1-070 - Mechanisms Linking Contextual Risk Factors to Young Children's Effortful Control and Socioemotional Adjustment

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Integrative Statement

Individual differences in effortful control have been found to predict children’s social, emotional, and behavioral adjustment (Eisenberg et al., 2009; Kochanska, Murray, & Harlan, 2000). Effortful control refers to the ability to inhibit a dominant response to perform a subdominant response (Rothbart, & Bates, 1998). Given the importance of children’s effortful control, it is crucial to identify early risk factors and to understand links with adjustment. Therefore, the aim of this symposium is to examine mechanisms by which contextual risk factors and parenting predict effortful control and socioemotional adjustment in young children.
The first presentation focuses on associations between parenting, effortful control, and school readiness in 164 Chinese-American preschoolers. This study shows the important role of effortful control in mediating the effects of mothers’ warmth and physical coercion on children’s school readiness. The second presentation focuses on the effects of parental mental health and self-control on 117 Dutch young boys’ effortful control through parenting. Maternal self-control is found to predict children’s effortful control over time through mothers’ provision of structure. The third presentation further examines maternal depression as contextual predictor of effortful control and adjustment in 306 American children. Maternal prenatal depressive symptoms are found to predict children’s effortful control, which in turn predicts adjustment in the preschool period.
The three studies support crucial roles of maternal depression, self-control and parenting behaviors in the prediction of children’s effortful control and socioemotional adjustment. Discussion will be focused on the mechanisms linking contextual risk factors, effortful control, and adjustment in early childhood.

Sub Unit

• Social, Emotional, Personality

Chair

• Annemiek Karreman, Tilburg University

Discussant

• Sarah Jane Schoppe-Sullivan, Ohio State University

Individual Presentations

• Child Effortful Control Mediates the Links between Parenting Warmth and Control and Chinese-American Children’s School Readiness - Presenting Author: Jing Yu, University of Maryland, Baltimore County; Charissa Siew Lyng Cheah, University of Maryland, Baltimore County; Shelby Sullivan Jones, University of Maryland, Baltimore County; Kathy Thi Tuong Vu, University of Maryland, Baltimore County; Craig H Hart, Brigham Young University

• Parental Mental Health and Self-Control as Predictors of Effortful Control in Young Boys: Mediating Effects of Parenting Behaviors - Presenting Author: Annemiek Karreman, Tilburg University; Marcel van Aken, Utrecht University; Maja Dekovic, Utrecht University; Marjolein Verhoeven, Utrecht University; Marianne Junger, University of Twente; Cornelieke van de Beek, VU University Medical Center; Chantal van Aken, Utrecht University; Theo A. H. Doreleijers, VU University Medical Center

• The Relations of Prenatal and Postnatal Maternal Depressive Symptoms to Effortful Control and Adjustment in Early Childhood - Presenting Author: Stephanie F Thompson, Univ of Washington; Liliana J. Lengua, Univ of Washington; Lyndsey Moran, University of Washington; Maureen Zalewski Regnier, University of Oregon