Validation of a simple method of assessing cardiac preejection period: a potential index of sympathetic nervous system activity

Traditional noninvasive assessment of sympathetic nervous system (SNS) activity in cardiovascular functioning has been confounded by concurrent parasympathetic influences. Analyses of specific intervals of the cardiac cycle have indicated that the systolic preejection period (PEP) may serve as a reliable index of SNS activity independent of parasympathetic inhibition. In the present study, PEP values derived from a technique employing peripheral pulse wave tracings were compared to values obtained from simultaneous impedance cardiograph recordings. Recordings were made on 15 male subjects who were instructed to rest quietly sitting in an upright position. Results indicated that values obtained from both methods were highly correlated and not significantly different when measurement adjustments on total systole were taken into account. These findings support the validity of the fingertip peripheral-pulse method in obtaining measures of systolic time intervals under resting conditions.     

Parenting and self‐regulation in preschoolers: a meta‐analysis

A meta‐analysis of 41 studies was conducted to examine the strength of the relation between parenting (positive control, negative control and responsiveness) and self‐regulation in preschoolers. Results revealed significant associations between both types of parental control and self‐regulation, with effect sizes being small in magnitude. There was no significant association between self‐regulation and responsiveness. The strength of the association between parenting and self‐regulation varied with different conceptualizations of self‐regulation; positive and negative control were associated with child compliance, but not with inhibition and emotion regulation. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A socioemotional intervention in a Latin American orphanage

A pilot intervention that emphasized training and technical assistance to promote warm, sensitive, and responsive one‐on‐one caregiver–child interactions primarily during feeding and bathing/changing was implemented using regular staff in a depressed orphanage for children birth to approximately 8 years of age in Latin America. Despite a variety of unanticipated irregularities in the implementation of the intervention, many beyond the researchers' control, ward environments improved; caregivers displayed more warm, sensitive, and responsive interactions with children; and children improved an average of 13.5 developmental quotient (DQ) points after 4+ months' exposure to the completed intervention. Furthermore, 82% of the children had DQs greater than 70 before the intervention, but only 27.8% did so afterward. Although the training for all caregivers was aimed at children birth to 3 years, the number of different caregivers was reduced, and technical assistance was provided only to caregivers serving children less than 3 years, younger and older children (3–8 years) improved approximately the same amount. However, children who were transitioned from a younger to an older ward during the intervention improved less than did children who remained in either a younger or an older ward, the first evidence suggesting that the common orphanage practice of periodically graduating children from one homogeneous age group to another may impede their development. The study is consistent with others that have shown that orphanages can be changed, and increases primarily in warm, sensitive, responsive caregiver–child interactions can produce improvements in children's development.     

The longitudinal relations of regulation and emotionality to quality of Indonesian children's socioemotional functioning

Data regarding individual differences in children's regulation, emotionality, quality of socioemotional functioning, and shyness were obtained from teachers and peers for 112 Indonesian 6th graders. Similar data (plus parents' reports) also were collected when these children were in 3rd grade. For boys, regulation and low negative emotionality generally predicted positive socioemotional functioning (e.g., social skills, adjustment, prosocial tendencies and peer liking, sympathy) within and across time and across reporters, even at the follow-up when initial levels of regulation or negative emotionality were controlled. For girls, relations were obtained primarily for concurrent teacher reports, probably because girls tended to be fairly well regulated and socially competent and variability in their scores was relatively low. Shyness for both sexes tended to be associated with concurrent measures of low regulation, high negative emotionality, and low quality of social competence.     

