PSYCHOPHYSIOLOGY OF ADAPTATION--CHILDREN IN HEAD START

描述（由申请人提供）：拟议的项目审查 适应行为的生理和心理发展起源， 在“先声夺人”项目中，孩子们在课堂上的参与度。 主要论点 心率变异性的个体差异 如通过迷走神经张力所评估的，以及如通过以下测量所评估的情绪性： 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，并将其与执行功能的评估， 课堂上的行为。 先前的工作已经注意到迷走神经和神经元之间的关系。 语气和情绪之间的中间SES样本，但没有研究迄今已 研究了这些变量之间的关系，在儿童面临的社会经济 劣势 先前的工作也注意到注意力和 成人样本中的焦虑，但没有研究明确检查之间的关系， 儿童的消极情绪、调节和执行功能 学校失败的风险。 对大脑的神经科学研究表明 在消极的，特别是恐惧的情绪和注意力中， 计划和解决问题的能力，包括执行功能。 的 这些关系对儿童在校能力的发展影响， 然而，以前没有调查过。 一百名参与者将被视为在头开始一年， 上幼儿园 在参与者的“开端"年的春季， 将收集关于儿童情绪、迷走神经张力、执行性 功能、语言和课堂行为。 年春季 参加者的幼儿园年龄，关于儿童学习技能的信息， 课堂行为将被收集。 预计拟议的 研究可以提供有价值的信息， 在面临学业失败风险的儿童中， 校长对学校适应的计划性调查 和他的研究生 拟议的调查扩大了对 情绪性与学龄前学校适应的关系， 幼儿园的年龄范围，并超越了以前的工作，以模型发展 儿童学校学习中认知与情绪的关系 调整和准备学习。

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.