Young Children's Self-Regulation in an Urban Context: A Multilevel Analysis

描述（由申请人提供）：努力控制（EC），这反映了幼儿气质的自我调节方面，在生命的前五年有很大的发展。最佳EC学龄前是可取的，因为它会影响儿童的社会情绪调整入学，这反过来又预测整个童年中期和青春期的行为和学业成长。先前的研究已经确定了影响早期EC的儿童，他们的家庭和他们的社区的选定特征。然而，只有一个这样的研究一次检查了所有三个生态环境，它不是为多级数据分析而设计的。遵循Bronfenbrenner的生物生态发展模型，我们利用一个多层次的数据集，旨在研究儿童发展的背景。分层线性模型被用来分析从整个芝加哥不同社区抽样的儿童。我们选择了一组儿童，从出生/婴儿期到6岁，并测试了三个环境背景下的特征的解释力：母子关系，家庭和邻里。母子关系的特征包括体罚、母亲的敌意、母亲的温暖和母亲的抑郁症状。家庭特征包括家庭不稳定、家庭冲突、父母间暴力和家庭混乱。邻里特征包括集体效能、混乱和安全游戏空间的获得。在测试这些环境特征是否影响儿童的EC发展（调整儿童，家庭和邻里人口统计学特征），将特别注意的可能性，他们是差异与EC的两个方面-延迟和运动控制。我们还测试Belsky的差异易感性假说，通过检查是否高反应性婴儿的影响比其他婴儿EC的环境预测。最后，我们问延迟满足和运动控制是否与社会情绪调整的三个同期措施：外化，内化和注意力缺陷行为问题的差异。结果应告知未来的干预措施，以改善儿童的EC。公共卫生相关性：这项研究解决了我们对努力控制的前因和后果的知识差距。幼儿依赖于努力的控制，沿着其他方面的自我调节，来管理行为冲动。努力控制有助于社会情感，学术和道德发展，因此涉及许多公共卫生问题，如注意力缺陷障碍，反社会行为和健康风险行为。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Effortful control (EC), which reflects the self-regulatory aspect of early childhood temperament, develops considerably in the first five years of life. Optimal EC by preschool age is desirable because it affects children's socioemotional adjustment at school entry, which in turn predicts behavioral and academic growth throughout middle childhood and adolescence. Previous research has identified selected characteristics of children, their families, and their neighborhoods that influence early EC. However, only one such study has examined all three ecological contexts at once, and it was not designed for multilevel data analysis. Following Bronfenbrenner's bioecological model of development, we make use of a multilevel data set that was designed to study child development in context. Hierarchical linear modeling is used to analyze children sampled from diverse neighborhoods throughout Chicago. We select a cohort of children that was followed from birth/infancy to 6 years of age, and test the explanatory power of characteristics from three environmental contexts: the mother-child relationship, the family, and the neighborhood. Mother-child relationship characteristics include corporal punishment, maternal hostility, maternal warmth, and maternal depressive symptoms. Family characteristics include family instability, family conflict, inter-parental violence, and household chaos. Neighborhood characteristics include collective efficacy, disorder, and access to safe play spaces. In testing whether these environmental characteristics influence children's developing EC (adjusting for child, family, and neighborhood demographic characteristics), special attention will be paid to the possibility that they are differentially associated with two facets of EC - delay and motor control. We also test Belsky's differential susceptibility hypothesis by examining whether highly reactive infants are affected more than other infants by environmental predictors of EC. Last, we ask whether delay of gratification and motor control are differentially associated with three contemporaneous measures of socioemotional adjustment: externalizing, internalizing, and attention deficit behavior problems. Results should inform future interventions to improve children's EC. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: This study addresses gaps in our knowledge about the antecedents and consequences of effortful control. Young children depend on effortful control, along with other facets of self-regulation, to manage behavioral impulses. Effortful control contributes to socioemotional, academic, and moral development, and is thus implicated in numerous public health problems such as attention deficit disorder, antisocial behavior, and health risk behaviors.