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.

Anger, sad, and blended expressions to contingency disruption in young infants.

Three studies elicited young infants' (aged 17-23 weeks) anger and sad facial expressions during brief contingency disruptions to explore their potential organization over time as a biphasic process. Study 1 examined partial correlations among anger, sad, blended anger/sad, and neutral expressions during extinction in three extant, independently recruited samples. Across samples, all three negative expressions were inversely related to neutral expressions, but anger and sad expressions were not significantly correlated when anger/sad blends were controlled.

Approach-related emotion, toddlers' persistence, and negative reactions to failure.

Approach behavior, defined as differences in behavior to an incentive event and anger at its removal, was assessed during contingency learning in 87 5-month-olds was related to maternal ratings of mastery behaviors at two years. Mothers reported on infants' concurrent temperament, as well as the occurrence of anger and tantrums, and their own anger at 12 months. Approach behavior was expected to predict persistence with objects and persistent motor behavior, but not negative reactions to failure.

Vagal tone during infant contingency learning and its disruption.

This study used contingency learning to examine changes in infants' vagal tone during learning and its disruption. The heart rate of 160 five-month-old infants was recorded continuously during the first of two training sessions as they experienced an audiovisual event contingent on their pulling. Maternal reports of infant temperament were also collected.

Infant approach and withdrawal in response to a goal blockage: Its antecedent causes and its effect on toddler persistence.

In 2 separate longitudinal studies, infants and their mothers were seen in 3 longitudinal visits. At 2 months, they were observed in free play where mothers' contingency toward their infants was obtained. At 5 months, a goal blockage response was produced when a previously learned contingent response became ineffective in producing an interesting event.

Infant expressions in an approach/withdrawal framework.

Since the introduction of empirical methods for studying facial expression, the interpretation of infant facial expressions has generated much debate. The premise of this article is that action tendencies of approach and withdrawal constitute a core organizational feature of emotion in humans, promoting coherence of behavior, facial signaling, and physiological responses. The approach/withdrawal framework can provide a taxonomy of contexts and the neurobehavioral framework for the systematic, empirical study of individual differences in expression, physiology, and behavior within individuals as well as across contexts over time.

The Role of Parental Distress in Moderating the Influence of Child Neglect on Maladjustment.

Despite pervasive evidence of the harmful impact of neglect on children's adjustment, individual differences in adaptation persist. This study examines parental distress as a contextual factor that may moderate the relation between neglect and child adjustment, while considering the specificity of the relation between neglect and internalizing versus externalizing problems. In a sample of 66 children (33 with a documented child protective services history of neglect prior to age six), neglect predicted internalizing, and to a lesser extent externalizing, problems as rated by teachers at age seven.

Individual differences in the cortisol responses of neglected and comparison children.

Neglected children's acute hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis (HPA axis) reactivity in response to a laboratory visit was contrasted with that of a comparison group. The authors examined initial salivary cortisol response upon entering the laboratory and its trajectory following a set of tasks designed to elicit negative self-evaluation in 64 children (30 with a history of neglect and 34 demographically matched comparison children). Neglected, but not comparison, children showed higher initial cortisol responses.

Relations of Early Goal Blockage Response and Gender to Subsequent Tantrum Behavior.

Infants and their mothers participated in a longitudinal study of the sequelae of infant goal blockage responses. Four-month-old infants participated in a standard contingency learning/goal blockage procedure during which anger and sad facial expressions to the blockage were coded. When infants were 12- and 20- months-old, mothers completed a questionnaire about their children's tantrums.

The relation between abuse and violent delinquency: the conversion of shame to blame in juvenile offenders.

Objective: While the relationship between abusive parenting and violent delinquency has been well established, the cognitive and emotional processes by which this occurs remain relatively unidentified. The objective of this work is to apply a conceptual model linking abusive parenting to the conversion of shame into blaming others and therefore to violent delinquency.

Methods: A retrospective study of 112 adolescents (90 male; 22 female; ages 12-19 years; M=15.

Neglected children, shame-proneness, and depressive symptoms.

