Revised Reinforcement Sensitivity Theory and Laboratory Assessment of BIS and BAS in Children

There is considerable interest in Gray’s reinforcement sensitivity theory. However, few measures of the behavioral approach (BAS) and inhibition systems (BIS) exist for children. Moreover, the theory was substantially revised a decade ago and measurement instruments are still largely based on the old theory. Our aim was to revise questionnaire and laboratory assessments of BIS and BAS for children. Performance on the Point Scoring Reaction Time Task for Children-Revised (PSRTT-CR) conformed to theoretical expectations. Caregiver reports of BIS and BAS were associated with corresponding PSRTT-CR indices, suggesting cross-method convergent and discriminant validity. There was convergence with physiological correlates of BAS, but not physiological correlates of BIS. Overall, our revised measures represent promising instruments of children’s BIS and BAS.     

Parent Involvement in School Conceptualizing Multiple Dimensions and Their Relations with Family and Demographic Risk Factors

Parent involvement (PI) in school is associated with more positive academic performance and social competence in children. However, there are inadequacies in current measures of PI and a need for a better understanding of predictors of PI. In this study, measures were obtained from a normative sample of 387 children in kindergarten and first grade from high-risk neighborhoods in 4 different sites. First, a confirmatory factor analysis of a theoretical factor model of PI identified 6 reliable multiple-reporter PI factors: Parent–Teacher Contact, Parent Involvement at School, Quality of Parent–Teacher Relationship, Teacher's Perception of the Parent, Parent Involvement at Home, and Parent Endorsement of School. Next, the relations among 3 specific family and demographic risk factors—parental education level, maternal depression, and single-parent status—and these 6 PI factors were examined using path analyses in structural equation modeling. Results indicated that the 3 risk factors were differentially associated with the 6 PI factors: Parental education was significantly associated with 4 PI outcomes, maternal depression was significantly associated with 5 PI outcomes, and single-parent status was significantly associated with 3 PI outcomes. No significant ethnic group differences between African American and Caucasian families were found in these relations.     

Maternal Mental Health and Child Adjustment Problems in Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic in Families Experiencing Economic Disadvantage

Research on Child and Adolescent Psychopathology - Parents living in low-income contexts shouldered disproportionate hardships during the COVID-19 pandemic with consequences to maternal mental...     

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.     

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.