Children's Interventions into Family Conflict: Links With the Quality of Sibling Relationships

The goals of the present research were: a) to characterize children's interventions into disputes involving mothers and siblings, b) to examine symmetry between siblings' intervention behaviors, and c) to investigate how children's conflict interventions were linked to the quality of sibling relationships. During home observations of 50 families observers audiotaped family conversations, including conflicts that simultaneously involved 33-month-old younger siblings, their elder siblings and their mothers. Siblings' interventions most often concerned rules of the house, and were most likely to occur when mothers were not upset. Opposition was the most common strategy for both siblings, however alliances were asymmetrical, eldest siblings offered greater support to younger siblings. Alliances between siblings were linked to more harmonious sibling relationships. Results were discussed with regard to children's responses to anger and conflict in the home. The development of mediation skills within the family and their implication for family relationships was also considered.     

Children's Interventions into Family Conflict: Links With the Quality of Sibling Relationships

The goals of the present research were: a) to characterize children's interventions into disputes involving mothers and siblings, b) to examine symmetry between siblings' intervention behaviors, and c) to investigate how children's conflict interventions were linked to the quality of sibling relationships. During home observations of 50 families observers audiotaped family conversations, including conflicts that simultaneously involved 33-month-old younger siblings, their elder siblings and their mothers. Siblings' interventions most often concerned rules of the house, and were most likely to occur when mothers were not upset. Opposition was the most common strategy for both siblings, however alliances were asymmetrical, eldest siblings offered greater support to younger siblings. Alliances between siblings were linked to more harmonious sibling relationships. Results were discussed with regard to children's responses to anger and conflict in the home. The development of mediation skills within the family and their implication for family relationships was also considered.     

Temperament Dimensions in Preschool Children: Links With Cognitive and Affective Theory of Mind

Research Findings: The present cross-sectional study investigated the question of whether 6 different temperament dimensions (inhibition to novelty, social orientation, motor activity, positive emotionality, negative emotionality, and attention) influenced cognitive and affective theory of mind (ToM) in 168 children (86 three/four-year-olds and 82 four/five-year-olds). Temperament was measured via a parent-report questionnaire, cognitive ToM via a classical false-belief task, and affective ToM via a comprehensive test tapping 3 levels of emotion comprehension (external, mental, and reflexive). In addition, language competence was assessed with a direct test evaluating both receptive and expressive language. The results showed that after we controlled for language ability, inhibition to novelty predicted higher levels of cognitive ToM in 4/5-year-old children. In addition, higher levels of social orientation predicted better comprehension of the external aspects of emotion in both younger and older children. Practice or Policy: Our results highlight the importance of the early identification of less sociable children, who might benefit from training interventions aimed at increasing their affective ToM abilities. At the same time, they are also consistent with previous evidence indicating that an inhibited approach to social interaction can promote false-belief understanding.     

Young Children's Trust in Their Mother's Claims: Longitudinal Links With Attachment Security in Infancy

In a longitudinal study of attachment, children ( N = 147) aged 50 and 61 months heard their mother and a stranger make conflicting claims. In 2 tasks, the available perceptual cues were equally consistent with either person's claim but children generally accepted the mother's claims over those of the stranger. In a 3rd task, the perceptual cues favored the stranger's claims, and children generally accepted her claims over those of the mother. However, children's pattern of responding varied by attachment status. The strategy of relying on the mother or the stranger, depending on the available perceptual cues, was especially evident among secure children. Insecure-avoidant children displayed less reliance on their mother's claims, irrespective of the available cues, whereas insecure-resistant children displayed more.     

Family Conflict and Children's Behavior Problems: The Moderating Role of Child Temperament

Child temperament was examined as a moderator of the link between family conflict and child behavior problems. Temperament assessed in early childhood was used to predict the relation between family conflict and externalizing behavior problems measured during the early elementary school years. For children with difficult temperament, a strong association between subsequent family conflict and behavioral adjustment was predicted; for children with easy or intermediate temperaments, low to moderate associations were predicted. These hypotheses were tested across 3 temperament groups (easy, intermediate, and difficult). Data were collected from 108 children and families participating in the Fullerton Longitudinal Study at ages 3 through 10 years. Consistent with the hypotheses, the data provided support for the moderating role of temperament in predicting the association between family conflict and child externalizing behavior problems. These findings suggest that temperamental difficultness operates as a vulnerability factor with respect to the development of children's behavior problems in families with high conflict.     

