Parental Guidance and Children's Executive Function: Working Memory and Planning as Moderators During Joint Problem‐Solving

Cognitive aspects of children's executive function (EF) were examined as moderators of the effectiveness of parental guidance on children's learning. Thirty‐two 5‐year‐old children and their parents were observed during joint problem‐solving. Forms of guidance geared towards cognitive assistance were coded as directive or elaborative, and children's responses were recorded. Children were then assessed on an independent version of the same task. A parent‐rated composite of working memory and planning was used as a measure of EF. Directive guidance by parents was associated with more child errors during the joint activity, whereas elaborative guidance was associated with better performance. Parent‐rated EF moderated the relation, such that the relation between elaborative guidance and better performance was only significant for children with low EF. During the independent task, EF again moderated the relation between parent guidance and children's performance, such that children with low EF did worse when parents had provided more directive guidance; for children with high EF, directive guidance was associated with better independent performance. These findings suggest that the extent to which children's performance relates to different forms of parents' guidance varies, and elaborative assistance may be more helpful for children with low EF. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Emotion Regulation in At‐Risk Preschoolers: Longitudinal Associations and Influences of Maternal Histories of Risk

Emotion regulation is a key challenge of early childhood. The present study examined emotion regulation behaviour longitudinally from infancy to preschool. The continuity of emotion regulation was explored within the larger ecological context of maternal childhood histories of aggression and social withdrawal and maternal use of constructive and non‐constructive behaviours. Forty‐five mothers with childhood histories of aggression or social withdrawal from the Concordia Longitudinal Risk Project, a prospective, longitudinal, intergenerational study, participated with their preschool children. Infants' emotion regulation behaviour was observed during interactions with their mothers when they were 5½ months of age. Emotion regulation in these same children as preschoolers was coded during an interference task using the Preschooler Self‐Regulatory Scheme. Longitudinal findings demonstrated continuity in children's use of emotion regulation behaviours from infancy to preschool. Higher maternal childhood histories of risk, specifically social withdrawal, contributed to the prediction of preschoolers' increased attention‐seeking behaviours. Mothers' use of non‐constructive verbalizations predicted more maladaptive styles of emotion regulation in their preschoolers. The findings highlight the importance of helping children develop adaptive emotion regulation skills from a young age and have implications for the design of preventive intervention programmes to help parents foster children's emotion regulation abilities. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Does It Help or Hinder? Technology and Its Role in Healing Post Affair

For couples experiencing infidelity, technology can be either a source of comfort or a constant threat. Technology has created an atmosphere where individuals have access to more people, in more ways, and at more times than ever before. While this accessibility has increased partners' ability to connect with each other, it has also increased opportunities for infidelity and makes it easier to maintain an affair. From an attachment perspective, infidelity can lead to heightened sensitivities that alter how an individual experiences the availability, responsiveness, and engagement of their partner. Everyday interactions like text messages, phone calls, and computer use become potential threats that compromise the safety of the relationship. Using an extensive clinical vignette, this article highlights the systemic relationship between technology, attachment, and infidelity and provides clinicians with a framework to use when helping couples heal post affair.     

Social regulation of human gene expression

ABSTRACT— The relationship between genes and social behavior has historically been construed as a one-way street, with genes in control. Recent analyses have challenged this view, by discovering broad alterations in the expression of human genes as a function of differing socio-environmental conditions. The emerging field of social genomics has begun to identity the types of genes subject to social regulation, the biological signaling pathways mediating those effects, and the genetic polymorphisms that moderate socioenvironmental influences on human gene expression.     

Infants’ expressive behaviors to mothers and unfamiliar partners during face-to-face interactions from 4 to 10 months

Changes in the organization of infant looking, facial expressions, and vocalizations were examined over age (4, 7, and 10 months) and with different social partners. Although infants at all ages accompanied smiling with looking at both mothers and unfamiliar partners, 7- and 10-month infants accompanied vocalization with looking only when they were with mothers. Seven- and 10-month-olds vocalized with unfamiliar partners only when they were smiling at the same time. When mothers stopped talking, infants reduced smiling significantly at all ages, yet vocalized more at 10 months. In the second half of the first year, there are fundamental changes in the coordination of infant expressive behaviors that reveal a keen attunement to variations in maternal behavior and the familiarity of social partners.     

Role of foster family belonging in recovery from child maltreatment

Research on foster care suggests that children who have experienced abuse are susceptible to a range of negative life outcomes. Such research also suggests that children removed into foster care can recover from abuse if given opportunities to develop healing relationships with caregivers. Drawing on qualitative data from a national research project on Australian foster carers, this paper explores how foster families enact forms of belonging that potentially work to ameliorate experiences of abuse among foster children. With a specific focus on experiences of family solidarity, rituals, identity, and culture among foster carers and the children in their care, the findings highlight the role that foster carers can play in contributing to national child protection agendas aimed at addressing experiences of maltreatment among children removed into care in Australia.     

Processing interactions between phonology and melody: Vowels sing but consonants speak

The aim of this study was to determine if two dimensions of song, the phonological part of lyrics and the melodic part of tunes, are processed in an independent or integrated way. In a series of five experiments, musically untrained participants classified bi-syllabic nonwords sung on two-tone melodic intervals. Their response had to be based on pitch contour, on nonword identity, or on the combination of pitch and nonword. When participants had to ignore irrelevant variations of the non-attended dimension, patterns of interference and facilitation allowed us to specify the processing interactions between dimensions. Results showed that consonants are processed more independently from melodic information than vowels are (Experiments 1-4). This difference between consonants and vowels was neither related to the sonority of the phoneme (Experiment 3), nor to the acoustical correlates between vowel quality and pitch height (Experiment 5). The implication of these results for our understanding of the functional relationships between musical and linguistic systems is discussed in light of the different evolutionary origins and linguistic functions of consonants and vowels.     

Linking Birth Order to Political Leadership: The Impact of Parents or Sibling Interaction?

Despite mounting evidence that first-born children are overrepresented among incumbents in political office, there is no consensus about the cause of this overrepresentation. Some stress the impact of differential parenting, arguing that the first-born receive a larger share of parental resources and have a greater need to live up to parental expectations. Others emphasize the interaction among siblings, arguing that first-born children are better prepared for power struggles, having experience both as followers and as leaders within the family. This study, using birth-order data for nearly 1,200 incumbents in various offices in local and national politics in the Netherlands, found more support for the parental impact perspective. Singletons were also overrepresented among incumbents, whereas middle-born children were underrepresented. The data suggest that this birth-order effect is weaker among younger generations and is more pronounced among women.     

Predictive Validity of Adult Attachment Measures in Relation to Emotion Regulation Behaviors in Marital Interactions

This study examined the predictive validity of 2 assessment approaches to adult attachment in relation to emotion regulation behaviors during marital conflict interactions. Both partners of 40 couples completed the Adult Attachment Style self-report (AAS; C. Hazan & P. Shaver, 1987), the Adult Attachment Questionnaire (AAQ; J. A. Simpson, 1990), the Adult Attachment Interview (AAI; C. George, N. Kaplan, & M. Main, 1985), and a videotaped interaction during which the partners engaged in a problem-solving discussion. The discussions were coded by means of the Interactional Dimensions Coding System (IDCS; D. Julien, H. J. Markman, & K. M. Lindhal, 1989). Results showed that AAI classification predicted proactive emotion regulation behaviors, whereas the AAS and the AAQ did not. Issues concerning the predictive validity of current measures of adult attachment are discussed.