The Interplay of Parenting and Temperament in Associations with Child Executive Functions

 描述(申请人提供)：执行功能(EF)是高阶认知过程(例如，工作记忆、定势转移、抑制控制)，支持行为的自我调节，并在儿童早期发展。早期的EF能力是学业准备和社会情绪能力的有力预测因素；EF干预已被确定为减少弱势人群经历的与健康相关的差异的潜在途径。EFS在儿童早期具有很高的延展性，社会影响似乎对儿童能力的个体差异起到了重要作用；然而，目前的发展模型缺乏关于哪种照顾者行为最有影响的特殊性。最近的领域育儿方法提出，儿童的社会化发生在不同的领域(例如，指导学习、控制和互惠)，而特定领域的育儿实践有助于促进领域相关的儿童结果。目前的应用将应用这一新的领域方法，这可能为儿童EF的发展模型提供概念上的清晰，并增强得出与儿童EF能力的个体差异有关的关键父母社会化行为的能力。这将通过测试父母社会化做法与儿童EF之间的差异关联来实现，假设与其他社会化领域相比，指导学习领域内的父母养育做法与儿童EF结果的关系更密切(目标1)。其次，不同的易感性框架已经将儿童消极情绪性和活力的气质特征确定为可塑性因素，表明对父母教养的积极和消极方面都具有高度的敏感性；然而，这还有待在儿童EF的背景下进行检验。本研究将整合差异易感性和领域框架，以描绘这种与儿童EF有关的“好的或坏的”模式是否特定于指导学习父母做法的差异(目标2)。AIMS将在一项对162名不同社会经济和种族的母亲及其5岁孩子的研究中进行测试。这项工作的新内容包括将领域方法应用于父母教育，以检查与儿童EF的个体差异相关的具体父母社会化做法，整合差异易感性框架以检查儿童气质如何适应该模型，对父母养育和儿童气质的不同领域进行观察性编码，以及对儿童EF(基于表现的任务，照顾者报告)的多方法评估。研究结果将加强对父母养育方式和儿童个体变量之间相互作用的理解，这些变量与儿童EF的个体差异有关。研究还有可能为支持儿童EF结果的育儿干预确定具体的目标，以及降低其疗效的儿童特征。

 DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Executive Functions (EF) are higher-order cognitive processes (e.g., working memory, set-shifting, inhibitory control) that support self-regulation of behavior and develop in early childhood. Early EF abilities are robust predictors of academic readiness and socio-emotional competence; and EF interventions have been identified as potential paths for decreasing health-related disparities experienced by disadvantaged populations. EFs are highly malleable in early childhood and social influences seem to play a significant role in contributing to individual differences in children's abilities; however, curren developmental models lack specificity with respect to which caregiver behaviors are the most influential. Recent domain approaches to parenting propose that the socialization of children occurs within distinct domains (e.g., guided learning, control, and reciprocity) and domain-specific parenting practices serve to promote domain relevant child outcomes. The current application will apply this novel domain approach, which may provide conceptual clarity to developmental models of child EF, and enhance the ability to draw firm conclusions about the key parental socialization behaviors associated with individual differences in children's EF abilities. This will be accomplished by testing the differential associations among parental socialization practices and child EF, with the hypothesis that parenting practices within the guided learning domain will be more proximally related to child EF outcomes in comparison to other socialization domains (AIM 1). Second, differential susceptibility frameworks have identified child temperamental characteristics of negative emotionality and exuberance as plasticity factors that evince heightened sensitivity to both positive and negative aspects of parenting; however, this has yet to be examined within the context of child EF. The present study will integrate differential susceptibility and domain frameworks to delineate whether this 'for better or for worse' pattern as it pertains to child EF is specific to variations in guided learning parenting practices (AIM 2). Aims will be tested within a study of 162 socioeconomically and racially diverse mothers and their 5 year-old children. New elements of this work include the application of a domain approach to parenting in examining specific parental socialization practices associated with individual differences in child EF, integration of differential susceptibility framework to examine how child temperament fits within this model, observational coding of different domains of parenting and child temperament, and multi- method assessments of child EF (performance-based tasks, caregiver reports). Findings will enhance understanding of the interplay between parenting practices and individual child variables in association with individual differences in children's EF. Research also has the potential to identify specific targets for parenting interventions towards supporting child EF outcomes, and the child characteristics that moderate their efficacy.