Attachment and Temperament in the Early Life Course: A Meta‐Analytic Review

This meta‐analytic review examines the association between early attachment (assessed at 1–5 years) and child temperament (assessed at birth–12 years), and compares the strength of this association with recently documented meta‐analytic associations between early attachment and social competence, externalizing behavior, and internalizing symptoms. Based on 109 independent samples (N = 11,440) of diverse socioeconomic and ethnic backgrounds, temperament was weakly associated with attachment (in)security (d = .14, CI [0.08, 0.19]) but modestly associated with resistant attachment (d = .30, CI [0.21, 0.40]). Temperament was not significantly associated with avoidant (d = .10, CI [?0.02, 0.19]) or disorganized (d = .11, CI [?0.03, 0.25]) attachment. Across developmental domains, early attachment security was more strongly associated with social competence and externalizing behaviors than internalizing symptoms and temperament.     

Temperament and Interparental Conflict: The Role of Negative Emotionality in Predicting Child Behavioral Problems

This study examined temperamental irritability and fearful distress as moderators of the association between interparental conflict and child behavior problems in a disadvantaged sample of two hundred and one 2‐year‐old children and their mothers. Using a multimethod, prospective design, findings revealed that the relation between interparental conflict and changes in child behavior problems over a 1‐year period were moderated by temperamental irritability. Consistent with differential susceptibility theory, children high in irritable temperament not only exhibited poorer outcomes in contexts of high interparental conflict but also better adjustment in contexts of low levels of interparental conflict. Mediated moderation analyses revealed that fearful reactivity partly accounted for the greater susceptibility of irritable children, particularly in explaining why they fared better when interparental conflict was low.     

Home-Based Child Care Provider Education and Specialized Training: Associations With Caregiving Quality and Toddler Social-Emotional and Cognitive Outcomes

ABSTRACT

Research Findings: Although there has been considerable research on the associations between the qualifications of teachers in center-based settings and preschool-age children’s developmental outcomes, very little is known about the relationships between home provider qualifications and the developmental outcomes of toddlers who attend licensed family child care settings or unregulated family, friend, and neighbor care settings. Analyzing a sample of toddlers and their providers drawn from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Birth Cohort, we found positive relationships between home-based quality and higher education degree (defined as an associate’s degree or at least a bachelor’s degree), field of major, and coursework in early childhood education or a related field. However, provider qualifications were unrelated to children’s cognitive outcomes and related to a limited number of social-emotional outcomes. Practice or Policy: Our results suggest that as states consider the spectrum of supports needed for strengthening home-based child care in ways that facilitate responsive and developmentally supportive caregiving, strategies should include opportunities for home-based care providers to pursue higher education. A more nuanced analysis of the content and comprehensiveness of providers’ formal education is needed to better understand relationships between toddlers’ social and cognitive development and providers’ formal education.     

Mother-Toddler Problem Solving: Antecedents in Attachment, Home Behavior, and Temperament

In a widely cited study, Matas, Arend, and Sroufe showed that mother-toddler interaction during problem solving at age 2 years was related to the child's prior attachment security. The current study asked (1) whether an independent laboratory could replicate this attachment finding, and (2) whether problem-solving interactions relate to mother-child interactions observed at home and to child temperament measured at 6, 13, and 24 months. Replicating Matas et al., secure dyads worked more competently, and mothers showed better quality of assistance and supportive presence. Mother-child home interaction also predicted problem solving: positive involvement at home predicted effective, unconflicted problem solving. Negative control at home did not predict problem-solving interaction. Unadaptable temperament was generally related to dependency in problem solving. Several patterns of correlations appeared to be mediated by sex of child, e.g., difficult temperament in boys predicted more effective, unconflicted problem solving, while for girls it predicted more conflict.     

