Assessing Biobehavioural Self‐Regulation and Coregulation in Early Childhood: The Parent‐Child Challenge Task

Researchers have argued for more dynamic and contextually relevant measures of regulatory processes in interpersonal interactions. In response, we introduce and examine the effectiveness of a new task, the Parent–Child Challenge Task, designed to assess the self‐regulation and coregulation of affect, goal‐directed behaviour, and physiology in parents and their preschoolers in response to an experimental perturbation. Concurrent and predictive validity was examined via relations with children's externalizing behaviours. Mothers used only their words to guide their 3‐year‐old children to complete increasingly difficult puzzles in order to win a prize (N = 96). A challenge condition was initiated midway through the task with a newly introduced time limit. The challenge produced decreases in parental teaching and dyadic behavioural variability and increases in child negative affect and dyadic affective variability, measured by dynamic systems‐based methods. Children rated lower on externalizing showed respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) suppression in response to challenge, whereas those rated higher on externalizing showed RSA augmentation. Additionally, select task changes in affect, behaviour, and physiology predicted teacher‐rated externalizing behaviours four months later. Findings indicate that the Parent–Child Challenge Task was effective in producing regulatory changes and suggest its utility in assessing biobehavioural self‐regulation and coregulation in parents and their preschoolers. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

NORWEGIAN AND FRENCH WOMEN IN HIGH LEADERSHIP POSITIONS

This analysis of 50 French and Norwegian women in high positions of leadership stresses how gendered relations structuring private and professional lives will vary in different cultures according to their sociohistorical contexts. The specific contexts of two Western European democracies, France and Norway, reveal a number of differences impacting on the careers and the construction of the personal and social identities of women leaders. Interviews were held with French women who (a) assumed pioneering leadership positions in the 1970s ( n = 10) and (b) who followed in the 1980s ( n = 20) and with Norwegian women leaders ( n = 20). Sixty percent of the total sample had held posts as cabinet or subcabinet ministers. Illustrations from their narratives, collected through semistructured interviews about their personal and professional itineraries, are used to discuss a number of questions from a comparative cultural perspective: the sense of double marginality, extraneity, lack of entitlement and vulnerability; role-model legitimation; feminism and the women's movement; political parity/mixity; gender consciousness and solidarity; and family and female–male interactions.     

The role of mask coherence in motion-induced blindness

Motion-induced blindness (MIB) is the perceived disappearance of a salient target when surrounded by a moving mask. Much research has focused on the role of target characteristics on perceived disappearance by a coherently moving mask. However, we asked a different question: mainly, are there certain characteristics about the mask that can impact disappearance? To address this, we behaviorally tested whether MIB is enhanced or reduced by the property of common fate. In experiments 1, 2, and 3, we systematically manipulated the motion coherence of the mask and measured the amount of target disappearance. Results showed that, as mask coherence increased, perceived target disappearance decreased. This pattern was unaffected by the lifetime of the moving dots, the dot density of the motion stimulus, or the target eccentricity. In experiment 4, we investigated whether the number of motion directions contained in an incoherent mask could account for our findings. Using masks containing 1, 3, and 5 motion directions, we found that disappearance did not increase proportionally to the number of motion directions. We discuss our findings in line with current proposed mechanisms of MIB.     

Predictors of Farmers’ Market Shopping among People Receiving Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program Benefits

Promoting use of farmers’ markets (FMs) is a promising community‐level strategy to increase access to nutritious foods such as fruits and vegetables. Yet, FM shopping among people with Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits remains low. This research examined predictors of FM shopping among SNAP recipients living within 1 mile of a FM. A cross‐sectional survey of SNAP participants (N = 270) was conducted in 2015 in Cleveland and East Cleveland, OH, USA. Multinomial regression and zero‐truncated Poisson regression analyses were conducted to examine factors associated with FM shopping. Results indicate 48% reported shopping at a FM at least once in the past year, 26% had shopped at a FM before, but not in the last year, and 26% had never shopped at a FM. The multivariable analyses found awareness of FMs and a healthy food incentive program, and four dimensions of healthy food access are significantly associated with FM shopping among SNAP recipients. The food access dimensions included service delivery, spatial‐temporal, personal, and social access. Findings highlight modifiable leverage points for improving the reach of FMs among low‐income populations.     

Adolescents’ neural response to social reward and real-world emotional closeness and positive affect

Feeling emotionally close to others during social interactions is a ubiquitous and meaningful experience that can elicit positive affect. The present study integrates functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and ecological momentary assessment (EMA) to investigate whether neural response to social reward (1) is related to the experience of emotional closeness and (2) moderates the association between emotional closeness and positive affect during and following social interactions. In this study, 34 typically developing adolescents (ages 14–18 years) completed a social-reward fMRI task, a monetary-reward fMRI task, and a 2-week EMA protocol regarding their social and affective experiences. Adolescents with greater right posterior superior temporal sulcus/temporoparietal junction (pSTS/TPJ) response to social reward reported greater mean momentary emotional closeness. Neural response to social reward in the right pSTS/TPJ moderated how strongly momentary emotional closeness was associated with both concurrent positive affect and future peak happiness, but in different ways. Although emotional closeness had a significant positive association with concurrent positive affect among adolescents at both high and low right pSTS/TPJ response based on a follow-up simple slopes test, this association was stronger for adolescents with low right pSTS/TPJ response. In contrast, emotional closeness had a significant positive association with future peak happiness among adolescents with high right pSTS/TPJ response, but not among those with low right pSTS/TPJ response. These findings demonstrate the importance of neural response to social reward in key social processing regions for everyday experiences of emotional closeness and positive affect in the context of social interactions.     