Maternal socialization and child temperament as predictors of emotion regulation in Turkish preschoolers

This study investigated the role of maternal socialization and temperament in Turkish preschool children's emotion regulation. Participants consisted of 145 preschoolers (79 boys, 69 girls; M_age= 62 months), their mothers, and daycare teachers from middle‐high socioeconomic suburbs of Istanbul. Maternal child‐rearing practices and emotion socialization behaviours were examined together as interconnected constituents of parenting in relation to emotion regulation skills in young children. Mothers completed a set of questionnaires that measured their child's emotion regulation and temperament as well as their own emotion socialization and child‐rearing behaviours. Teachers also completed a scale that measured the child's ability to regulate emotions. Hierarchical regression analysis showed that child's reactivity negatively and persistence positively predicted emotion regulation. The interaction of maternal responsiveness and child approach–withdrawal also significantly predicted emotion regulation. Simple slope tests were conducted slicing the data in both directions. In the first instance, for children low in Approach, the simple slope of Responsiveness on emotion regulation score was significantly positive. In contrast, for children high in Approach, the simple slope of Responsiveness on emotion regulation score was not significant. In the second instance, for mothers average in Responsiveness, the simple slope of Approach on emotion regulation score was significantly positive. In contrast, for mothers high in Responsiveness, the simple slope of Approach on emotion regulation was not significant. These findings were considered within an interactional model in which positive parenting and inhibited temperament are significant predictors of emotion regulation in Turkish preschoolers. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A new dynamic systems method for the analysis of early socioemotional development

This study reports on a new dynamic systems method for studying infant socioemotional development, using conventional statistical techniques to portray dynamic systems constructs. State space grids were constructed from two ordinal variables, distress intensity and attention to mother, and hypothetical attractors were identified as grid cells with high cumulative duration of behavior. Attractor and state space characteristics were operationalized and tested, first to assess the utility of the method and second to reconceptualize and extend conventional developmental hypotheses. The basin strength and relaxation time of hypothetical attractors demonstrated their ‘attractiveness’ and predicted consistency in attractor location across sessions. Developmental changes and individual continuities in the organization of behavior were also revealed, in ways that would be inaccessible to conventional research methods.     

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.     

Responses of preschoolers in two frustrating episodes: emergence of complex strategies for emotion regulation

Although research on young children's abilities to organize emotional states has increased in recent years, little is known about the emergence of complex strategies for emotion regulation in preschoolers. In the present study, emotion-regulation strategies used by 52 normally developing 3- and 4-year-olds were examined. Children and their primary caregivers (50 mothers, 2 fathers) participated in 2 controlled frustration episodes that were videotaped. Four types of strategies were coded: comforting behaviors, instrumental behaviors, distraction behaviors, and cognitive reappraisals. Results indicated that 3-year-olds used proportionately more instrumental strategies than 4-year-olds, and parents of 3-year-olds showed the same pattern, whereas parents of 4-year-olds did not. Moreover, 3-year-olds used a variety of strategies when frustrated, including cognitive reappraisals. Significant positive correlations were found between the types of strategies used by the children and by the parents to help their children. It is suggested that children may be using strategies to organize their emotional states before they are able to accurately report on them.     

Demonstration and evaluation of a method for assessing mediated moderation

Mediated moderation occurs when the interaction between two variables affects a mediator, which then affects a dependent variable. In this article, we describe the mediated moderation model and evaluate it with a statistical simulation using an adaptation of product-of-coefficients methods to assess mediation. We also demonstrate the use of this method with a substantive example from the adolescent tobacco literature. In the simulation, relative bias (RB) in point estimates and standard errors did not exceed problematic levels of ±10%, although systematic variability in RB was accounted for by parameter size, sample size, and nonzero direct effects. Power to detect mediated moderation effects appears to be severely compromised under one particular combination of conditions: when the component variables that make up the interaction terms are correlated and partial mediated moderation exists. Implications for the estimation of mediated moderation effects in experimental and nonexperimental research are discussed.     

Playing it cool: Temperament, emotion regulation, and social behavior in preschoolers

The contributions of temperamental styles and emotional coping strategies to the development of preschoolers' social competence and behavior problems were investigated. The ability to cope with emotion was found to be more important than temperament alone in the development of prosocial behavior. Our results indicate that the use of passive coping strategies may play a significant role in the development of maladaptive behaviors in young children. Specifically, the use of passive coping strategies was found to moderate the relationship between temperament dimensions in predicting externalizing and internalizing maladaptive behaviors. When combined with extremely negative temperamental dispositions, just facing the problems was discovered to be beneficial for preschoolers, which encourages the use of preventative or interventional strategies in the classroom to develop constructive emotion regulation skills in young children.     