Neglected children may be at increased risk for depressive symptoms. This study examines shame-proneness as an outcome of child neglect and as a potential explanatory variable in the relation between neglect and depressive symptoms. Participants were 111 children (52 with a Child Protective Services [CPS] allegation of neglect) seen at age 7.

Cultural Differences in Emotional Responses to Success and Failure.

The emotional responses to achievement contexts of 149 preschool children from three cultural groups were observed. The children were Japanese (N=32), African American (N=63) and White American of mixed European ancestry (N=54). The results showed that Japanese children differed from American children in expressing less shame, pride, and sadness, but more of both exposure and evaluative embarrassment.

How neglect and punitiveness influence emotion knowledge.

To explore whether punitive parenting styles contribute to early-acquired emotion knowledge deficits observable in neglected children, we observed 42 preschool children's emotion knowledge, expression recognition time, and IQ. The children's mothers completed the Parent-Child Conflict Tactics Scales to assess the recent use of three types of discipline strategies (nonviolent, physically punitive, and psychological aggression), as well as neglectful parenting. Fifteen of the children were identified as neglected by Child Protective Services (CPS) reports; 27 children had no record of CPS involvement and served as the comparison group.

Emotions and the Development of Childhood Depression: Bridging the Gap.

There is a gap between scientific knowledge about typical and atypical emotional development and efforts to identify and serve children's mental health needs. The gap can be bridged with research that integrates clinical perspectives into the study of emotional development. We illustrate this by discussing typical emotional development in early childhood and how it differs from the atypical features of emotion seen among preschool-age children with depression.

Emotion knowledge in young neglected children.

Young neglected children may be at risk for emotion knowledge deficits. Children with histories of neglect or with no maltreatment were initially seen at age 4 and again 1 year later to assess their emotion knowledge. Higher IQ was associated with better emotion knowledge, but neglected children had consistently poorer emotion knowledge over time compared to non-neglected children after controlling for IQ.

The relation of ANS and HPA activation to infant anger and sadness response to goal blockage.

This study examined the relation of anger and sadness to heart rate and cortisol in 4-month-old infants' (n = 56) response to a goal blockage. The blockage occurred during a contingency learning procedure where infants' response no longer produced a learned interesting event. Anger and sadness were the major emotional expressions to the blockage.

Physiological and Emotional Reactivity to Learning and Frustration.

This study examined the behavioral (arm, facial) autonomic (heart rate, respiratory sinus arrhythmia [RSA], and adrenocortical axis) reactivity of 56 4-month-old infants in response to contingency learning and extinction-induced frustration. During learning, infants displayed increases in operant arm response and positive emotional expressions. Changes in average RSA(V(NA)) paralleled the observed changes in facial expressions in general and maintained an inverse relation with heart rate throughout most of the session.

Relations of parental report and observation of parenting to maltreatment history.

Parenting assessments (the Parent-Child Conflict Tactics Scale, CTSPC; and a mother-child observation) were examined for their ability to identify mothers with a history of physically abusing or neglecting their child. Participants were mothers of 139 children (age 3 to 6 years; 58 with a history of maltreatment). Mothers with a history of maltreatment reported higher scores on the Neglect, Nonviolent Discipline, and Psychological Aggression subscales of the CTSPC.

Young children's adjustment as a function of maltreatment, shame, and anger.

Maltreated children are at increased risk for behavior problems. This study examines a model in which shame mediates the potential relation between maltreatment and anger, and anger mediates the potential relation between shame and behavior problems. Participants were 177 children (ages 3 to 7 years) and their mothers, 90 of whom had histories of perpetrating neglect and/or physical abuse.

Contextual determinants of anger and other negative expressions in young infants.

Two experiments examined how different frustration contexts affect the instrumental and emotional responses of 4- to 5-month-old infants. Three different frustrating contexts were investigated: loss of stimulation (extinction), reduction in contingent stimulation (partial reinforcement), and loss of stimulus control (noncontingency). In both experiments, changes in arm activity and facial expressions of anger and sadness coded according to the Maximally Discriminative Facial Movement Coding System (MAX) were the measures of frustration.