Poster #32 - Maternal Education Moderates the Association Between Emotional Self-Control and Intelligence in Early Childhood

• In Event: 2-110 - Poster Session 07
  In Poster Session: PS 07 Section - Cognitive Processes

Integrative Statement

During the first few years of life, children develop abilities that assist in regulating and controlling their emotional experiences. These emotional control behaviors are key for a child’s emerging social and cognitive skills and have a strong influence on later success across a variety of outcomes, such as intelligence and academic achievement (e.g. Blair & Razza, 2007; Lee et al., 2015; Sektnan et al., 2010). However, emotional control and regulation likely develop quite differently in children in lower socioeconomic contexts (Raver, 2004). A handful of studies have explored how SES may moderate associations between emotional control/regulation and later academic abilities, though findings are mixed (Duncan et al., 2017; McClelland et al., 2012). Using maternal education as a proxy for SES, this study aims to clarify existing research using data collected from a large sample of children.
Data for this study are from a longitudinal study of early brain and behavior development and include both single-born and twin children. A subset of these children (n=246) was used for the current analyses. Children were divided into two groups based on maternal education: high (college degree or greater, n=176) and low (less than a college degree, n=70). Two parent-reported emotional control scales were used: one from the Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Function – Preschool version (BRIEF-P; Gioia et al., 2003) and one from the Behavior Assessment System for Children – 2nd edition (BASC-2; Reynolds & Kamphaus, 2004). In both emotional control scales, higher scores are worse, representing greater deficits in emotional control. Cognitive abilities were measured using the Abbreviated IQ from the Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scales, 5th edition (Roid, 2003). Mixed linear regression models were used (treating twins as repeated measures), and analyses controlled for a number of environmental and birth-related variables.
Bivariate correlations between parent-reported emotional control variables and Abbreviated IQ were not significant. Additionally, there were no significant differences in emotional control by maternal education. However, IQ was significantly higher for children whose mothers had higher levels of education, as expected. There was a significant interaction between emotional control and maternal education in models predicting IQ (see Figure 1). Further exploration into these interactions indicated that the association between emotional control and IQ was only significant for children whose mothers had lower levels of education. In this group, those who were reported as having worse emotional control also had lower Stanford-Binet Abbreviated IQ scores. In children whose mothers had higher levels of education, there were no associations between child emotional control and IQ, and IQ scores were relatively high even when children were reported as having poor emotional control. To our knowledge, no other studies have found this pattern of results. It is possible that the home environment supported by mothers with higher levels of education may provide a buffering effect, so struggles with emotional control may not have such strong impacts on general intelligence test performance. Further research should examine this association using task-based measures of emotional control.

Authors

• Rebecca L. Stephens, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
  Presenting Author

• Sarah J. Short, University of Wisconsin, Madison
  Non-Presenting Author

• Barbara Davis Goldman, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
  Non-Presenting Author

• J. Steven Reznick, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
  Non-Presenting Author

• John H. Gilmore, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
  Non-Presenting Author