Emotional reactivity and regulation in infancy interact to predict executive functioning in early childhood

The influence of adverse childhood experiences and depression on addiction severity among methamphetamine users: exploring the role of perseveration

Aims

This investigation aimed to clarify the intricate relationship among depression, cognitive function, adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), and their combined influence on methamphetamine use disorder (MUD).

Methods

Utilizing a battery of psychological tests, this study ascertained the impact of ACEs on the condition of 76 people with MUD who meet the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5) criteria, aged 42.17 on average. The Iowa Gambling Task (IGT), Conners' Continuous Performance-II (CPT-II), the self-report Severity of Dependence Scale (SDS), and the Beck Depression Inventory-II (BDI-II) were used for these evaluations. Individuals involved in the study were categorized into two discrete cohorts, mild (ME) and severe (SE), based on the extent of their ACEs exposure. This study employed the PROCESS regression, the independent t-test andχ2 tests for the analysis.

Results

The findings revealed notable discrepancies in the psychological consequences between the two groups with different degrees of ACEs; however, no substantial differences were observed in the demographic parameters. The SE group exhibited elevated BDI-II scores, more evident indications of MUD, and a higher degree of CPT-II cognitive perseveration. The PROCESS model revealed that cognitive perseveration moderated the impact of depression on ACEs and subjective MUD severity, explaining 20.2% of the variance. The ACEs and depression predicted 28.6% of the variance in MUD symptoms. However, no statistically significant differences were detected between the two groups regarding the parameters in the IGT-2 assessment.

Conclusions

These results indicate that the interaction between cognitive and depressive factors mediates the effect of ACEs on subjective MUD severity but not on MUD symptoms. The ACEs significant impact on mental health severity perception is explained by cognitive and depressive factors. This implies that MUD treatment and rehabilitation should address cognitive dysfunction and developmental trauma.

Profiles of executive functions in middle childhood and prediction of later self-regulation

Most research on the development of executive functions (EF) has applied variable-oriented approaches, neglecting the potential inter- and intraindividual interplay of these capacities. In a person-oriented approach, the present study identified varying profiles of performance for three cool EF facets: inhibition, working-memory updating, and cognitive flexibility, as well as two hot EF facets: affective decision-making and delay of gratification, in a community sample of 1,657 children (T1; age: 6-11 years, M = 8.36 years, 52.1% female) via latent profile analysis. The best-fitting model allowed for partial dependence across the three cool EF and included four profiles: all-average (69.4% of the children), low-delay (19.0%), regulated-decision-making (7.0%), and low-inhibition (4.6%). Age, binary sex, socio-economic status, multilingualism, and processing speed were identified as significant characteristics of EF profile membership. Longitudinally, a higher probability of belonging to the low-inhibition profile predicted lower rates of the self-regulatory outcome of inhibitory control 1 year later, while belonging to the regulated-decision-making profile predicted lower rates of the ability to plan and organize 3 years later. These results not only demonstrate the existence of subgroups with different concurrent within-person expressions of EF performance, but also identify related characteristics and longitudinal outcomes of subgroup membership. In turn, these conclusions stress the importance of person-oriented research to inform on differing weaknesses or strengths in EF performance for varying individuals, thereby providing valuable insight for educational and clinical research into the design of effective personalized support or interventions during middle childhood.

Executive function and preterm birth: A longitudinal study

Infants born low birth weight (LBW) and preterm are at risk for developmental delay and cognitive deficits. These deficits can lead to lifelong learning difficulties and high-risk behaviors. Preterm (PT) and full-term (FT) groups were compared across infant and toddler measures of behavior and development to extract early indicators of executive function (EF). The goal was to extract indicators of EF from standardized infant assessments. PT (<2500 grams and <37 weeks) and FT (> 2500 grams and >37 weeks) were compared across assessment and EF components were identified from the BSID-III. A multivariate linear model was used to examine group differences. All children (99 PT and 46 FT) were administered the Bayley III and the DMQ assessments for session 1 (6-8 months). During session 2, N=78 PT and 37 FT (18-20 months), the CBCL was added to previous assessments, and the BRIEF-P was added to previous assessments in session 3, N= 52 PT and 36 FT for session 3 (See Table 1). Significant change scores were found on BSID-III subtests and EF components across all 3 sessions. The PT group also showed significantly more behavioral concerns on the CBCL at 18 months and 36 months and had lower scores on the BRIEF-P than their FT peers. The number of children born PT (N = 27, 52%) who were in Early Intervention (EI) increased across the 3 sessions. Examining early indicators of EFs supported the development of early identification that could lead to decrease adverse outcomes often associated with preterm birth.

Effects of sociocultural stressors on maternal responsivity and the infant behavioral and neuroendocrine response to stress in families of Mexican descent

Maternal stress is consistently linked to alterations in maternal behavior and infant neurodevelopmental outcomes. As the Latino population grows in the U.S., it is increasingly important to understand how culturally relevant factors affect this relationship. This study aimed to address the role of sociocultural stressors on maternal sensitivity and markers of infant emotional regulation and the neuroendocrine response to stress in mother/infant dyads of Mexican descent. Pregnant women of Mexican descent (n = 115) were recruited during early pregnancy and followed until their infants were 6 months old. Mothers completed measures of sociocultural stressors (acculturative stress and discrimination) at pre and postnatal time points. At 6 months, dyads underwent the Still Face procedure. Mothers were observed for behaviors exhibiting maternal responsivity, while negative vocalizations were observed in infants. Salivary cortisol was also collected from infants. Maternal responsivity was a salient risk factor for alterations in infant emotional regulation and cortisol activity. Postnatal experiences of discrimination were also negatively associated with infant negative affect. This work highlights maternal responsivity and points to a potential role for experiences of discrimination in the response to stress in the mother/child dyad that may have consequences for the development of emotional regulation in infants of Mexican descent.

Emotions or cognitions first? Longitudinal relations between executive functions and emotion regulation in childhood

Executive functions and emotion regulation develop from early childhood to adolescence and are predictive of important psychosocial outcomes. However, despite the correlation between the two regulatory capacities, whether they are prospectively related in school-aged children remains unknown, and the direction of effects is uncertain. In this study, a sample drawn from two birth cohorts in Norway was biennially examined between the ages of 6 and 14 (n = 852, 50.1% girls, 93% Norwegian). Parents completed the Emotion Regulation Checklist, and teachers completed the Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Function. A random intercept cross-lagged panel model revealed that improved emotion regulation predicted increased executive functioning to the same extent throughout development, whereas enhanced executive functioning was unrelated to future changes in emotion regulation.

