Poster #55 - Home chaos at 18 months relates to infant anger and social fear from 18-to-24 months

• In Event: Poster Session 05

Abstract

Household chaos refers to the level of stability, routine, and organization there is in a home (Matheny et al., 1995). Prior work has linked household chaos to overall environmental stress, as well as parental traits such as depression and parenting behaviors. Each of these factors, individually and together, have been associated with behavior problems in children and early temperamental traits. However, we know relatively less about change in temperament in infancy. The current analysis focuses on infant anger and social fear because these early appearing forms of negative affect may uniquely reflect the day-to-day stress and instability of a home environment reflecting higher levels of chaos.

The current study leveraged a large-scale longitudinal study (Pérez-Edgar et al., 2021) of infants from 4 to 24 months of age. In this analysis we focused on maternal reports of chaos on the Confusion, Hubbub, and Order Scale (CHAOS) at 18 months. Mothers also reported infant levels of anger and social fear using the Toddler Behavior Assessment Questionnaire (TBAQ) at 18 and 24 months.

First, we tested the zero-order correlations between home chaos at 18 months and TBAQ scores at 18 and 24 months. As expected, Anger scores at 18 months were highly correlated with Anger at 24 months (r=0.53, p<0.001) and Social Fear scores were correlated between 18 and 24 months (r=0.45, p<0.001). In addition, Anger and Social Fear were correlated at both 18 (r=0.15, p=0.032) and 24 (r=0.17, p=0.033) months. However, change in Anger between 18 and 24 months was not correlated with change in Social Fear (r=0.08, p=0.322). CHAOS was only correlated with Anger at 24 months (r=0.23, p=0.008), with no significant relation at 18 months or with Social Fear at either time-point (r’s<0.13, p’s>0.142).

Second, we used separate general linear models to examine change in Anger and Social Fear as a function of CHAOS at 18 months. Sex as reported by parent was included as a covariate in each model. For Anger, there was a significant positive relation such that higher levels of CHAOS were associated with larger increases in Anger over the following 6 months (b=0.024, p=0.015). This reflects the zero-order correlation between CHAOS and the difference score (r=0.21, p=0.013). Although similar in direction, the relation between CHAOS and Social Fear was not significant (b=0.022, p=0.078).

These findings suggest that maternal perception of home chaos may be an important facet of the environment to consider in influences on a child’s socioemotional development. Although both anger and social fear were correlated at both time points in line with the larger literature, the specific relation between chaos and change in negative affect was only significant for anger. This may reflect unique child-driven responses in this developmental window. However, future work will need to disentangle the mechanisms that may differentiate profiles of negative affect into toddlerhood. Future directions should examine these interrelations longitudinally.

Authors

• Ysa Fernandez, Pennsylvania State University, University Park
  Presenting Author

• Kelley E Gunther, Yale University

• Morgan Alayna Gilmer, Pennsylvania State University, University Park

• Vanessa LoBue, Rutgers University

• Kristin A. Buss, Pennsylvania State University, University Park

• Koraly Elisa Perez-Edgar, Pennsylvania State University, University Park