Specificity of Reward Sensitivity and Parasympathetic-Based Regulation among Children with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity and Disruptive Behavior Disorders

Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is associated with disruptionsin reward sensitivity and regulatory processes. However, it is unclear whether thesedisruptions are better explained by comorbid disruptive behavior disorder (DBD)symptomology. This study sought to examine this question using multiple levels ofanalysis (i.e., behavior, autonomic reactivity). One hundred seventeen children (aged 6 to 12 years; 72.6% male; 69 with ADHD) completed theBalloon-Analogue Risk Task (BART) to assess external reward sensitivity behaviorally.Sympathetic-based internal reward sensitivity and parasympathetic-based regulationwere indexed via cardiac pre-ejection period (PEP) and respiratory sinus arrhythmia(RSA), respectively. Children with ADHD exhibited reduced internal reward sensitivity (i.e.,lengthened PEP; F(1,112)=4.01, p=0.047) compared to healthy controls and werecharacterized by greater parasympathetic-based dysregulation (i.e., reduced RSAaugmentation F(1,112)=10.12, p=0.002). However, follow-up analyses indicated theADHD effect was better accounted for by comorbid DBD diagnoses; that is, childrenwith ADHD and comorbid ODD were characterized by reduced internal rewardsensitivity (i.e., lengthened PEP; t=2.47, p=0.046) and by parasympathetic-baseddysregulation (i.e., reduced RSA augmentation; t=3.51, p=0.002) in response to rewardwhen compared to typically developing youth. Furthermore, children with ADHD and comorbid CD exhibited greater behaviorally-based external reward sensitivity (i.e.,more total pops; F(3,110)= 5.96, p=0.001) compared to children with ADHD only (t=3.87, p=0.001) and children with ADHD and ODD (t=3.56, p=0.003). Results suggest that disruptions in sensitivity to reward may be betteraccounted for, in part, by comorbid DBD.Key Words: attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, autonomic nervous system,disruptive behavior disorders, reward sensitivityPowered     

Mapping Juvenile Justice: Identifying Existing Structural Barriers to Accessing Probation Services

The majority of justice‐involved youth are placed on probation; however, many of those same youth struggle to comply with probation requirements and are subsequently confined. In Baltimore, 20% of newly committed youth were detained for violations of probation. While there are various reasons youth fail to comply with probation requirements, there have been recent calls to consider the impact of structural and spatial barriers to accessing probation programs and services. Centering the goals of community psychology, we aim to identify how existing structural barriers in Baltimore City may be contributing to social injustice through inequitable access to probation services for youth and their families. In this study, we take a novel, interdisciplinary approach to identify structural or spatial barriers facing justice‐involved youth in Baltimore, MD. Specifically, we explore transportation barriers (i.e., vehicle access) and spatial disparities between youth residences and probation office locations. Our findings suggest that there are several barriers facing Baltimore’s justice‐involved youth that may impact access to and engagement with juvenile probation. Specifically, we found that 1 in 3 youths reside in areas with extremely low levels of vehicle access and where the median household income is 25% below the city median. We also find that the majority of youth live beyond walking distances; many would require lengthy transit commutes. These findings highlight the structural and spatial barriers facing justice‐involved youth that may impact access to and engagement with probation services.     

Maternal Harsh Parenting,SES, and Young Children’s Sleep

Journal of Child and Family Studies - There is a need to better understand the influence of daytime parenting behaviors on children’s sleep. We investigated relations between maternal harsh...     

Exercise and Diet as Potential Moderators Between Trauma,Posttraumatic Stress,Depression, and Relationship Quality Among Emerging Adults

Exercise and diet have not been examined as potential protective factors between trauma and trauma-related sequelae. Using data collected from emerging adults (N = 321), we tested a path analysis to determine if exercise and diet would moderate the association between the number of potentially traumatic life events experienced and posttraumatic stress, depression, and relationship quality. More exercise was directly associated with higher posttraumatic stress and depressive symptoms. A healthier diet was directly associated with lower posttraumatic stress, lower depressive symptoms, and higher relationship quality. Results suggest there may be value in highlighting exercise and diet in family therapy.     

Past and future of near-infrared spectroscopy in studies of emotion and social neuroscience

Near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) enables the non-invasive measurement of spatiotemporal characteristics of brain function, which has received increasing attention during the last years. This new birth of interest is attributable to unique characteristics of the NIRS technique, which may be summarised in certain technical advantages: its experimental and ecological validity and the extension of application to clinical samples. This paper presents the main applications of the NIRS technique that measures changes in brain activation to study emotions and social neuroscience field. In the first part of this paper, we discuss the basic principles, strengths, and limitations of NIRS for the study of principal emotional functions. In the second part, we focus on the actual applications of NIRS in emotional and social research. In this regard, first, we consider some main topics of emotional contexts, such as visual (facial expression) and auditory cues recognition, and social neuroscience field. Second, we discuss the utility to apply NIRS simultaneously to other techniques (electroencephalography, Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation, and functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging) to improve the intrinsic power of such measures. Third, we consider the possible applications of NIRS devices to study specific emotion-related functions (such as connectivity and plasticity applications).