Reactive and control processes in the development of internalizing and externalizing problems across early childhood to adolescence

Reactive and control processes - e.g., negative emotionality and immediacy preference - may predict distinct psychopathology trajectories. However, externalizing and internalizing problems change in behavioral manifestation across development and across contexts, thus necessitating the use of different measures and informants across ages. This is the first study that created developmental scales for both internalizing and externalizing problems by putting scores from different informants and measures onto the same scale to examine temperament facets as risk factors. Multidimensional linking allowed us to examine trajectories of internalizing and externalizing problems from ages 2 to 15 years (N = 1,364) using near-annual ratings by mothers, fathers, teachers, other caregivers, and self report. We examined reactive and control processes in early childhood as predictors of the trajectories and as predictors of general versus specific psychopathology in adolescence. Negative emotionality at age 4 predicted general psychopathology and unique externalizing problems at age 15. Wait times on an immediacy preference task at age 4 were negatively associated with age 15 general psychopathology, and positively associated with unique internalizing problems. Findings demonstrate the value of developmental scaling for examining development of psychopathology across a lengthy developmental span and the importance of considering reactive and control processes in development of psychopathology.

Maternal alcohol dependence symptoms, maternal insensitivity to children's distress, and young children's blunted emotional reactivity

Maternal insensitivity to children's emotional distress (e.g., expressions of sadness or fearfulness) is one mechanism through which maternal alcohol dependence may increase children's risk for psychopathology. Although emotion dysregulation is consistently associated with psychopathology, it remains unclear how or why alcohol dependence's effects on caregiving responses to children's distress may impact children's emotion regulation over time, particularly in ways that may engender risks for psychopathology. This study examined longitudinal associations between lifetime maternal alcohol dependence symptoms, mothers' insensitivity to children's emotional distress cues, and children's emotional reactivity among 201 mother-child dyads (Mchild age = 2.14 years; 56% Black; 11% Latino). Structural equation modeling analyses revealed a significant mediational pathway such that maternal alcohol dependence predicted increases in mothers' insensitivity to children's emotional distress across a one-year period (β = .16, p = .013), which subsequently predicted decreases in children's emotional reactivity one year later (β = -.29, p = .009). Results suggest that mothers with alcohol dependence symptoms may struggle to sensitively respond to children's emotional distress, which may prompt children to suppress or hide their emotions as an adaptive, protective strategy. The potential developmental benefits and consequences of early, protective expressive suppression strategies are discussed via developmental psychopathology frameworks.

Predictors of executive function among 2 year olds from a Thai birth cohort

Executive function (EF) is a critical skill for academic achievement. Research on the psychosocial and environmental predictors of EF, particularly among Southeast Asian, agricultural, and low income/rural populations, is limited. Our longitudinal study explored the influence of agricultural environmental, psychosocial, and temperamental factors on children's emerging EF. Three-hundred and nine farm worker women were recruited during the first trimester of pregnancy. We evaluated the effects of prenatal insecticide exposure and psychosocial factors on "cool" (i.e., cognitive: A-not-B task, looking version) and "hot" EF (i.e., affective, response inhibition) measures of emerging EF. Maternal urine samples were collected monthly during pregnancy, composited, and analyzed for dialkylphosphate (DAP) metabolites of organophosphate insecticides. Psychosocial factors included socioeconomic status, maternal psychological factors, and quality of mother-child behavioral interactions. Backward stepwise regressions evaluated predictors of children's EF at 12 (N = 288), 18 (N = 277) and 24 (N = 280) months of age. We observed different predictive models for cool EF, as measured by A-not-B task, vs. hot EF, as measured by response inhibition tasks. Report of housing quality as a surrogate for income was a significant predictor of emerging EF. However, these variables had opposite effects for cool vs. hot EF. More financial resources predicted better cool EF performance but poorer hot EF performance. Qualitative findings indicate that homes with fewer resources were in tribal areas where children must remain close to an adult for safety reasons. This finding suggests that challenging physical environments (e.g., an elevated bamboo home with no electricity or running water), may contribute to development of higher levels of response inhibition through parental socialization methods that emphasize compliance. Children who tended to show more arousal and excitability, and joy reactivity as young infants in the laboratory setting had better cognitive performance. In contrast, maternal emotional availability was a significant predictor of hot EF. As expected, increased maternal exposure to pesticides during pregnancy was associated with worse cognitive performance but was not associated with inhibitory control. Identifying risk factors contributing to the differential developmental pathways of cool and hot EF will inform prevention strategies to promote healthy development in this and other unstudied rural, low income Southeast Asian farming communities.

Are physical activity and sleep associated with emotional self-regulation in toddlers? a cross-sectional study

BACKGROUND

Toddlerhood (2-3 years) is a crucial period for the development of physical activity, sleep, and emotional self-regulation skills. Although there is growing evidence of positive associations between physical activity, sleep, and emotional self-regulation in school-aged children, the associations in toddlers remain unclear. Thus, this study aimed to examine the association between physical activity, sleep, and emotional self-regulation in toddlers.

METHODS

Baseline data from 1350 toddlers (2.2 ± 0.33 year) from the Let's Grow randomised controlled trial were used. Toddlers' total physical activity (TPA) and moderate- to vigorous-intensity physical activity (MVPA) were assessed via 4 + days of accelerometry and a 3-item parent-report scale. Parent-reported total sleep quantity was calculated using the sum of average night-time sleep and daytime nap durations. Sleep behaviour data including bedtime routine, bedtime resistance, sleep onset-delay, sleep duration, and night waking were collected using relevant subsections from the Child Sleep Habits Questionnaire (CSHQ) and Brief Infant Sleep Questionnaire revised (BISQ-R). A 4-item parent-report scale adapted from the Fast Track Project Child Behaviour Questionnaire was used to assess toddlers' emotional self-regulation. Linear regression models were used, adjusting for child age, sex, and parental education.

RESULTS

Accelerometer-derived TPA, MVPA and parent-reported TPA were not associated with emotional self-regulation. Higher parent-reported MVPA (B = -0.01 CI95 -0.03, -0.003) was associated with poorer emotional self-regulation. Higher sleep duration was associated with better emotional self-regulation (B = 0.06 CI95 0.04, 0.08). The five sleep behaviours assessed were also positively associated with emotional self-regulation (all p < 0.01), with fewer problem sleep behaviours being associated with better emotional self-regulation.

CONCLUSIONS

This cross-sectional study suggests that sleep may be important for emotional self-regulation in toddlers, but the role of physical activity remains unclear. These findings suggest that interventions targeting sleep duration and sleep behaviours during the early toddler years may benefit the positive development of emotional self-regulation skills in this population.

Delay frustration in children who do and do not stutter: A preliminary study

PURPOSE

Frustration is an emotion often clinically reported by persons who stutter. So far, mainly questionnaire-based studies have reported findings related to increased frustration or decreased frustration tolerance. The aim of this preliminary study was to determine possible group differences between children who stutter (CWS) and children who do not stutter (CWNS) using a behavioral experimental task, as well as to evaluate possible associations with the frequency, duration, and physical concomitants of stuttering disfluencies.

METHOD

Participants were 13 CWS (mean age = 6;05 years) and 13 CWNS (mean age = 6;06 years), matched on age (±4 months) and gender. Frustration tolerance was assessed by the Delay Frustration task. This task includes normal delay, short delay, and long delay trials. Responses during long delay trials provide an indication of frustration tolerance and were recorded across time intervals during the response window.