Temperament and Self-soothing Behavior in Children: Object Attachment, Thumbsucking, and Pacifier Use

Research Findings. Mothers of 4-, 6-, and 8-year-olds completed two questionnaires: (1) the Object Attachment Questionnaire, which was designed to provide information on children's attachments to soft objects, thumbsucking habits, and pacifier use, and (2) Rothbart's Children's Behavior Questionnaire (CBQ), which rated children on sixteen temperament dimensions. Discriminant function analysis showed that the best predictors for distinguishing between children who had never had an attachment to a soft object and children who had were: low intensity pleasure, impulsivity, approach/anticipation, attentional focusing, and sad- ness. Children with soft object attachments were rated higher (i.e. showed more) on all of these dimensions. None of the temperament dimensions distinguished between children who rarely sucked their thumbs and those who frequently did so, while children who had used a pacifier scored higher on two dimensions (activity level and approach/anticipation) than children who had not used a pacifier even though one was available. Results support the hypothesis that individual differences in temperament are associated with the development of attachment to objects. Practice. Children with attachments to soft objects and thumbs were not generally insecure or difficult to manage. The pattern of temperament differences, however, suggests strengths that teachers might make use of in the classroom as well as difficulties that might require staff intervention.     

The Relations among Infant Temperament, Security of Attachment, and Behavioral Inhibition at Twenty-Four Months

The purpose of this study was to examine the relations among infant temperament, attachment, and behavioral inhibition. 52 infants were seen at 2 days, 5, 14, and 24 months of age. Assessments were made of temperament at 2 days and 5 months of age, and attachment and behavioral inhibition were assessed at 14 and 24 months, respectively. EKG was recorded at each assessment, and measures of heart period and vagal tone were computed. Distress to pacifier withdrawal at 2 days of age was related to insecure attachment at 14 months. 2 types of distress reactivity at 5 months, reactivity to frustration and reactivity to novelty, were identified and related to high vagal tone. Attachment classification at 14 months was directly related to inhibited behavior at 24 months. Infants classified as insecure/resistant were more inhibited than those classified as insecure/avoidant. In addition, an interaction of infant reactivity to frustration and attachment classification was found to predict inhibition at 24 months. Infants classified as insecure/resistant and who had not cried to the arm restraint procedure at 5 months were the most inhibited at 24 months. These findings are discussed in terms of hypotheses regarding multiple modes of distress reactivity and regulation in early infancy and their different social and behavioral outcomes.     

Infant Proneness-to-Distress Temperament, Maternal Personality, and Mother-Infant Attachment: Associations and Goodness of Fit

66 mother-infant pairs were examined when the infants were 9 and 13 months. The purpose of this report was to examine relations between infant proneness-to-distress temperament, maternal personality characteristics, and mother-infant attachment. There were no main-effect relations between infant proneness-to-distress temperament as assessed at 9 months and infant attachment classification at 13 months. This was true whether security of attachment (A and C vs. B) or proposed temperament (A1-B2 vs. B3-C2) groupings of attachment classifications were examined. Infant proneness-to-distress temperament, however, was associated with maternal behavior and personality. Furthermore, security of attachment could be predicted by an interaction between maternal personality and infant proneness-to-distress. The importance of considering goodness-of-fit relations in predicting attachment security is discussed.     

Children's Temperament, Mothers' Discipline, and Security of Attachment: Multiple Pathways to Emerging Internalization

This study examined relations of temperamental fearfulness/anxiety proneness, attachment security, and maternal discipline with emerging internalization in 103 26–41-month-old toddlers. It was a further test of the model that proposed that child temperament (1) is an important underpinning of early internalization and (2) moderates the influence of socialization. All constructs were measured using multiple behavioral observations in several contexts at home and laboratory and parental reports. Fearfulness/anxiety was associated with several measures of internalization. There was also strong evidence of diverse pathways to internalization for children with different temperaments. For the relatively fearful/anxious children, maternal gentle discipline deemphasizing power, thus presumably resulting in an optimal, moderate level of anxious arousal, predicted internalization. For the relatively fearless children, however, security of attachment was associated with internalization. The findings are discussed within a framework proposing alternative pathways to internalization—one capitalizing on fear/anxiety and one building on positive, cooperative interpersonal set between the mother and child—with different pathways effective for children differing in temperament.     

