Rochelle F. Hentges

An examination of the impact of harsh parenting contexts on children's adaptation within an evolutionary framework.

The current study tests whether propositions set forth in an evolutionary model of temperament (Korte, Koolhaas, Wingfield, & McEwen, 2005) may enhance our understanding of childrens differential susceptibility to unsupportive and harsh caregiving practices. Guided by this model, we examined whether childrens behavioral strategies for coping with threat and challenge cohered into 2 broad, phenotypic dimensions--hawk and dove--that have been maintained by frequency-dependent selection throughout our ancestral history: Hawk-like strategies are characterized by approach, dominant-negative affect, and activity, whereas dove-like strategies are evidenced by avoidance, inhibition, and vulnerable affect. In turn, we examined the moderating effect of hawk or dove profile membership on childrens physiological and psychological adaptation to harsh rearing environments. Participants included 201 2-year-old toddlers and their mothers. Consistent with the Korte model, latent profile analyses extracted 2 profiles that cohered into hawk and dove strategies. Children were classified within hawk or dove profiles and separately examined in a process model of harsh caregiving. As predicted, associations between harsh caregiving practices and childrens basal cortisol, parasympathetic nervous system, and sympathetic nervous system activity were moderated by profile membership. In turn, basal physiological levels were differentially predictive of childrens psychological adaptation over time. Collectively, findings highlight the potential value of translating the study of evolutionary models to understanding developmental outcomes associated with harsh caregiving.

Maternal Unresponsiveness and Child Disruptive Problems: The Interplay of Uninhibited Temperament and Dopamine Transporter Genes

This study examined how and why dopamine transporter (DAT1) susceptibility alleles moderate the relation between maternal unresponsiveness and young childrens behavior problems in a disadvantaged, predominantly minority sample of 201 two-year-old children and their mothers. Using a multimethod, multisource design, the findings indicated that a genetic composite of DAT1 susceptibility alleles (rs27072, rs40184) potentiated associations between maternal unresponsive caregiving and increases in childrens behavior problems 2 years later. Moderator-mediated-moderation analyses further revealed that the DAT1 diathesis was more proximally mediated by the potentiating effects of childrens uninhibited temperament in the pathway between maternal unresponsiveness and disruptive behavior problems. Results are interpreted in the context of supporting and advancing the biosocial developmental model (Beauchaine & Gatzke-Kopp, 2012).

Family instability and children's effortful control in the context of poverty: Sometimes a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.

Effortful control has been demonstrated to have important ramifications for childrens self-regulation and social-emotional adjustment. However, there are wide socioeconomic disparities in childrens effortful control, with impoverished children displaying heightened difficulties. The current study was designed to demonstrate how instability within the proximal rearing context of young children may serve as a key operant on the development of childrens effortful control in the context of poverty. Two separate studies were conducted that included samples of children living within homes characterized by heightened economic risk. In Study 1, we tested the differential prediction of family instability on two domains of childrens effortful control: cool effortful control and delay control. Consistent with hypotheses, elevated instability was associated with decreased hot effortful control but not cool effortful control over the span of 2 years. In Study 2, we examined how childrens basal cortisol activity may account for associations between heightened instability and effortful control in reward tasks. The results were consistent with sensitization models, suggesting that elevated cortisol activity arising from increased uncertainty and unpredictability in rearing contexts may influence childrens hot effortful control. The findings are interpreted within emerging evolutionary-developmental frameworks of child development.

The multiple faces of interparental conflict: Implications for cascades of children’s insecurity and externalizing problems.

This multistudy article examined the relative strength of mediational pathways involving hostile, disengaged, and uncooperative forms of interparental conflict, childrens emotional insecurity, and their externalizing problems across 2 longitudinal studies. Participants in Study 1 consisted of 243 preschool children (M age = 4.60 years) and their parents, whereas Study 2 consisted of 263 adolescents (M age = 12.62 years) and their parents. Both studies utilized multimethod, multi-informant assessment batteries within a longitudinal design with 3 measurement occasions. Across both studies, lagged, autoregressive tests of the mediational paths revealed that interparental hostility was a significantly stronger predictor of the prospective cascade of childrens insecurity and externalizing problems than interparental disengagement and low levels of interparental cooperation. Findings further indicated that interparental disengagement was a stronger predictor of the insecurity pathway than was low interparental cooperation for the sample of adolescents in Study 2. Results are discussed in relation to how they inform and advance developmental models of family risk. (PsycINFO Database Record

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.

The genetic precursors and the advantageous and disadvantageous sequelae of inhibited temperament: an evolutionary perspective.

Guided by evolutionary game theory (Korte, Koolhaas, Wingfield, & McEwen, 2005), this study aimed to identify the genetic precursors and the psychosocial sequelae of inhibited temperament in a sociodemographically disadvantaged and racially diverse sample (N = 201) of 2-year-old children who experienced elevated levels of domestic violence. Using a multimethod, prospective design across 3 annual measurement occasions, the authors conducted structural equation modeling analyses indicating that trained observer ratings of inhibited temperament at age 2 were uniquely predicted by polymorphisms in dopamine and serotonin transporter genes. Childrens inhibited temperament, in turn, indirectly predicted decreases in their externalizing problems at age 4 through its association with greater behavioral flexibility at age 3. Results highlight the value of integrating evolutionary and developmental conceptualizations in more comprehensively charting the developmental cascades of inhibited temperament.

Identifying the temperamental roots of children's patterns of security in the interparental relationship.

Guided by emotional security theory, this study examined the temperamental precursors of distinctive profiles of childrens responses to interparental conflict. Participants included 243 children (M = 4.6 years) and their parents across two annual measurement occasions. Temperamental constructs of frustration proneness, approach, positive affect, activity level, and effortful control were assessed through multiple methods, informants, and contexts. Behavioral observations of childrens responses to interparental conflict at each wave yielded four profiles: secure (i.e., efficiently address direct threat), mobilizing (i.e., vigilance to potential threat and social opportunities), dominant (i.e., directly defeat threat), and demobilizing (i.e., reduce salience as a target of hostility). Results supported hypotheses on the distinct constellations of temperament in predicting subsequent change in the four security profiles.

Interparental Hostility and Children's Externalizing Symptoms: Attention to Anger as a Mediator.

This study examined children’s attention biases to negative emotional stimuli as mediators of associations between interparental hostility and children’s externalizing symptoms. Participants included 243 children (Mage = 4.60 years) and their parents and teachers across three annual measurement occasions. Cross-lagged latent change analyses revealed that the association between interparental hostility and children’s externalizing symptoms was mediated by children’s attention to angry, but not sad or fearful, adult faces. Consistent with defensive exclusion models, the multimethod, multi-informant assessment of interparental hostility at Wave 1 specifically predicted decreases in children’s attention to angry faces from Waves 1 to 2 in a visual search task. Declines in children’s attention to anger, in turn, predicted increases in teacher reports of their externalizing problems across the three waves. Follow-up analyses further indicated that children’s decreasing levels of emotional security in the interparental relationship were associated with the decreases in children’s attention to angry stimuli. Results are discussed in relation to how they inform and advance information processing and social threat models in developmental psychopathology.