depressive behaviors in father–infant interactions at 3 months scored lower on the MDI at 24 months. At 24 months, children whose fathers were more engaged and sensitive as well as those whose fathers were less controlling in their interactions scored higher on the MDI. These findings were independent of the effects of maternal sensitivity. Results indicate that father–child interactions, even from a very young age (i.e., 3 months) may influence children's cognitive development. They highlight the potential significance of interventions to promote positive parenting by fathers and policies that encourage fathers to spend more time with their young children.     

Individual differences in disengagement of fixation and temperament: Longitudinal research on toddlers

It has been suggested that a shift occurs in the brain's control system from the orienting network in infancy to the executive network by the age of 3–4 years; however, there has been little empirical evidence of this shift during toddlerhood. Therefore, the present study examined how the orienting system in infancy is related to an effortful control system at a later age. Children were assessed longitudinally at 12, 18, 24, and 36 months of age, using a gap-overlap task in which dynamic geometrical-shape stimuli were presented. Parents completed temperament questionnaires about the children at each age. A delayed-gratification task was also given to 36-month-olds. Overall, saccadic latencies in the gap-overlap task were significantly faster at 36 months. At all ages, responses were slower during overlap trials than during gap or no-overlap trials. Longer latencies in the overlap condition were associated with low temperamental orienting/regulation scores at 12 months but with high effortful control scores at 18 and 24 months. The associations at 18 and 24 months are thought to represent a genuine positive association between effortful control and sustained and focused attention.