Optimism as a Candidate Health Asset: Exploring Its Links With Adolescent Quality of Life in Sweden

This study aims to understand the role that optimism could play in the context of a health asset approach to promote adolescent health-related quality of life (HRQOL). Adolescents (n = 948), between 11 and 16 years old from a medium-sized rural town in Sweden, answered questionnaires measuring optimism, pessimism, and HRQOL. The findings indicate a significant decrease in optimism and a significant increase in pessimism between early and midadolescence. The study has allowed us to present associational evidence of the links between optimism and HRQOL. This infers the potential of an optimistic orientation about the future to function as a health asset during adolescence and by implication may provide additional intervention tool in the planning of health promotion strategies.     

做密切联系群众的表率

在改革开放和现代化建设的时期，每一个党员、党员干部必须从自己做起，从现在做起，全心全意为人民服务，做密切联系群众的表率。     

Conflict frequency within mother-child dyads across contexts: Links with attachment security and gender

The current study examined context, attachment, temperament, and gender as predictors of conflict frequency between mothers and their young children. Conflict between 40 mothers and their 36-month-old children was observed during multiple laboratory tasks with varying levels of structure, and the number of dyadic conflict episodes was totaled for each context. Mothers also completed measures of attachment and temperament. Results indicated that relative to free play and clean-up contexts, dyads displayed the highest amounts of conflict during the teaching context, which was driven by mother-initiated conflict. Attachment, but not temperament, was predictive of dyadic conflict frequency and child-initiated conflicts for mother-daughter dyads, but not for mother-son dyads, during the teaching context. Specifically, as attachment security increased, conflict decreased between mothers and their daughters. The findings of the study emphasize the importance of examining the context and child's gender in accordance with attachment in order to fully understand the relationship between attachment and conflict frequency.     

Looking Back to the Future: Māori and Pakeha Mother–Child Birth Stories

Māori adults have earlier first memories than adults in any culture studied to date. To test the role of early memory socialization in this advantage, Māori ( n = 15) and New Zealand European (or Pakeha, n = 17) mothers told birth stories and stories of shared past events to their children (3–4 or 7–8 years). Compared to Pakeha mothers, Māori mothers elaborated more in the birth stories, relative to their elaborations in stories about shared past events, and included more references to relational time and internal states in their birth stories. These data provide the first empirical evidence that Māori children experience a richer narrative environment than Pakeha children for significant events in their past.     

Secure Base Provision: A New Approach to Examining Links Between Maternal Caregiving and Infant Attachment

This observational study addressed a critical gap in the understanding of the precursors of infant attachment by examining whether a new conceptualization of maternal caregiving behavior, secure base provision (SBP), explained variance in attachment above and beyond variance explained by sensitivity. Participants included 83 low-socioeconomic status (SES), 4.5-month-old infants (56% male) and their mothers. Infant–mother dyads completed laboratory tasks at 4.5 months and three 30-min home visits between 7 and 9 months, then returned to the laboratory at 12 months for an attachment assessment. Maternal sensitivity did not significantly predict infant attachment security. SBP significantly predicted infant attachment, over and above sensitivity, with an effect size eight times larger than that of sensitivity in meta-analytic findings for low-SES families.     

Helping,Sharing, and Comforting in Young Children: Links to Individual Differences in Attachment

Although attachment theory has long posited a link between early experiences of care and children's prosocial behavior, investigations of this association have not embraced the multifaceted nature of prosociality. This study is the first to assess associations between child attachment and independent observations of helping, sharing, and comforting. Attachment quality in 3- to 5-year-old children (N = 137) was linked to all three prosocial behaviors. Additionally, bifactor analyses revealed distinct associations between attachment and children's general prosocial dispositions and their specific abilities to meet the unique challenges of helping and, marginally, comforting. These findings underscore the importance of considering multiple explanations for links between attachment and prosocial behavior and provide novel insights into sources of variation in children's prosociality.