Theodore D. Wachs

Child development: risk factors for adverse outcomes in developing countries

Poverty and associated health, nutrition, and social factors prevent at least 200 million children in developing countries from attaining their developmental potential. We review the evidence linking compromised development with modifiable biological and psychosocial risks encountered by children from birth to 5 years of age. We identify four key risk factors where the need for intervention is urgent: stunting, inadequate cognitive stimulation, iodine deficiency, and iron deficiency anaemia. The evidence is also sufficient to warrant interventions for malaria, intrauterine growth restriction, maternal depression, exposure to violence, and exposure to heavy metals. We discuss the research needed to clarify the effect of other potential risk factors on child development. The prevalence of the risk factors and their effect on development and human potential are substantial. Furthermore, risks often occur together or cumulatively, with concomitant increased adverse effects on the development of the worlds poorest children.

Inequality in early childhood: Risk and protective factors for early child development

Inequality between and within populations has origins in adverse early experiences. Developmental neuroscience shows how early biological and psychosocial experiences affect brain development. We previously identified inadequate cognitive stimulation, stunting, iodine deficiency, and iron-deficiency anaemia as key risks that prevent millions of young children from attaining their developmental potential. Recent research emphasises the importance of these risks, strengthens the evidence for other risk factors including intrauterine growth restriction, malaria, lead exposure, HIV infection, maternal depression, institutionalisation, and exposure to societal violence, and identifies protective factors such as breastfeeding and maternal education. Evidence on risks resulting from prenatal maternal nutrition, maternal stress, and families affected with HIV is emerging. Interventions are urgently needed to reduce childrens risk exposure and to promote development in affected children. Our goal is to provide information to help the setting of priorities for early child development programmes and policies to benefit the worlds poorest children and reduce persistent inequalities.

Bringing order out of chaos: Psychometric characteristics of the confusion, hubbub, and order scale

Abstract A growing body of research has documented the relevance for childrens development of “environmental confusion” (high levels of noise, crowding, home traffic pattern). However, research in this area has been hampered by the high costs of obtaining adequate measures of environmental confusion. In this article we present evidence on the psychometric characteristics of a recently developed parent report measure of environmental confusion: the Confusion, Hubbub, and Order Scale (CHAOS). Study 1, based on a sample of 123 families, presents evidence indicating satisfactory internal consistency and test-retest stability for CHAOS. Study 2, based on a separate sample of 52 families, presents evidence indicating that CHAOS scores are significantly related to directly observed measures of environmental confusion and parental behaviors. Although related to distal demographic factors, CHAOS scores appear to be measuring environmental processes that are distinct from sociodemographic measures. These results support the utility of CHAOS as an economical measure of environmental confusion in the home.

Early experience and human development

1 Introduction.- 2 The Study of Early Experience.- 3 The Physical Environment and Its Relationship to Cognitive-Intellectual Development.- 4 The Social Environment and Its Relationship to Cognitive-Intellectual Development.- 5 Early Experience and Cognitive-Intellectual Development: The Emotional-Attitudinal Environment.- 6 The Earliest Social Experiences and Their Effect on Social Development.- 7 The Socialization of Young Children.- 8 The Relationship between Social and Cognitive Development.- 9 The Nature of Early Environmental Action.- 10 Early Experience and Development: Implications and Applications.- References.- Author Index.

Temperament : individual differences at the interface of biology and behavior

Attempts to bridge the gap between behaviourally-oriented and biologically-oriented approaches to the study of temperament. This volume highlights the major brain systems implicated and considers the neurochemical processes, the behavioural systems and genetics thought be involved in temperament.

The nature of nurture

The Study of the Environment in Historical Perspective Measuring the Environment Specific Environmental Influences The Structure of the Environment Operation of the Environment Across Time Specificity of Environmental Action Organism-Environment Covariance Organism-Environment Interaction The Nature of Nurture Implications and Applications

Conceptualization and measurement of organism-environment interaction

Based on papers presented at a conference sponsored by the American Psychological Association, Purdue University, and Pennsylvania State University, held in November 1989.

Nurturing care: promoting early childhood development.

The UN Sustainable Development Goals provide a historic opportunity to implement interventions, at scale, to promote early childhood development. Although the evidence base for the importance of early childhood development has grown, the research is distributed across sectors, populations, and settings, with diversity noted in both scope and focus. We provide a comprehensive updated analysis of early childhood development interventions across the five sectors of health, nutrition, education, child protection, and social protection. Our review concludes that to make interventions successful, smart, and sustainable, they need to be implemented as multi-sectoral intervention packages anchored in nurturing care. The recommendations emphasise that intervention packages should be applied at developmentally appropriate times during the life course, target multiple risks, and build on existing delivery platforms for feasibility of scale-up. While interventions will continue to improve with the growth of developmental science, the evidence now strongly suggests that parents, caregivers, and families need to be supported in providing nurturing care and protection in order for young children to achieve their developmental potential.

The Use and Abuse of Environment in Behavior-Genetic Research

The measurements and conceptualizations of environment by environmentally oriented behavioral scientists and behavior geneticists are contrasted. For the environmentalist, the measurement of environment involves direct observation are manipulation. The environment is conceptualized as multidimensional, dynamic and transactional in nature, as well as being mediated, in its effects, by the individual. In contrast, in behavioral-genetic studies the environment is either estimated but not measured or is only measured indirectly. The conceptualization of environment used by behavior geneticists is static and global. In spite of these differing conceptualizations and measurements, areas of common interest are observed, centering around the question of how genotype and environment transact to influence development. Specifically, commonalities and joint research strategies are proposed for the areas of gene-environment correlation/transactional model and gene-environment interaction/organismic specificity.

Short-term stability of aggregated and nonaggregated measures of parental behavior.

WACHS, THEODORE D. Short-Term Stability of Aggregated and Nonaggregated Measures of Parental Behavior. CHILD DEVELOPMENT, 1987, 58, 796-797. A comparison was made of the stability of parent behaviors toward toddlers over a 3-week period, utilizing both aggregated and nonaggregated data. Comparison of stability correlations indicated higher stabilities for the aggregated scores, with the level of stability increasing as scores from more single sessions were aggregated.