Socioeconomic status and executive function in early childhood: Exploring proximal mechanisms

Although there is substantial evidence that socioeconomic status (SES) predicts children's executive function (EF), the mechanisms underlying this association are poorly understood. This study tested the utility of two theories proposed to link SES to children's EF: the family stress model and the family investment model. Data came from the Midwestern Infant Development Study (N = 151). To measure SES, parental education and income were assessed during pregnancy, and income was also assessed when children were 6 and 36 months old. Children's EF, operationalized as working memory/inhibitory control (WMIC) and self‐control, was assessed at 36 months of age, along with potential mediators including maternal psychological distress, harsh parenting, and cognitive stimulation. Using structural equation modeling, we tested simultaneous pathways from SES to EF: (a) via maternal psychological distress to harsh parenting (family stress model) and (b) via cognitive stimulation (family investment model). Of the SES measures, lower education predicted poorer WMIC directly and indirectly via greater maternal psychological distress. Lower education also predicted poorer self‐control via greater maternal psychological distress. This effect was partially suppressed by an indirect path from lower education to better self‐control via greater psychological distress and increased harsh parenting. Cognitive stimulation did not act as a mediator. Income was not directly or indirectly associated with EF. These findings provide partial support for the family stress model and suggest that family functioning is an important proximal mechanism for children's EF development. This study also highlights the importance of considering SES as a multidimensional construct.     

Multisensory spatial representations in eye-centered coordinates for reaching

Humans can reach for objects with their hands whether the objects are seen, heard or touched. Thus, the position of objects is recoded in a joint-centered frame of reference regardless of the sensory modality involved. Our study indicates that this frame of reference is not the only one shared across sensory modalities. The location of reaching targets is also encoded in eye-centered coordinates, whether the targets are visual, auditory, proprioceptive or imaginary. Furthermore, the remembered eye-centered location is updated after each eye and head movement. This is quite surprising since, in principle, a reaching motor command can be computed from any non-visual modality without ever recovering the eye-centered location of the stimulus. This finding may reflect the predominant role of vision in human spatial perception.     

Ethnic variation in depressive symptoms in a community sample in Hawaii

A modified CES-D was administered to a community sample of 176 European Americans (EA), 209 Native Hawaiians (NH), and 357 Japanese Americans (JA), yielding measures of depression, positive affect, depressed affect, somatic disturbance, and disturbed interpersonal relations. Positive affect was lower in JA relative to EA, consistent with findings among Native Japanese, a pattern attributed to cultural variation in emotion regulation. NH reported lower positive affect than EA, accompanied by elevated negative affect and somatic disturbance, suggesting generally higher levels of depressive symptoms. The three ethnic groups varied in mental health care usage with differing associations between depressive symptoms and experiences of stressful life events. Taken together, these results suggest ethnic variation in depressive symptoms may arise from differing cultural beliefs.     

Saying Goodbye to Our Children: A Phenomenon of Soul-Making

In this article, the author navigates a personal yet common circumstance as a possible experience of soul-making, a concept outlined by James Hillman in his pivotal text Re-Visioning Psychology. Pulling the four moves of personifying, pathologizing, psychologizing, and dehumanizing through the life event of a child's graduating from high school and moving onto college, the author reveals, through the myths of Chronos, Ananke, Demeter, and Persephone, how saying goodbye to our children can deepen our relationship with psyche. The article offers an accessible interpretation of the often heady and conceptual theories of Hillman and describes a process of learning to accept and even come to find love in the inevitability of one's own mortality.     

Differential Relations of Parental Behavior to Children’s Early Executive Function as a Function of Child Genotype: A Systematic Review

Clinical Child and Family Psychology Review - Child genotype is an important biologically based indicator of sensitivity to the effects of parental behavior on children’s executive function...