The impact of culture on physiological processes of emotion regulation: a comparison of US and Chinese preschoolers

Cognitive determinants of emotion regulation, such as effortful control, have been hypothesized to modulate young children's physiological response to emotional stress. It is unknown, however, whether this model of emotion regulation generalizes across Western and non‐Western cultures. The current study examined the relation between both behavioral and questionnaire measures of effortful control and densely sampled, stress‐induced cortisol trajectories in U.S. and Chinese preschoolers. Participants were 3‐ to 5‐ year‐old children recruited from the United States (N = 57) and Beijing, China (N = 60). Consistent with our hypothesis, U.S. children showed a significant negative relation between maternal‐rated inhibitory control and both cortisol reactivity and recovery. However, this was not replicated in the Chinese sample. Children in China showed a significant positive relation between maternal‐rated attentional focusing and cortisol reactivity that was not seen in the U.S. Results suggest that children who reside in Western and non‐Western cultures have different predictors of their emotion‐related stress response.     

Trait emotional intelligence as a predictor of socioemotional outcomes in early adolescence

Trait emotional intelligence (EI) refers to a constellation of emotional self-perceptions located at the lower levels of personality hierarchies. This study investigated the predictive and incremental validity of this construct in a sample of 1140 pupils aged 11-13 years. Trait EI showed strong concurrent and predictive validity in relation to three measures of socioemotional competence: self-reported psychopathology as assessed by the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire, a sociometric measure of peer relations, and a peer-assessed measure of social behavior. Socioemotional measures were taken twice over a period of seven months. Structural equation modeling revealed trait EI and IQ effects on socioemotional competence (SEC), the former being stronger than the latter. Hierarchical regression analyses suggested an association also of trait with level of change in SEC (controlling for both IQ and SEC at time 1). The findings corroborate an important role for trait emotional intelligence in peer relations and socioemotional competence.     

Validation of a novel cognitive bias task based on difference in quantity of reinforcement for assessing environmental enrichment

Cognitive bias tasks purport to assess affective states via responses to ambiguous stimuli. We hypothesized that a novel cognitive bias task based on positive reinforcement using quantity differences would detect changes in affect in captive grizzly bears (Ursus arctos horribilis). We trained bears (n = 8) to respond differently (nose or paw touch) to two stimuli (light or dark gray cue cards), with responses counterbalanced across bears. The two cues signaled a small or large food reward, respectively. Responses to ambiguous probe stimuli (i.e., shades of gray) intermediate to the trained stimuli were classified as either ‘optimistic,’ appropriate for the larger reward, or ‘pessimistic,’ appropriate for the smaller reward. In Experiment 1, we explored the contrast in reward size necessary to detect a change in response across probe stimuli (large reward, 3 or 6 apple slices: small reward, 1 slice). We observed a change in response across probe stimuli, with no difference in response between reward-value groups, indicating that a contrast of 3:1 apple slices was sufficient to affect responses. In Experiment 2, we investigated cognitive bias after 2.1 h of exposure to enrichment items varying in attractiveness. Results were unaffected by enrichment type or time spent interacting with enrichments, indicating that the task failed to demonstrate criterion validity for comparing mood following exposure to different enrichment items. However, greater time spent pacing prior to testing was associated with ‘optimistic’ judgments. The data provide some support for use of cognitive bias tasks based on quantity differences in animal welfare assessments involving captive wildlife.     

Self-representations and socioemotional competence in young children: a 3-year longitudinal study

In a longitudinal study, the connections between children's self-representations at age 5 and their self-perceptions, socioemotional competence according to the teacher, and peer acceptance at age 8 were examined. The sample consisted of 60 children (33 boys, 27 girls). Self-representations at age 5 were assessed by the Puppet Interview (J. Cassidy, 1988). Results generally revealed the expected connections between the positiveness of self at age 5 and self-perceptions and socioemotional functioning 3 years later. These findings support the predictive validity of the Puppet Interview. Moreover, they suggest that young children do possess at least a rudimentary sense of being generally worthy and lovable, which can be assessed by using adequate, age-appropriate interviews.