Reactivity and personal control over stimulation supply

The experiment was designed to study the effect of personal control, operationalized in terms of choice between a more demanding and a less demanding task, on persons with different levels of reactivity. Subjects were randomly assigned and individually tested in a 2 (High reactivity/Low reactivity) × 2 (Low rate of stimulus presentation/ High rate of stimulus presentation) × 2 (Choice/No Choice) factorial experiment with 15 subjects per condition. The two principal dependent measures were the total number of correct responses in a serial RT task and the post-task levels of anxiety, anger, and curiosity. The major finding was that while the availability of control had a positive effect on both task performance and affect, its role was situation-specific, i.e. limited to the difficult task. Most probably the availability of control masks the variability of reaction due to individual differences in reactivity. However, high-reactives are still left with the residual stress of unresolved emotions.     

Impact of diagnosed depression and self-reported mood on mothers' control strategies: a longitudinal study

Control strategies of 70 well and depressed mothers were assessed twice: when their children were of toddler age (Time 1) and, for 39 of the mothers, when their children were 5 (Time 2). At Time 1 well mothers were more direct with their children, using more direct commands and reprimands, and fewer explanations than depressed mothers. At Time 2 well mothers used fewer direct commands than depressed mothers. Self-reported negative mood preceding the interaction in well mothers was associated with decreased directness at Time 1 but increased directness at Time 2. At Time 1 depressed mothers' negative mood was associated with a decrease in the use of explanations. All mothers used more unclear commands and fewer reprimands and positive incentives with their 5-year-olds than when the children were toddlers. Depressed mothers, but not well mothers, increased their use of direct commands when the children were older. The findings are interpreted in the context of complex interplay between mother's diagnosis of depression, self-reported mood preceding the interaction, and the developmental level of the child.     

Conscience in childhood: old questions, new answers

Although conscience has been the focus of reflection for centuries, fundamental questions regarding its organization have not been fully answered. To address those questions, the authors applied structural equation modeling techniques to longitudinal data comprising multiple behavioral measures of children's conscience, obtained in parallel fashion at 33 and 45 months. The measures encompassed moral emotion (guilt and empathic distress) and rule-compatible conduct (internalization of maternal prohibitions and requests and of another adult's rules). Confirmatory factor analyses supported a differentiated view of conscience with 2 latent factors at both ages: Moral Emotion and Rule-Compatible Conduct. The structure of conscience was remarkably stable over time. The coherence between Moral Emotion and Rule-Compatible Conduct factors increased as children grew older.     

An Imbalance of Approach and Effortful Control Predicts Externalizing Problems: Support for Extending the Dual-Systems Model into Early Childhood

Although the association between deficits in effortful control and later externalizing behavior is well established, many researchers (Nigg Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 47(3-4), 395–422, 2006; Steinberg Developmental Review, 28(1), 78–106, 2008) have hypothesized this association is actually the product of the imbalance of dual systems, or two underlying traits: approach and self-regulation. Very little research, however, has deployed a statistically robust strategy to examine that compelling model; further, no research has done so using behavioral measures, particularly in longitudinal studies. We examined the imbalance of approach and self-regulation (effortful control, EC) as predicting externalizing problems. Latent trait models of approach and EC were derived from behavioral measures collected from 102 children in a community sample at 25, 38, 52, and 67 months (2 to 5 ½ years), and used to predict externalizing behaviors, modeled as a latent trait derived from parent-reported measures at 80, 100, 123, and 147 months (6 ½ to 12 years). The imbalance hypothesis was supported: Children with an imbalance of approach and EC had more externalizing behavior problems in middle childhood and early preadolescence, relative to children with equal levels of the two traits.     

Mutually responsive orientation between parents and their young children: toward methodological advances in the science of relationships

The authors captured mother-child and father-child relationships when children were 7 and 15 months old by coding 4 explicitly dyadic components of mutually responsive orientation (MRO): coordinated routines, harmonious communication, mutual cooperation, and emotional ambiance. These components were coded in 102 families in naturalistic contexts at home and in the laboratory. Using confirmatory factor analytic methods, the authors demonstrated that MRO (a) is a unidimensional latent construct, (b) can be distinguished from and is not reducible to the 2 interacting individuals' qualities (responsiveness and positive affect), and (c) has remarkable measurement equivalence from ages 7 to 15 months for both mother-child and father-child relationships and has remarkable measurement equivalence across both parent-child relationships at both child ages. This study represents an effort to advance the science of relationships by moving away from individual-based measures to dyadic measures and by using contemporary data analytic strategies.     

Children's conscience and self-regulation

We focus on children's conscience, an inner guiding system responsible for the gradual emergence and maintenance of self-regulation. Drawing from our research program that has encompassed three large longitudinal studies cumulatively covering the first 6 years of life, we discuss two major components of conscience: moral emotions (guilt, discomfort following transgressions) and moral conduct compatible with rules and standards. We discuss the organization of young children's conscience, focusing on relations between moral emotions and moral conduct, and the development of conscience, focusing on its early form: the child's eager, willing stance toward parental socialization. We also review research on two major sets of influences that predict individual differences in moral emotions and moral conduct: biologically based temperament and socialization in the family. We discuss two inhibitory systems of temperament-fearfulness and effortful control-and several features of socialization, including the style of parental discipline and the quality of the parent-child relationship. Early conscience is an important early personality system, coherently organized, relatively stable over time, and subject to individual differences that emerge as a result of a complex interplay between children's temperamental individuality and socialization in the family.     

Mutually Responsive Orientation Between Mothers and Their Young Children: A Context for the Early Development of Conscience

Some parent–child dyads establish a mutually responsive orientation (MRO), a relationship that is close, mutually binding, cooperative, and affectively positive. Such relationships have two main characteristics—mutual responsiveness and shared positive affect—and they foster the development of conscience in young children. Children growing up with parents who are responsive to their needs and whose interactions are infused with happy emotions adopt a willing, responsive stance toward parental influence and become eager to embrace parental values and standards for behavior. The concurrent and longitudinal beneficial effects of MRO for early development of conscience have been replicated across studies, for a broad range of developmental periods from infancy through early school age, and using a wide variety of behavioral, emotional, and cognitive measures of conscience in the laboratory, at home, and in school. These findings highlight the importance of the early parent–child relationship for subsequent moral development.