1-150 - Early child socio-emotional functioning in disadvantaged environments: The role of context as a protective factor

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Integrative Statement

This symposium addresses how contextual factors protect against risks associated with disadvantaged environments. We show that considering child development “in context” uniquely exposes dynamic risk and protective influences on socio-emotional functioning. We describe contextual features that mitigate various risks, whether it is individual, family, classroom, or community environment. We reveal how considering context may promote more positive development in at-risk populations by capitalizing on available assets and resources.

Presentation 1 examines whether the proximal context (emotional incentives) modifies emotional risk factors for social outcomes. Context-inappropriate anger – as opposed to context-appropriate anger – was more strongly associated with socio-emotional functioning. Presentation 2 examined pathways from family context (mother-child emotion talk) to children’s regulatory strategy understanding. Child characteristics were the strongest predictors of children’s understanding of strategies for regulating anger, whereas child characteristics and mother-child talk about emotions were the strongest predictors of children’s understanding of strategies for regulating sadness. Presentation 3 considers the role of classroom context (teacher behavior) in modification of biological risk factors for social outcomes. Lower cortisol levels prior and in response to a stressful experience were associated with greater peer conflict. Student-teacher relationship quality moderated the association; when teachers reported more conflict with students, the association of cortisol and peer conflict was stronger. Presentation 4 identified profiles of language and social-emotional growth in community context (migrant and seasonal farm working) and attendance in two early intervention programs. Enrollment and higher program attendance were associated with membership in classes whose developmental scores improved more rapidly over time.

Sub Unit

• Social Cognition

Chair

• Justin Heinze, Univ of Michigan

Individual Presentations

• The Relevance of Context-Inappropriate Anger for Negative Social Experiences in Preschool - Presenting Author: Robin L Locke Arkerson, University of Massachusetts Dartmouth; Alison Leslie Miller, University of Michigan School of Public Health; Ronald Seifer, Brown University; Justin Heinze, Univ of Michigan

• Longitudinal Relations among Mother-Child Emotion Talk and Children’s Understanding of Regulatory Strategies for Anger and Sadness - Presenting Author: Laura Marie Armstrong, University of North Carolina, Charlotte; Pamela M Cole, Penn State Univ; Caroline K. Pemberton Roben, University of Delaware

• Cortisol Response to Challenge and Observed Classroom Behavior in Head Start Children: Moderation by Teacher Relationship Quality - Alison Leslie Miller, University of Michigan School of Public Health; Presenting Author: Justin Heinze, Univ of Michigan; Ronald Seifer, Brown University; Robin L Locke Arkerson, University of Massachusetts Dartmouth

• Social Emotional and Language Development Trajectories of Migrant and Seasonal Head Start Children: Profiles and Predictors - Presenting Author: Eileen Twohy, Children’s Hospital Colorado; Sandra Barrueco, The Catholic Univ of America; Ben Benjamin Hinnant, Catholic University of America