RESULTS

CWS, compared to CWNS, responded more frequently during the long delay trials, which is indicative of higher delay frustration. The variation in responding across time within intervals was similar for both groups. Decreased frustration tolerance was associated with increased duration of stuttered disfluencies and of physical concomitants.

CONCLUSIONS

In general, the current findings seem to provide support for earlier theoretical conceptualizations about the role of emotional reactivity in the development of stuttering.

EgoActive: Integrated Wireless Wearable Sensors for Capturing Infant Egocentric Auditory-Visual Statistics and Autonomic Nervous System Function 'in the Wild'

There have been sustained efforts toward using naturalistic methods in developmental science to measure infant behaviors in the real world from an egocentric perspective because statistical regularities in the environment can shape and be shaped by the developing infant. However, there is no user-friendly and unobtrusive technology to densely and reliably sample life in the wild. To address this gap, we present the design, implementation and validation of the EgoActive platform, which addresses limitations of existing wearable technologies for developmental research. EgoActive records the active infants' egocentric perspective of the world via a miniature wireless head-mounted camera concurrently with their physiological responses to this input via a lightweight, wireless ECG/acceleration sensor. We also provide software tools to facilitate data analyses. Our validation studies showed that the cameras and body sensors performed well. Families also reported that the platform was comfortable, easy to use and operate, and did not interfere with daily activities. The synchronized multimodal data from the EgoActive platform can help tease apart complex processes that are important for child development to further our understanding of areas ranging from executive function to emotion processing and social learning.

The longitudinal contributions of child language, negative emotionality, and maternal positive affect on toddler executive functioning development

Executive functions (EF) develop rapidly across early childhood and play a prominent role in promoting adaptive outcomes later in development. Although the existing literature suggests that the development of early EF is sensitive to the influence of intrinsic and extrinsic factors, limited research has examined the joint contributions of multiple child and contextual factors in infancy/toddlerhood. The purpose of our longitudinal study was therefore to identify early environmental, behavioral, biologically-based factors that influence children's EF outcomes in late toddlerhood. Participants included 409 mother-child dyads (209 girls) and the data was collected across children's first three postnatal years. Parent-report measures were used to assess infant negative affectivity (5-months; IBQ-R) and toddler language (age 2; MCDI), and both maternal positive affect (5-months) and toddler frustration (age 2) were coded during mother-child interaction tasks. A battery of behavioral tasks was used to measure child EF in late toddlerhood (age 3). After controlling for maternal education (a proxy for children's socio-economic environment), path analysis indicated that both infant and maternal affect at 5-months directly predicted toddlers' language skills and frustration expression at age 2. Toddler language (but not frustration) also predicted child performance on multiple EF tasks at age 3. Finally, 5-month infant and maternal affect indirectly predicted age 3 EF via age 2 language. Our results identify language as a mechanism through which children's early caregiving environment influences their EF development. Taken together, these findings illustrate the importance of applying a biopsychosocial perspective to the examination of early childhood EF development.

The Interplay between Socioeconomic Status, Parenting and Temperament Predicts Inhibitory Control at Two Years of Age

This paper investigates the interplay between environmental factors (socioeconomic status (SES) and parenting) and temperament in the development of inhibitory control (IC) at 2 years of age. We administered to toddlers (n = 59) a delay of gratification task which measures IC in the context of self-regulation. Parents reported their toddlers' temperament, parenting strategies, and SES. We hypothesized that poorer IC would be associated with more reactive temperament, less effortful control, lower SES and inconsistent/coercive parenting practices. Finally, we explored the interaction between temperament, parenting and SES. We found that both coercive parenting and low-SES were negatively correlated to IC at the age of 2 years. Temperamental reactivity was unrelated to IC, whereas temperamental effortful control (EC) was positively associated with IC. Results revealed a moderation effect of EC on the influence of coercive parenting and SES in toddlers' IC. Toddlers from lower SES backgrounds and with lower EC were more affected by inconsistent/coercive parenting practices and showed the poorest IC. In contrast, toddlers exhibiting high and average levels of EC seemed to be protected from the detrimental effect of low-SES and inconsistent/coercive parenting on IC. These results suggest that strengthening toddlers' EC and improving parents' parenting skills might be especially relevant for the development of IC in the context of self-regulation, particularly by preventing self-regulatory problems in children from socioeconomically deprived environments. Future studies with larger samples, focusing on populations from severe socioeconomically deprived environments, or intervention studies will be needed in order to confirm and expand our findings.

Do executive functions buffer against COVID-19 stress?: A latent variable approach

Levels of COVID-19 stress have soared worldwide as a result of the pandemic. Given the pernicious psychological and physiological effects of stress, there is an urgent need for us to protect populations against the pandemic's psychological impact. While there exists literature documenting the prevalence of COVID-19 stress among various populations, insufficient research has investigated psychological factors that might mitigate this worrying trend. To address this gap in the literature, the current study seeks to examine executive functions as a potential cognitive buffer against COVID-19 stress. To do so, the study adopted a latent variable approach to examine three latent factors of executive functions and their relation to COVID-19 stress among a sample of 243 young adults. Structural equation models showed differential associations between COVID-19 stress and the latent factors of executive functions. While the latent factor of updating working memory was associated with attenuated COVID-19 stress, task switching and inhibitory control were not significantly associated with COVID-19 stress. These results further our understanding of the critical processes of executive functions and highlight the nuanced link between executive functions and pandemic-related stress.

Supplementary Information

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s12144-023-04652-8.

A dynamic systems perspective towards executive function development: Susceptibility at both ends for inhibitory control

In light of the dynamic systems perspective, the current study expanded existing literature by examining the moderating effect of maternal sensitivity on the quadratic association between infant negative reactivity and future executive function development. Using a longitudinal, multimethod design, we addressed executive function development among preschoolers. This study utilized data from the Family Life Project (N = 1292). Infant negative reactivity at 6 months, maternal sensitivity across first 3 years, and executive functions during preschool age were observational assessed. A path model with moderation analyses revealed a U-shaped quadratic association between infant negative reactivity and preschoolers' inhibitory control, only when maternal sensitivity was high. The results suggest that maternal sensitivity may assist infants with both low and high, but not moderate, levels of negative reactivity towards better executive function development. Findings support the ongoing nonlinear person-environment interplay during early years of life.

