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

描述(申请人提供)：努力控制(EC)，反映了早期儿童气质的自我调节方面，在生命的头五年有相当大的发展。学龄前年龄的最佳EC是可取的，因为它影响儿童入学时的社会情绪适应，进而预测整个童年中期和青春期的行为和学习成长。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，只有一项这样的研究同时检查了所有三个生态背景，而且它不是为多层次数据分析而设计的。遵循Bronfenbrenner的生物生态学发展模型，我们利用了一个多水平的数据集，该数据集旨在研究儿童发展的背景。分层线性建模被用来分析来自芝加哥不同社区的儿童样本。我们选择了一组从出生/婴儿期到6岁的儿童，从母子关系、家庭和邻居三个环境背景来检验特征的解释力。母子关系特征包括体罚、母亲敌意、母亲温暖和母亲抑郁症状。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。社区特征包括集体效能、无序和进入安全的游戏空间。在测试这些环境特征是否影响儿童发育的EC(根据儿童、家庭和邻居的人口统计特征进行调整)时，将特别注意它们与EC的两个方面-延迟和运动控制-存在差异的可能性。我们还通过检验高反应性婴儿是否比其他婴儿更多地受到EC的环境预测因素的影响来检验Belsky的差异易感性假说。最后，我们询问延迟满足和运动控制是否与三种社会情绪调节的同时测量存在差异：外化、内化和注意缺陷行为问题。结果应该为未来改善儿童EC的干预措施提供信息。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认识上的差距。幼儿依靠努力控制，以及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绪、学业和道德的发展，因此与许多公共健康问题有关，如注意力缺陷障碍、反社会行为和健康危险行为。

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.