PSYCHOPHYSIOLOGY OF ADAPTATION--CHILDREN IN HEAD START

描述(由申请人提供)：建议的项目审查 适应行为和适应心理发展的生理和心理起源 Head Start中儿童在课堂上的参与度。主要论题 这一应用的特点是心率变异性的个体差异 通过迷走神经的紧张度来评估，在情绪性方面通过 气质对幼儿是否愿意 学习。具体目标是检查迷走神经的个体差异。 语气和情绪性，并将它们与执行功能和 在课堂上的行为。先前的研究已经注意到迷走神经与 中等SES样本的语气和情绪，但到目前为止还没有研究 审查了这些变量之间的关系，儿童面临的社会经济 劣势。先前的工作也注意到了注意力和 成人样本中的焦虑，但没有研究明确检查 儿童的负性情绪、调节和执行功能 学业失败的风险。对大脑的神经科学研究表明 在负面的，特别是令人恐惧的，情绪化和关注中， 计划和解决问题的能力，包括执行职能。这个 这些关系对儿童在校能力的发展影响， 然而，此前没有被调查过。 100名参与者将在Head Start年内被看到，并被跟踪 进了幼儿园。在参与者的启动年的春天 将收集关于儿童情绪性、迷路音调、执行力的信息 功能、语言和课堂行为。在……春天 参加者的幼稚园年度、儿童学习技能及 课堂行为将被收集起来。预计拟议的 研究可以提供有价值的信息，以促进准备工作 在有失学风险的儿童中，并为正在进行的 首席调查员对学校适应情况的纲领性调查 和他的研究生。拟议的调查扩大了对 情绪性与学校适应的关系 幼儿园的年龄范围，并超越了以前的工作，以模型发展 幼儿学校学习中认知与情感的关系 调整并准备好学习。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The proposed project examines the physiological and psychological developmental origins of adaptive behavior and engagement in the classroom among children in Head Start. The primary thesis of this application is that individual differences in heart rate variability as assessed by vagal tone and in emotionality as assessed by measures of temperament have important implications for young children's readiness to learn. Specific objectives are to examine individual differences in vagal tone and emotionality and relate them to assessments of executive function and of behavior in the classroom. Prior work has noted relations between vagal tone and emotionality among middle SES samples but no study to date has examined relations between these variables among children facing socioeconomic disadvantage. Prior work has also noted relations between attention and anxiety in adult samples but no study has explicitly examined relations among negative emotionality, regulation, and executive function among children at risk for school failure. Neuroscientific study of the mind suggests relations among negative, particularly fearful, emotionality and the attention, planning, and problem solving abilities that comprise executive function. The developmental implications of these relations for child competence in school, however, have not been previously investigated. One hundred participants will be seen during the Head Start year and followed into kindergarten. During the spring of participants' Head Start year information will be collected on child emotionality, vagal tone, executive function, language, and classroom behavior. During the spring of participants' kindergarten year, information on child academic skills and classroom behavior will be collected. It is expected that the proposed research can provide valuable information with which to promote readiness among children at risk for school failure, and lay the foundation for ongoing programmatic investigation of school adjustment by the principal investigator and his graduate students. The proposed investigation extends the study of relations between emotionality and school adjustment downward to preschool and kindergarten age ranges, and goes beyond prior work to model developmental relations between cognition and emotion in the study of children's school adjustment and readiness to learn.