Associations between observed and reported infant negative affectivity, fear and self-regulation, and early communicative development-Evidence from the FinnBrain Birth Cohort Study

Self-regulation and language are intertwined abilities, but the nature of their relations in early childhood when both skills are still emerging is insufficiently understood. Our knowledge of the relations between early negative affectivity and preverbal and verbal communicative development is still limited. Further, observed and reported temperament capture how aspects of temperament operate in different settings but are rarely used in parallel in studies examining early language. During the period of rapid development, longitudinal studies are needed to identify early risk factors for delayed communicative development. We studied relations between aspects of emerging self-regulation and negative affectivity using both observations at 8 months and mother-reports at 6 and 12 months, and communicative development measured by gesturing and vocabulary at 14 and vocabulary at 30 months in 183 children. Mother-reported self-regulation was related to a higher use of communicative gestures and observed self-regulation by gaze aversion to poorer receptive and expressive vocabulary at 14 months, but neither was significantly associated with vocabulary at 30 months. We found little evidence for associations between negative affectivity and fear in infancy and communicative development. Our findings highlight different aspects of self-regulation as both potential risk and protective factors for communicative development. Mixed results indicate a need for a more detailed examination of different strategies of self-regulation in different conditions and developmental stages to yield a deeper understanding of the relations between self-regulation in infancy and communicative development.

Child abuse and automatic emotion regulation in children and adolescents

Child abuse is associated with elevated risk for psychopathology. The current study examined the role of automatic emotion regulation as a potential mechanism linking child abuse with internalizing psychopathology. A sample of 237 youth aged 8-16 years and their caregivers participated. Child abuse severity was assessed by self-report questionnaires, and automatic emotion regulation was assessed using an emotional Stroop task designed to measure adaptation to emotional conflict. A similar task without emotional stimuli was also administered to evaluate whether abuse was uniquely associated with emotion regulation, but not cognitive control applied in a nonemotional context. Internalizing psychopathology was assessed concurrently and at a 2-year longitudinal follow-up. Child abuse severity was associated with lower emotional conflict adaptation but was unrelated to cognitive control. Specifically, the severity of emotional and physical abuse, but not sexual abuse, were associated with lower emotional conflict adaptation. Emotional conflict adaptation was not associated with internalizing psychopathology prospectively. These findings suggest that childhood emotional and physical abuse, in particular, may influence automatic forms of emotion regulation. Future work exploring the socioemotional consequences of altered automatic emotion regulation among youth exposed to child abuse is clearly needed.

Allostasis and metastasis: The yin and yang of childhood self-regulation

Most research has studied self-regulation by presenting experimenter-controlled test stimuli and measuring change between baseline and stimulus. In the real world, however, stressors do not flash on and off in a predetermined sequence, and there is no experimenter controlling things. Rather, the real world is continuous and stressful events can occur through self-sustaining interactive chain reactions. Self-regulation is an active process through which we adaptively select which aspects of the social environment we attend to from one moment to the next. Here, we describe this dynamic interactive process by contrasting two mechanisms that underpin it: the "yin" and "yang" of self-regulation. The first mechanism is allostasis, the dynamical principle underlying self-regulation, through which we compensate for change to maintain homeostasis. This involves upregulating in some situations and downregulating in others. The second mechanism is metastasis, the dynamical principle underling dysregulation. Through metastasis, small initial perturbations can become progressively amplified over time. We contrast these processes at the individual level (i.e., examining moment-to-moment change in one child, considered independently) and also at the inter-personal level (i.e., examining change across a dyad, such as a parent-child dyad). Finally, we discuss practical implications of this approach in improving the self-regulation of emotion and cognition, in typical development and psychopathology.

Habitual night waking associates with dynamics of waking cortical theta power in infancy

The implications of the substantial individual differences in infant sleep for early brain development remain unclear. Here, we examined whether night sleep quality relates to daytime brain activity, operationalized through measures of EEG theta power and its dynamic modulation, which have been previously linked to later cognitive development. For this longitudinal study, 76 typically developing infants were studied (age: 4-14 months, 166 individual study visits) over the course of 6 months with one, two, three, or four lab visits. Habitual sleep was measured with a 7-day sleep diary and actigraphy, and the Brief Infant Sleep Questionnaire. Twenty-channel EEG was recorded while infants watched multiple rounds of videos of women singing nursery rhymes; oscillatory power in the theta band was extracted. Key metrics were average theta across stimuli and the slope of change in theta within the first novel movie. Both objective and subjective sleep assessment methods showed a relationship between more night waking and higher overall theta power and reduced dynamic modulation of theta over the course of the novel video stimuli. These results may indicate altered learning and consolidation in infants with more disrupted night sleep, which may have implications for cognitive development.

Studying hot executive function in infancy: Insights from research on emotional development

Recent calls have urged to bridge the fields of emotional and cognitive development to advance theoretical and empirical pursuits. Yet, despite notable overlap between research on executive function and emotion regulation, a uniting theory that informs future avenues of research is lacking. Infants are known to lack emotion regulation skills, as they are developing the abilities to regulate their emotions and coordinated responses. However, the field of emotional development demonstrates that at an early age, infants are adept at regulating their behaviors in response to others emotional reactions. Moreover, although classic delay of gratification tasks are fairly ecological measures, rarely are rules expressed to infants without emotions. This paper draws from recent interest in hot executive function to link infancy research on executive function and emotion. Hot executive function lends itself as a useful construct in this endeavor because it unites the study emotion and executive function. We offer a perspective that refines hot executive function within prominent emotion theories while discussing infant executive function and emotion empirical pursuits. Our perspective presents reliable paradigms from the field of emotional development to serve as tools for studying the development of hot executive function.

Caregivers’ Responses to Children’s Negative Emotions: Associations with Preschoolers’ Executive Functioning

There is a lack of knowledge regarding the connection between parental emotional responsiveness and children’s executive functioning (EF). This study aimed to explore the relations between caregivers’ reactions to their children’s distress and children’s EF. Mothers of 136 preschoolers reported their reactions to their children’s negative emotions using the Coping with Children’s Negative Emotions Scale. Children’s EF was assessed through the mothers and teachers’ reports using the Behavioral Inventory of Executive Functioning for Preschool Children. Results showed that the mothers’ perceived use of negative emotional regulation responses (i.e., punitive and minimizing reactions) was associated with lower levels of EF in children, as reported by both mothers and teachers. The association between the mothers’ use of positive emotional regulation responses (i.e., problem-focused, emotion-focused, and expressive encouragement reactions) and children’s EF was not significant. Multiple regression analyses revealed that the mothers’ use of negative emotional regulation responses accounted for significant proportions of variance in EF indexes. These findings suggest that parental socialization of emotion could be important for children’s EF. Specifically, caregivers’ negative emotional regulation responses to children’s distress may serve as a risk factor for poorer EF in children. Efforts to improve children’s EF may be more effective when parental emotional responsiveness to their distress is considered.

