Negative Affectivity Interacts with Attentional Focusing to Predict Externalizing Problems

• In Event: Poster Session 08
  In Poster Session: PS 08 Topic - Social, Emotional, Personality

Abstract

Effortful control is an aspect of temperament that is defined by one’s ability to inhibit a dominant response and/or activate a subdominant response (Rothbart & Bates, 1998). Attentional focusing, a subdimension of effortful control, involves the ability to focus on a task and direct attention (Simonds & Rothbart, 2005). Negative affectivity, another aspect of temperament (Sallquist et al., 2009), involves tendencies to experience negative emotions, such as anger, fear, and sadness. Past studies have examined and found evidence for the interactional effect between effortful control and negative affectivity on externalizing problems (Eisenberg et al., 2005; Martel et al., 2012; Schermerhorn et al., 2013). For example, Schermerhorn and colleagues (2013) found that children with high levels of resistance to control (i.e., low effortful control) and unadaptability (i.e., high negative affectivity) had the highest risk for externalizing problems in the context of stress. However, to our knowledge, the interactions between attentional focusing and sub-components of negative affectivity predicting externalizing problems remain unknown. In this study, we tested for interaction effects of attentional focusing with sub-dimensions of temperamental negative affectivity (anger, sadness, and fear) on externalizing problems. We hypothesized that at lower levels of attentional focusing negative affectivity would predict more externalizing problems.

Data were collected from one-hundred and five 9-to 11-year-old children (M age=10.58, SD =.87). Mothers completed the Temperament in Middle Childhood Questionnaire (TMCQ; Simonds & Rothbart, 2005) to assess different aspects of temperament in their children, including attentional focusing, sadness, anger, and fear. Mothers also completed the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL; Achenbach, 2001), providing a measure of externalizing problems. This data was collected as part of a larger series of questionnaires assigned to the participants.

Simultaneous multiple regression was used to test interactions between 3 components of negative affectivity (anger, fear, sadness) and attentional focusing predicting externalizing behaviors. Fear was predictive of more externalizing problems at low (-1 SD) levels of attentional focusing (b = 2.745, p < 0.05); however, at moderate (0 SD) and high (+1 SD) levels of attentional focusing, fear was unrelated to externalizing problems. Anger predicted more externalizing problems at most levels of attentional focusing. But at very high levels of attentional focusing, anger no longer predicted externalizing problems (b = 1.741, p < 0.05) (see Figure 1). Sadness predicted more externalizing problems at low (b = 4.19, p < 0.05) and moderate (b= 2.635, p < 0.05) levels of attentional focusing, but was unrelated to externalizing problems at high levels of attentional ability (see Figure 2). These results are likely because individuals who have lower levels of attentional control may lack the ability to divert attention from stimuli, thoughts, or feelings that may heighten temperamental negative emotionality. Such negative emotionality may lead to misbehavior, reflected in externalizing symptoms. These findings demonstrate the significance of considering the dynamic between different aspects of temperament and its implication for problematic behaviors.

Authors

• Alistair Michael Murphy, University of Vermont
  Presenting Author

• Alice C Schermerhorn, University of Vermont
  Non-Presenting Author

• Phuong Nguyen, University of Vermont
  Non-Presenting Author

• Jacqueline Mitzner, University of Vermont
  Non-Presenting Author