Sheryl L. Olson

Developmental foundations of externalizing problems in young children: the role of effortful control.

Examined associations between effortful control temperament and externalizing problems in 220 3-year-old boys and girls, controlling for co-occurring cognitive and social risk factors. We also considered possible additive and/or interactive contributions of child dispositional anger and psychosocial adversity, and whether relations between effortful control and early externalizing problems were moderated by child gender. Individual differences in childrens effortful control abilities, assessed using behavioral and parent rating measures, were negatively associated with child externalizing problems reported by mothers, fathers, and preschool teachers. These associations were not overshadowed by other cognitive or social risk factors, or by other relevant child temperament traits such as proneness to irritability. Further analyses revealed that associations between externalizing problem behavior and effortful control were specific to components of child problem behavior indexing impulsive-inattentive symptoms. Thus, childrens effortful control skills were important correlates of childrens early disruptive behavior, a finding that may provide insight into the developmental origins of chronic behavioral maladjustment.

Measurement of impulsivity : Construct coherence, Longitudinal stability, and relationship with externalizing problems in middle childhood and adolescence

This study focused on the assessment of impulsivity in nonreferred school-aged children. Children had been participants since infancy in the Bloomington Longitudinal Study. Individual differences in impulsivity were assessed in the laboratory when children were 6 (44 boys, 36 girls) and 8 (50 boys, 39 girls) years of age. Impulsivity constructs derived from these assessments were related to parent and teacher ratings of externalizing problems across the school-age period (ages 7–10) and to parent and self-ratings of these outcomes across adolescence (ages 14–17). Consistent with prior research, individual measures of impulsivity factor-analyzed into subdimensions reflecting childrens executive control capabilities, delay of gratification, and ability or willingness to sustain attention and compliance during work tasks. Childrens performance on the main interactive task index, inhibitory control, showed a signficant level of stability between ages 6 and 8. During the school-age years, children who performed impulsively on the laboratory measures were perceived by mothers and by teachers as more impulsive, inattentive, and overactive than others, affirming the external validity of the impulsivity constructs. Finally, impulsive behavior in the laboratory at ages 6 and 8 predicted maternal and self-ratings of externalizing problem behavior across adolescence, supporting the longterm predictive value of the laboratory-derived impulsivity measures.

Early Antecedents of Childhood Impulsivity: The Role of Parent-Child Interaction, Cognitive Competence, and Temperament

This prospective longitudinal investigation examined early mother-child interaction as a predictor of childrens later self-control capabilities. Multimethod assessments of mother-child relationships, primarily focused on observed relationship qualities in the home, were conducted during the first 2 years and related to childrens later impulse control capabilities. Child cognitive competence and temperament assessed during the 2nd year were also related to later impulsivity. Follow-up assessments of childrens impulsivity were conducted at age 6 (N=79), using a variety of laboratory measures. Findings indicated that responsive, cognitively stimulating parenttoddler interactions in the 2nd year modestly predicted later measures of cognitive nonimpulsivity and ability to delay gratification. Security of mother-infant attachment predicted the same outcomes, but only for boys and not for girls. Child cognitive competence in the 2nd year also consistently predicted childrens later impulse control capabilities, although this was not true for measures of child temperament. Overall, the findings support a multidimensional and developmental conceptualization of the early antecedents of childhood impulsivity.

Early developmental precursors of impulsive and inattentive behavior: from infancy to middle childhood

BACKGROUND We examined infancy and toddler-age precursors of impulsivity and inattention in school-age children. Children (50 boys, 39 girls) had been participants since infancy in the Bloomington Longitudinal Study. METHOD Individual differences in childrens self-regulatory competence were assessed at 8 years of age, using laboratory tests and observations of three central constructs: Inhibitory Control, Behavioral Control, and Attentional Disengagement. RESULTS We found that measures of caregiver-child interaction, child temperament, and child cognitive competence during the toddler period significantly predicted variations in childrens later impulsive functioning. However, the strength of these relationships, and the type and combination of significant risk factors, were differentially patterned in relation to specific subtypes of later child impulsivity. CONCLUSIONS These data provide further evidence for the multidimensional nature of child impulsivity, and they highlight the importance of examining toddler-age precursors of childrens later self-regulatory competence.

Development of Conduct Problems and Peer Rejection in Preschool Children: A Social Systems Analysis

The development of impulsive-aggressive problem behavior and peer rejection was examined in sixty 4- to 5-year-old boys from low-income family backgrounds. Childrens sociometric status and behavioral adjustment were assessed longitudinally at the beginning and end of the preschool year, and related to measures of peer interaction at three different points in time. Boys identified as socially rejected and aggressive in the beginning of the year were highly likely to be identified as such at the end of the year. Early in the preschool year, these children contributed to their own rejection by initiating socially aversive exchanges with peers. Although peers clearly perceived these problems, they did not reciprocate with counteraggression at first. However, as time passed, peers began to actively victimize these children, and most of the aggression on the part of victims became reactive in nature. Thus, the current findings strongly support a transactional model of the development of early peer rejection and conduct problems.

Hypothalamic Pituitary Adrenal Axis Functioning in Reactive and Proactive Aggression in Children.