Preliminary longitudinal evidence for stability of maternal behavior and infant stress regulation among infants born preterm at 4 and 9 months during the Still Face paradigm

Stress regulation begins to develop in the first year of life through interactions with caregivers, particularly in the presence of stressors. High quality caregiving, characterized by maternal sensitivity and responsiveness to the infant's emotional cues, is particularly important in the development of infant stress regulation. The purpose of this study was to assess the longitudinal stability of, and associations between, maternal interactive behavior and infant stress regulation (indexed by positive infant affect and cortisol reactivity) in response to the Still Face paradigm (SF) in a cohort of infants born preterm (< 32 weeks gestation, N = 22) at four months and nine months (adjusted age). The percent of time mothers spent using specific interaction styles (contingent maternal interaction (CMI), attention seeking, and watching) during Play/baseline, Reunion#1, and Reunion#2 SF episodes was calculated To assess infant stress regulation, two indices were obtained at both 4 and 9 months during the SF paradigm: the percent of positive affect displayed over each SF episode (0-100%) and a neuroendocrine stress response score based on salivary cortisol reactivity. We found three non-significant but medium-large effect size differences between 4 and 9 month variables, with more positive findings at 9 months. Regarding stability within the 4 month and 9 month episodes, maternal behavior and positive infant affect were non-significantly but moderately stable, with maternal watching behavior being particularly stable. Positive infant affect stability between Reunion#1 and Reunion#2 at 4 months was significantly greater than positive infant affect stability across these two episodes at 9 months. Regarding stability across 4 and 9 month (same) episodes, CMI and positive infant affect showed modest but non-significant stability across (same) 4 and 9 month episodes. Finally, with positive infant affect at Reunion#2 as the "outcome" of the Still Face, CMI at both 4 month Play and Reunion#1 episodes were significantly correlated with this "outcome." Further, positive infant affect at Reunion#2 was more strongly correlated with CMI at both Play and Reunion#1 for 4 month old compared with 9 month old infants. Thus, sensitive care appears particularly important for younger infants born preterm, and mothers' behavior early in a repeated stress exposure paradigm may be particularly important in maintaining positive infant affect and in the development of infants' stress regulation more generally. Identifying the longer-term effects of early stress on infant stress regulation, and its relationship with maternal interaction, has important implications for understanding trajectories of regulatory patterns and deficits. A greater understanding of these relationships is particularly important given that greater emotion and neuroendocrine stress regulation in infancy have been directly associated with numerous positive outcomes throughout childhood.

Socioemotional development in infants of pregnant women during the COVID-19 pandemic: the role of prenatal and postnatal maternal distress

BACKGROUND

An upsurge in psychological distress was documented in pregnant women during the COVID-19 pandemic. We investigated with a longitudinal design whether prenatal and postnatal maternal distress during the COVID-19 pandemic was associated with lower infant socioemotional development.

METHODS

Pregnant women (N = 468, M_age = 30,00, 97.6% White) were recruited during the first COVID-19 mandatory lockdown in Quebec, Canada, from April 2nd to April 13th 2020 and were re-contacted at two months postpartum to complete self-reported measures of general (i.e. not specifically related to the COVID-19 pandemic) anxio-depressive symptoms and infant development. Structural equation modeling analyses were performed using maximum likelihood parameter estimation.

RESULTS

Higher maternal prenatal distress significantly contributed to poorer infant socioemotional development. A mediation model showed that postnatal distress significantly mediated the association between prenatal distress and infant socioemotional development, whereas the direct effect of prenatal distress was no longer significant. Prenatal and postnatal maternal distress accounted for 13.7% of the variance in infant socioemotional development.

CONCLUSION

Our results call for special means of clinical surveillance in mothers and for innovative (online) interventions aiming to support maternal mental health during pregnancy and after delivery.

A Hierarchical Integrated Model of Self-Regulation

We present a hierarchical integrated model of self-regulation in which executive function is the cognitive component of the model, together with emotional, behavioral, physiological, and genetic components. These five components in the model are reciprocally and recursively related. The model is supported by empirical evidence, primarily from a single longitudinal study with good measurement at each level of the model. We also find that the model is consistent with current thinking on related topics such as cybernetic theory, the theory of allostasis and allostatic load, and the theory of skill development in harsh and unpredictable environments, referred to as “hidden talents.” Next, we present literature that the integrative processes are susceptible to environmental adversity, poverty-related risk in particular, while positive social interactions with caregivers (e.g., maternal sensitivity) would promote self-regulatory processes or mitigate the adverse effect of early risk on the processes. A hierarchical integrative model of self-regulation advances our understanding of self-regulatory processes. Future research may consider broader social contexts of the integrative self-regulation system, such as neighborhood/community contexts and structural racism. This can be an integral step to provide children with equitable opportunities to thrive, even among children living in socioeconomically and psychosocially disadvantaged environments.

Bidirectional Associations of Childhood Stuttering With Behavior and Temperament

PURPOSE

Behavior and temperament (e.g., emotional reactivity, self-regulation) have been considered relevant to stuttering and its developmental course, but the direction of this relation is still unknown. Knowledge of behavior difficulties and temperament in childhood stuttering can improve screening and intervention. The current study examined both directions of the relationship between stuttering and behavior difficulties and temperament and between persistent stuttering and behavior difficulties and temperament across childhood.

METHOD

This study was embedded in the Generation R Study, a population-based cohort from fetal life onward in the Netherlands. We analyzed data from 145 children (4.2%) with a history of stuttering (118 recovered, 27 persistent) and 3,276 children without such a history. Behavior and temperament were repeatedly assessed using parental questionnaires (Child Behavior Checklist) and Infant/Child Behavior Questionnaire between 0.5 and 9 years of age. Multiple logistic and linear regression analyses were performed.

RESULTS

Six-month-old children who were less able to "recover from distress," indicating poor self-regulation, were more likely to develop persistent stuttering later in childhood (odds ratio = 2.05, 95% confidence interval (CI) [1.03, 4.05], p = .04). In the opposite direction, children with a history of stuttering showed more negative affectivity (β = 0.19, 95% CI [0.02, 0.37], p = .03) at 6 years of age than children without such a history. Stuttering persistence was associated with increased internalizing behaviors (β = 0.38, 95% CI [0.03, 0.74], p = .04) and higher emotional reactivity (β = 0.53, 95% CI [0.09, 0.89], p = .02) at the age of 9 years.

CONCLUSIONS

Behavior and temperament were associated with stuttering persistency-seemingly as both predictor and consequence-but did not predict a history of stuttering. We suggest that children who persist in stuttering should be carefully monitored, and if behavioral or temperamental problems appear, treatment for these problems should be offered. Supplemental Material https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.16869479.

Adversity and Emotional Functioning

Exposure to early adversity has been linked to variations in emotional functioning. To date, however, the precise nature of these variations has been difficult to pinpoint given widespread differences in the ways in which aspects of emotional functioning are defined and measured. Here, more consistent with models of emotional functioning in typically developing populations (e.g., Halberstadt et al., 2001), we propose defining emotional functioning as consisting of distinct domains of emotion expression, perception, knowledge, reactivity, and regulation. We argue that this framework is useful for guiding hypothesis generation about the specific impact of early adversity on children's emotional functioning. We operationalize the construct of emotional functioning, highlight what is currently known about the association between adversity exposure and each domain of emotional functioning, propose potential mechanisms for these associations, and set the stage for future research examining the development of emotional functioning in the context of early adversity.

