Jeffrey Liew

Longitudinal Relations of Children's Effortful Control, Impulsivity, and Negative Emotionality to Their Externalizing, Internalizing, and Co-Occurring Behavior Problems

The purpose of the study was to examine the relations of effortful control (EC), impulsivity, and negative emotionality to at least borderline clinical levels of symptoms and change in maladjustment over four years. Childrens (N = 214; 77% European American; M age = 73 months) externalizing and internalizing symptoms were rated by parents and teachers at 3 times, 2 years apart (T1, T2, and T3) and were related to childrens adult-rated EC, impulsivity, and emotion. In addition, the authors found patterns of change in maladjustment were related to these variables at T3 while controlling for the T1 predictor. Externalizing problems (pure or co-occurring with internalizing problems) were associated with low EC, high impulsivity, and negative emotionality, especially anger, and patterns of change also related to these variables. Internalizing problems were associated with low impulsivity and sadness and somewhat with high anger. Low attentional EC was related to internalizing problems only in regard to change in maladjustment. Change in impulsivity was associated with change in internalizing primarily when controlling for change in externalizing problems.

The Relations of Regulation and Negative Emotionality to Indonesian Children's Social Functioning.

The purpose of this study was to examine the relations of individual differences in regulation and negative emotionality to 127 third-grade Indonesian childrens social skills/low externalizing problem behavior, sociometric status, and shyness. Parents and multiple teachers provided information on childrens regulation, negative emotionality, and social functioning; peer sociometric information on liking and social behavior was obtained; and children reported on their self-regulation. In general, childrens low socially appropriate behavior/ high problem behavior and rejected peer status were related to low dispositional regulation and high negative emotionality (intense emotions and anger), and regulation and negative emotionality (especially teacher rated) sometimes accounted for unique (additive) variance in childrens social functioning. Adult-reported shyness was related to low peer nominations of disliked/fights (although shy children were not especially liked), low adult-reported regulation, and (to a lesser degree) low teacher-rated negative emotionality. Findings are compared with work on regulation, negative emotionality, social competence, and shyness in other countries.

Positive and Negative Emotionality: Trajectories Across Six Years and Relations With Social Competence

The goals of the present study were to examine (1) the mean-level stability and differential stability of childrens positive emotional intensity, negative emotional intensity, expressivity, and social competence from early elementary school-aged to early adolescence, and (2) the associations between the trajectories of childrens emotionality and social functioning. Using four waves of longitudinal data (with assessments 2 years apart), parents and teachers of children (199 kindergarten through third grade children at the first assessment) rated childrens emotion-related responding and social competence. For all constructs, there was evidence of mean-level decline with age and stability in individual differences in rank ordering. Based on age-centered growth-to-growth curve analyses, the results indicated that children who had a higher initial status on positive emotional intensity, negative emotional intensity, and expressivity had a steeper decline in their social skills across time. These findings provide insight into the stability and association of emotion-related constructs to social competence across the elementary and middle school years.

The Relations of Parental Emotional Expressivity With Quality of Indonesian Children's Social Functioning

In Western societies, parental expression of positive emotion has been positively related to the quality of childrens social functioning, whereas their expression of negative emotion has been negatively or inconsistently related. The relations of parental expressivity to 3rd-grade Indonesian childrens dispositional regulation, socially appropriate behavior, popularity, and sympathy were examined. Parents, teachers, and peers reported on childrens social functioning and regulation, and parents (mostly mothers) reported on their own expression of emotion in the family. Generally, parental expression of negative emotion was negatively related to the quality of childrens social functioning, and regression analyses indicated that the relations of parental negative expressivity to childrens popularity and externalizing behaviors might be indirect through their effects on childrens regulation. Unexpectedly, parental expression of positive emotion was unrelated to childrens social functioning.

Hate Speech: Asian American Students’ Justice Judgments and Psychological Responses

Two experiments using Asian American university student participants examined the distinctive characteristics of responses to racist hate speech relative to responses to other forms of offense. The studies varied the target of insulting speech (Asian, African, and Overweight person) or the nature of offence (petty theft vs. insulting speech). Participant variables included collective self-esteem and social identification. Results indicate that hate speech directed at ethnic targets deserves more severe punishment than other forms of offensive speech and petty theft. Hate speech also results in more extreme emotional responses and, in the case of an Asian target, has a depressing influence on collective self-esteem. Ethnic identification moderated punishment responses in study 1 only. The theoretical and practical implications of the results are discussed.

What are Asian-American Youth Consuming? A Systematic Literature Review

Numerous studies have explored dietary practices among children, but there are limited studies on children of Asian background in the US. This review had three aims: (a) review literature regarding Asian-American youth’s dietary behaviors, (b) critically evaluate the methodological quality of such research, and (c) provide recommendations for future nutrition-related research on Asian-American youth. The authors conducted a systematic literature review through MEDLINE (EBSCO), CINAHL Plus with Full Text (EBSCO), and Embase (Ovid); extracted descriptive data; and evaluated methodological quality. Thirteen articles were included. Major findings included: (a) frequent consumption of milk, fruit, meat, unenriched white rice, vegetables, and high-fat and high-sugar items among Asian-American children and (b) acculturation’s influences on diet, resulting in Asian-American youth consuming diets characterized by both Asian and American foods. Findings from this review may inform education and promotion programs and services for Asian Americans in the US.

Balanced bilingualism and executive functioning in children

The extant research suggests bilingualism is associated with enhanced cognitive effects, most evident in attention and executive functioning (EF). The current study examined the contributions of balance in the bilingualism (Spanish–English) of children to performance-based measures and caregiver ratings of EF. Participants included 30 bilingual children. Balance in childrens bilingualism was correlated with caregiver ratings of task initiation. After controlling for demographic variables, balance in bilingualism significantly accounted for 37% of the variance in ratings of childrens task initiation. Additional research is needed regarding associations between dual-language exposure, linguistic competence, and cognitive development in children.