The purpose of this study was to examine the association between hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis (HPA-axis) reactivity and proactive and reactive aggression in pre-pubertal children. After a 30-min controlled base line period, 73 7-year-old children (40 males and 33 females) were randomly assigned to one of two experimental tasks designed to elicit fear (N = 33) or frustration (N = 32), or a validity check condition (N = 8). This was followed by a 60-min controlled regulation phase. A total of 17 saliva samples for cortisol analysis were collected including 12 post-stress samples at 5-min intervals. Reactive and proactive aggression levels were assessed via the teacher-completed Aggression Behavior Teacher Checklist (Dodge and Coie, J Pers Soc Psychol, 53(6), 1146–1158, 1987). Reactive aggression significantly predicted total and peak post-stress cortisol regardless of stress modality. Proactive aggression was not a predictor of any cortisol index. Examination of pure reactive, proactive, combined, or non-aggressive children indicated that reactive aggressive children had higher cortisol reactivity than proactive and non-aggressive children. Our data suggest that while an overactive HPA-axis response to stress is associated with reactive aggression, stress induced HPA-axis variability does not seem to be related to proactive aggression.

Individual differences in the development of early peer aggression: Integrating contributions of self-regulation, theory of mind, and parenting

This prospective longitudinal study focused on self-regulatory, social-cognitive, and parenting precursors of individual differences in childrens peer-directed aggression at early school age. Participants were 199 3-year-old boys and girls who were reassessed following the transition to kindergarten (5.5-6 years). Peer aggression was assessed in preschool and school settings using naturalistic observations and teacher reports. Childrens self-regulation abilities and theory of mind understanding were assessed during a laboratory visit, and parenting risk (corporal punishment and low warmth/responsiveness) was assessed using interview-based and questionnaire measures. Individual differences in childrens peer aggression were moderately stable across the preschool to school transition. Preschool-age children who manifested high levels of aggressive peer interactions also showed lower levels of self-regulation and theory of mind understanding, and experienced higher levels of adverse parenting than others. Our main finding was that early corporal punishment was associated with increased levels of peer aggression across the transition from preschool to school, as was the interaction between low maternal emotional support and childrens early delays in theory of mind understanding. These data highlight the need for family-directed preventive efforts during the early preschool years.

Dyadic flexibility and positive affect in parent-child coregulation and the development of child behavior problems.

Parent-child dyadic rigidity and negative affect contribute to childrens higher levels of externalizing problems. The present longitudinal study examined whether the opposite constructs of dyadic flexibility and positive affect predicted lower levels of externalizing behavior problems across the early childhood period. Mother-child (N = 163) and father-child (n = 94) dyads engaged in a challenging block design task at home when children were 3 years old. Dynamic systems methods were used to derive dyadic positive affect and three indicators of dyadic flexibility (range, dispersion, and transitions) from observational coding. We hypothesized that the interaction between dyadic flexibility and positive affect would predict lower levels of externalizing problems at age 5.5 years as rated by mothers and teachers, controlling for stability in externalizing problems, task time, child gender, and the childs effortful control. The hypothesis was supported in predicting teacher ratings of child externalizing from both mother-child and father-child interactions. There were also differential main effects for mothers and fathers: mother-child flexibility was detrimental and father-child flexibility was beneficial for child outcomes. Results support the inclusion of adaptive and dynamic parent-child coregulation processes in the study of childrens early disruptive behavior.

Theory of Mind and Emotion Understanding Predict Moral Development in Early Childhood

The current study utilized longitudinal data to investigate how theory of mind (ToM) and emotion understanding (EU) concurrently and prospectively predicted young childrens moral reasoning and decision making. One hundred twenty-eight children were assessed on measures of ToM and EU at 3.5 and 5.5 years of age. At 5.5 years, children were also assessed on the quality of moral reasoning and decision making they used to negotiate prosocial moral dilemmas, in which the needs of a story protagonist conflict with the needs of another story character. More sophisticated EU predicted greater use of physical- and material-needs reasoning, and a more advanced ToM predicted greater use of psychological-needs reasoning. Most intriguing, ToM and EU jointly predicted greater use of higher-level acceptance-authority reasoning, which is likely a product of childrens increasing appreciation for the knowledge held by trusted adults and childrens desire to behave in accordance with social expectations.

Concurrent and longitudinal correlates of preschool peer sociometrics: Comparing rating scale and nomination measures☆

Abstract Nomination and rating scale measures of preschool sociometric status were compared with respect to their patterns of concurrent and longitudinal developmental correlates. The study was undertaken to help fill a void in the empirical literature on young childrens peer adjustment. Subjects were 79 4–5 year-old children, currently enrolled in preschool classes. In addition to the sociometric interviews, diverse measures of childrens social and cognitive competence were administered concurrently, and longitudinally one year later. These measures included teacher ratings of peer acceptance and behavior problems, and performance measures of social problem-solving ability, impulse control, and vocabulary competence. As expected, the reliability of the rating scale technique was superior to that of the nomination measures. Furthermore, all three sociometric measures had modest but meaningful patterns of concurrent and longitudinal correlates. However, the negative nomination measure was distinguished from the others by its consistent association with measures of impulsivity, and its predictive link with aggressive social problem solving. Therefore, negative peer nomination measures supply unique information about childrens social functioning that should be represented in studies of children at risk for social maladjustment.