Supporting Infant Emotion Regulation Through Attachment-Based Intervention: a Randomized Controlled Trial

Infant emotion regulation has long-term implications for human development, highlighting the need for preventive interventions that support emotion regulation early in life. Such interventions may be especially important for infants higher in emotional reactivity who need to regulate their emotions more frequently and intensely than infants lower in emotional reactivity. The current randomized trial examined main and moderated effects of an attachment-based intervention on (a) infants' use of mother-oriented and self-soothing emotion regulation strategies and (b) infant emotion dysregulation in 186 low-income, predominantly Latino infants. We tested the brief (10-session) Attachment and Biobehavioral Catch-up (ABC) intervention in the context of home-based federal Early Head Start (EHS) services. Control participants received home-based EHS plus 10 weekly books. Intent-to-treat analyses with covariates revealed main effects of the intervention on infants' use of mother-oriented emotion regulation strategies during a brief (40-s) novel and potentially fear-inducing procedure (d = 0.31). Infant emotional reactivity moderated intervention impacts on mother-oriented emotion regulation strategies and on infant emotion dysregulation: We found stronger effects of the intervention for infants relatively higher in emotional reactivity. Findings are discussed in terms of the preventive value of attachment-based interventions for supporting early emotion regulation.

Developmental patterns of emotion regulation in toddlerhood: Examining predictors of change and long-term resilience

Emotion regulation is critical for optimal functioning across a wide range of domains and may be even more important for individuals in high-risk environments. While evidence suggests that childhood is generally a period of emotion regulation growth and development, research is needed to examine factors that may contribute to deviations from a typical trajectory. In a prospective study of 1,905 children, latent class growth analysis (LCGA) was used to identify trajectory groups of emotion regulation across toddlerhood (age 14-36 months), examine predictors of those trajectory groups from child temperament, parenting behaviors, and environmental risk, and explore predictions of resilience in 5th grade from the identified groups. LGCA supported a three-class model, with a Stable Incline group, a Decline group, and a Catch-Up group. Child negative emotionality, positive and negative parenting, and environmental risk predicted group membership. These trajectory groups in toddlerhood were predictive of child resilient functioning in the 5th grade. Our findings highlight the importance of utilizing developmental models of emotion regulation and provide implications for prevention and early intervention services to enhance emotion regulation development in early childhood.

Relations between frontal EEG maturation and inhibitory control in preschool in the prediction of children's early academic skills

Maturation of the prefrontal cortex (PFC) across the first few years of life is thought to underlie the emergence of inhibitory control (IC) abilities, which may play an important role in children's early academic success. In this growth curve modeling study (N = 364), we assessed developmental change in children's resting-state electroencephalogram (EEG) activity (6-9 Hz 'alpha' power) from 10 months to 4 years and examined whether the initial levels or amount of change in frontal alpha power were associated with children's IC at age 4 and indirectly academic skills at age 6. Results indicated that greater increases in frontal alpha power across the study period were associated with better IC, and indirectly with better performance on Woodcock-Johnson tests of reading and math achievement at age 6. Similar associations between change in EEG and age 4 vocabulary were observed but did not mediate an association with academic skills. Similar analyses with posterior alpha power showed no associations with IC. Findings underscore the significance of frontal lobe maturation from infancy to early childhood for children's intellectual development.

The longitudinal associations between temperament and sleep during the first year of life

Temperament and sleep in infants are related but also distinct concepts. The longitudinal effects of temperament on sleep in infancy remain unclear, although this information is potentially important for the prevention and treatment of early sleep problems. We examined how various temperament features influence sleep development during the first year of life in a large birth cohort. This study comprised mother-infant dyads with complete longitudinal data on sleep, temperament and sociodemographic measurements at six and 12 months (N = 1436). We observed that higher infant Negative Affectivity was related to several sleep problems, and that many subscales of Negative Affectivity and Orienting/Regulation predicted worse sleep and deterioration in sleep problems from six to 12 months. Few associations between Surgency and sleep were found. Our findings highlight especially Negative Affectivity as a risk factor for persistent and increasing sleep problems, and also the specific importance of the fine-grained aspects of temperament in predicting infant sleep development.

Predicting Late Adolescent Anxiety From Early Adolescent Environmental Stress Exposure: Cognitive Control as Mediator

Early exposure to stressful life events is associated with greater risk of chronic diseases and mental health problems, including anxiety. However, there is significant variation in how individuals respond to environmental adversity, perhaps due to individual differences in processing and regulating emotional information. Differences in cognitive control – processes necessary for implementing goal directed behavior – have been linked to both stress exposure and anxiety, but the directionality of these links is unclear. The present study investigated the longitudinal pathway of environmental stress exposure during early adolescence on later adolescent anxiety, and the possible mediating mechanism of cognitive control. Participants were 674 Mexican-origin adolescents (mean_age = 10.8 years, 50% male) enrolled in the California Families Project, an ongoing longitudinal study of Mexican-origin families. In the current analysis, we examined self-reports of environmental stressors at age 14 (Time 1), cognitive control at age 16 (Time 2), and anxiety at age 18 (Time 3). Structural equation modeling revealed that environmental stressors (Time 1) had both direct and indirect effects on later anxiety (Time 3) through their effects on cognitive control (Time 2), even when accounting for prior levels of anxiety (Time 2). Cognitive control accounted for 18% of the association between environmental stressors and adolescent anxiety: an increase in stressors decreased cognitive control (β = −0.20, p < 0.001), however, cognitive control buffers against anxiety (β = −0.10, p = 0.004). These findings deepen our understanding of the mechanisms underlying the development of anxiety and highlight the importance of cognitive control as a potential protective factor.

Benefits of emotion-based training for the rehabilitation of stroke patients: A scoping review

BACKGROUND

The application of emotional stimuli is beneficial when practicing tasks that must be learned.

OBJECTIVE

This scoping review examined related literature to identify the applicability of emotion-based training for therapeutic activities.

METHOD

All relevant literature published as of April 1, 2020 in four prominent databases was searched (CINAHL, Embase, PubMed, and PsycINFO) using the five-stage review framework proposed by Arksey and O'Malley.

RESULTS

After sophisticated searches and exclusions, ten publications were included for further review. Our results revealed three types of emotion-based stimulation methods that can influence therapeutic effects on stroke patients. However, the research did not compare the difference between the pros, cons, and effectiveness of each type of sensory stimulation.

CONCLUSION

Rehabilitation specialists are encouraged to obtain a broad understanding of therapeutic situations and their possible impacts on a given environment.

Child-Parent Psychotherapy with Infants Hospitalized in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit

Hospitalization in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) is a stressful and potentially traumatic experience for infants as well as their parents. The highly specialized medical environment can threaten the development of a nurturing and secure caregiving relationship and potentially derail an infant's development. Well-timed, dose-specific interventions that include an infant mental health approach can buffer the impact of medical traumatic stress and separations and support the attachment relationship. Many psychological interventions in the NICU setting focus on either the parent's mental health or the infant's neurodevelopmental functioning. An alternative approach is to implement a relationship-based, dyadic intervention model that focuses on the developing parent-infant relationship. Child-parent psychotherapy (CPP) is an evidence-based trauma-informed dyadic intervention model for infants and young children who have experienced a traumatic event. This article describes the adaptation of CPP for the NICU environment.

Neurobiology of Self-Regulation: Longitudinal Influence of FKBP5 and Intimate Partner Violence on Emotional and Cognitive Development in Childhood

OBJECTIVE

Self-regulation includes the volitional and nonvolitional regulation of emotional, cognitive, and physiological responses to stimulation. It develops from infancy through individual characteristics and the environment, with the stress hormone system as a central player. Accordingly, the authors hypothesized that genes involved in regulating the stress system, such as FK506 binding protein 5 (FKBP5), interact with early-life stress exposure, such as exposure to intimate partner violence (IPV), to predict self-regulation indicators and associated outcomes, including behavioral and learning problems in school.

METHODS

Study participants were a longitudinal birth cohort of 910 children for whom FKBP5 genotypes were available and who were assessed for exposure to IPV during the first 2 years of life as well as multiple measures of self-regulation: stress-induced cortisol reactivity and fear-elicited emotional reactivity at 7, 15, and 24 months, executive function at 36, 48, and 60 months, and emotional and behavioral difficulties and reading and math achievement in school grades 1, 2, and 5. Data were analyzed using longitudinal clustering and ordinal logistic regression procedures followed by mixed linear modeling.

RESULTS

Children with two copies of a risk FKBP5 haplotype and IPV exposure were significantly more likely to have a developmental trajectory characterized by high, prolonged stress-induced cortisol reactivity and emotional reactivity in toddlerhood, followed by low executive function at school entry and high emotional and behavior problems and low reading ability in the primary school grades.

CONCLUSIONS

The interaction of FKBP5 and IPV affects the physiological response to stress early in life, with consequences for emotional and cognitive self-regulation. Targeting self-regulation may present an early intervention strategy for children facing genetic and environmental risk.

Sustained attention in infancy: A foundation for the development of multiple aspects of self-regulation for children in poverty

There are many avenues by which early life poverty relates to the development of school readiness. Few studies, however, have examined the extent to which sustained attention, a central component of self-regulation in infancy, mediates relations between poverty-related risk and cognitive and emotional self-regulation at school entry. To investigate longitudinal relations among poverty-related risk, sustained attention in infancy, and self-regulation prior to school entry, we analyzed data from the Family Life Project, a large prospective longitudinal sample (N = 1292) of children and their primary caregivers in predominantly low-income and nonurban communities. We used structural equation modeling to assess the extent to which a latent variable of infant sustained attention, measured in a naturalistic setting, mediated the associations between cumulative poverty-related risk and three domains of self-regulation. We constructed a latent variable of infant sustained attention composed of a measure of global sustained attention and a task-based sustained attention measure at 7 and 15 months of age. Results indicated that infant sustained attention was negatively associated with poverty-related risk and positively associated with a direct assessment of executive function abilities and teacher-reported effortful control and emotion regulation in pre-kindergarten. Mediation analysis indicated that the association between poverty-related risk and each self-regulation outcome was partially mediated by infant attention. These results provide support for a developmental model of self-regulation whereby attentional abilities in infancy act as a mechanism linking the effects of early-life socioeconomic adversity with multiple aspects of self-regulation in early childhood.

Regulation During the Second Year: Executive Function and Emotion Regulation Links to Joint Attention, Temperament, and Social Vulnerability in a Latin American Sample

Although a growing body of work has established developing regulatory abilities during the second year of life, more work is needed to better understand factors that influence this emerging control. The purpose of the present study was to examine regulation capacities in executive functions (i.e., EF or cognitive control) and emotion regulation (i.e., ER or control focused on modulating negative and sustaining positive emotions) in a Latin American sample, with a focus on how joint attention, social vulnerability, and temperament contribute to performance. Sixty Latin American dyads of mothers and children aged 18 to 24 months completed several EF tasks, a Still-Face Paradigm (SFP) to examine ER (Weinberg et al., 2008), and the Early Social Communication Scale to measure joint attention (Mundy et al., 2003). Parents completed the Early Childhood Behavior Questionnaire Very Short Form to measure temperament (ECBQ-VS, Putnam et al., 2010) and the Social Economic Level Scale (SES) from INDEC (2000). Results revealed the typical responses expected for toddlers of this age in these EF tasks and in the SFP. Also, we found associations between EF and ER and between non-verbal communication related to monitoring infants’ attention to objects (i.e., responding to joint attention) and initiation of pointing (e.g., pointing and showing of an object while the child alternates his gaze to an adult) with EF. Regarding social factors, family differences and type of housing contribute to regulation. For temperament, effortful control was associated with both regulatory capacities. Finally, only age predicted EF. These results suggest that many patterns regarding the development of these abilities are duplicated in the first months of life in a Latin American sample while further highlighting the importance of considering how the environment and the individual characteristics of infants may associate to these regulatory abilities, which is particularly relevant to developing public policies to promote their optimal development.

Socioeconomic risk moderates the association between caregiver cortisol levels and infant cortisol reactivity to emotion induction at 24 months

Relations between maternal baseline cortisol and infant cortisol reactivity to an emotion induction procedure at child ages 7, 15, and 24 months were analyzed using data from the Family Life Project (N = 1,292). The emotion induction consisted of a series of standardized and validated tasks, including an arm restraint, toy removal, and mask presentation, intended to elicit responses of fear and frustration. Results revealed that at 7 and 15 months, maternal baseline cortisol was negatively related to child cortisol reactivity, such that children of mothers with lower cortisol exhibited steeper cortisol increases in response to the emotion induction. At 24 months, the association between mother and infant cortisol was moderated by socioeconomic risk, such that maternal baseline cortisol was associated with child cortisol reactivity only in dyads characterized by low socioeconomic risk. Furthermore, at 24 months, children of mothers with low baseline cortisol and low socioeconomic risk exhibited decreasing cortisol responses, whereas children of mothers with low baseline cortisol but high risk exhibited flat cortisol responses. Children in dyads characterized by high baseline maternal cortisol also exhibited flat cortisol responses regardless of socioeconomic risk. The role of caregiver physiology in the regulation of the child's stress response in the context of adversity is discussed.

Parasympathetic Regulation and Inhibitory Control Predict the Development of Externalizing Problems in Early Childhood

The current report examined the longitudinal relations between cognitive self-regulation, physiological self-regulation, and externalizing problems. At age 4 (n = 98; 49 girls) and 6 (n = 87; 42 girls), children completed the Day-Night task, which taps the inhibitory control dimension of executive function. During the task, cardiac activity was measured and respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) was derived as an index of parasympathetic activity. Mothers reported on externalizing problems. A cross-lagged path model was used to estimate longitudinal predictions while controlling for stability in all constructs over time. Earlier inhibitory control negatively predicted later externalizing problems, but not vice versa. However, RSA reactivity moderated this link; better inhibitory control predicted fewer externalizing problems only when reactivity to the Day-Night task ranged from mild RSA suppression to RSA augmentation. Externalizing problems at 6 years were highest among preschoolers who augmented RSA but showed poor inhibitory control performance, suggesting that risk for psychopathology may be better delineated by viewing self-regulation from an integrated, multi-system perspective.

Maternal emotional support but not cognitive support during problem-solving predicts increases in cognitive flexibility in early childhood

Cognitive flexibility is a sophisticated form of executive functions that predicts a range of adaptive outcomes; however, little is known about which caregiving behaviors predict the rapid improvements in children’s cognitive flexibility during early childhood. This study examined whether ordinary variations in mothers’ provision of emotional and cognitive support during problem-solving predict children’s cognitive flexibility and tested whether children’s cognitive flexibility predicts caregiving behaviors across time. Two hundred and seventy-eight children and their caregivers (96% mothers) participated in laboratory visits when children were in preschool, kindergarten, and first grade. At each visit, cognitive flexibility was measured via a computerized version of the Dimensional Change Card Sort task and mothers’ behaviors were observed during a semi-structured problem-solving board game task. Results from autoregressive cross-lagged structural regression analyses indicated that mothers’ emotional support predicted greater child cognitive flexibility from preschool to kindergarten, and from kindergarten to first grade, after accounting for the stability in these constructs over time and controlling for the influence of maternal education, and child age and minority status. Mothers’ cognitive support did not predict child cognitive flexibility over time. Child cognitive flexibility did not lead to changes in caregiving behaviors over time. Findings suggest that mothers’ provision of emotional support during problem-solving may be an important proximal mechanism that contributes to children’s cognitive flexibility across early childhood.

Stress and executive control: Mechanisms, moderators, and malleability

Stress pervades everyday life and more importantly, affects prefrontal cortices that support executive control functions, processes that are critical to learning and memory as well as a range of life outcomes. The positive or negative effect of stress on cognition depends on an interaction of factors related to the situation and the individual. Research has shown that psychological characteristics related to self-relevance and the availability of resources may lead individuals to perceive a stressor as a threat or challenge, driving performance outcomes. Given that perception is arguably the key to stress reactivity, positive affect and self-belief constructs are discussed in the context of how they may lead to preserved performance in the face of stress. Understanding the underlying mechanisms of stress perception could inform the development of interventions, a socially important endeavor given the impact of stress on health and cognitive functions.

Infant quantitative risk for autism spectrum disorder predicts executive function in early childhood

Much of the current research concerning autism spectrum disorder (ASD) focuses on early identification of behaviors that may indicate future deficits or higher risk for a later diagnosis. Additionally, there exists a strong claim regarding the dimensional nature of ASD, such that even among non-diagnosed individuals, a continuous distribution of symptom severity can be observed. Executive function (EF) has been widely studied in children, adolescents, and adults with ASD, with a robust body of research supporting widespread EF deficits in diagnosed individuals. However, it remains unclear how the degree of ASD symptomatology, outside of the presence of a diagnosis, affects EF abilities in a community sample. The First Year Inventory 2.0 (FYI 2.0), a parent-report measure, was designed to identify infants at 12 months who are at risk for an eventual ASD diagnosis. In the current study, a continuous scoring scale was used to examine risk (overall, Social-Communication, and Sensory-Regulatory) from a dimensional perspective. Parents also completed the Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Function-Preschool Version and the Social Responsiveness Scale-2nd edition when their children were 42 months (3.5 years) old. Each FYI 2.0 risk variable significantly predicted scores on an overall EF composite and specific EF subscales. When controlling for general ASD symptomatology, Sensory-Regulatory risk still significantly predicted EF deficits. This research provides additional support for a quantitative consideration of risk for ASD and presents novel findings regarding the relation between infant behaviors indicative of ASD risk and EF in early childhood. Autism Research 2018, 11: 1532-1541. © 2018 International Society for Autism Research, Wiley Periodicals, Inc. LAY SUMMARY: Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) often have difficulty with executive function (EF) tasks that require a set of mental processes involved in goal-directed behaviors. Studying children without ASD who may have symptoms affecting EF is also important. This study demonstrates that certain infant behaviors related to ASD are linked to early childhood EF difficulties. These results support looking at a range of ASD symptoms to better understand children who struggle with EF and potentially design tools to help them.

Executive function and childhood stuttering: Parent ratings and evidence from a behavioral task

PURPOSE

The purpose of this study was to examine the executive function (EF) abilities of preschool children who do (CWS) and do not stutter (CWNS) using a parent-report questionnaire and a behavioral task.

METHOD

Participants were 75 CWS and 75 CWNS between the ages of 3;0 and 5;11 (years; months). Parents rated their children's EF abilities using the Behavioral Rating Inventory of Executive Function-Preschool Version (BRIEF-P; Gioia, Espy, & Isquith, 2003). Children's ability to integrate cognitive flexibility, inhibitory control, and working memory was measured using a behavioral task, the Head-Toes-Knees-Shoulders (HTKS; Cameron Ponitz, McClelland, Matthews, & Morrison, 2009).

RESULTS

The CWS were judged by their parents as being less proficient in working memory, shift/flexibility, and overall EF than the parents of the CWNS. Children in the CWS group were also 2½ to 7 times more likely than children in the CWNS group to exhibit clinically significant difficulties with EF. Behavioral task findings revealed that 3-year old CWS performed more poorly than their peers on the HTKS. Parental ratings of executive function and working memory were significantly and moderately correlated with receptive and expressive vocabulary skills only for the CWNS group.

CONCLUSION

CWS have more difficulty with EF in everyday life and may experience early delays in their ability to integrate aspects of attention and EF compared to CWNS.

Assessment of Maternal-Infant Interaction: Application of the Still Face Paradigm in a Rural Population of Working Women in Ecuador

Objectives The importance of mother-child interaction in early infancy on child development has been well documented. The purpose of this study was to assess the feasibility of using the Still Face Paradigm to measure mother interactive style, infant affect and emotional regulation in a rural Ecuador setting. Methods Infant's emotional regulation and the quality of mother's interaction were measured with the Still Face Paradigm at 4 months of age (±15 days). Twenty-four infants and their mothers were assessed in their home. Mother interactive style was coded for attention seeking and contingent responding. Emotional regulation was described by change in infant affect between Still Face episodes. Results A significant difference was found for infant affect between the five Still Face episodes (F_1,118 = 9.185, p = 0.003). A significant negative correlation was found for infant affect between episode 3 and 2 with attention seeking mother interactive style during episode 3 (rho = -0.44, p = 0.03), indicating that mothers using more contingent-responding interactions had infants with more positive affect. Conversely, a significant positive association was found for infant affect between episode 3 and 2 and contingent responding mother interactive style during episode 3 (rho = 0.46, p = 0.02), indicating that mothers who used more attention seeking play had infants who showed less positive affect. Conclusion for Practice Study results demonstrate feasibility in using the Still Face Paradigm in working populations residing in a rural region in Ecuadorian highlands and may be feasible in other similar populations in Latin America, and as a successful approach to measuring maternal-child interactions within a field-based epidemiological study design.