Poster #66 - Temperamental shyness and social avoidance in early childhood moderates the relation between residential moves and the development of inflammation across childhood to adulthood

• In Event: Poster Session 01

Abstract

Background: Multiple residential moves in childhood has been linked to various poor health outcomes, including cardiometabolic risk factors, and poor social adjustment (Dong et al., 2005; Simsek et al., 2021). Some reasons for these associations may be attributable to disruptions in children’s educational, social, and economic opportunities. Residential moves may also reflect changes in the family environment and financial strain. In this present study, we examined whether child temperament might moderate these associations. Following the differential susceptibility model (Pleuss & Belsky, 2009), we tested the hypothesis that children who are more shy and socially avoidant would find it more difficult to adapt to and thrive in novel environments compared to more extraverted children.
Methods: Participants were part of a prospective longitudinal cohort, the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children. Childhood temperament profiles were derived for 9491 participants using parent-reports of temperament from the Emotionality Activity Sociability Temperament scale at ages 3, 5, and 6. Residential moves in early childhood at ages 3, 5 and 7 were reported by parents through an item asking “whether the child has moved homes in the past 12 months” in the Stressful life events checklist. Participants’ blood samples were used to measure an inflammatory biomarker, C-reactive protein (CRP), through an automated particle enhance immunoturbidimetric assay at ages 9, 15, 17, and 24. CRP is a risk factor related to cardiovascular and metabolic disease progression and development.
Findings: In preliminary analyses, we used a longitudinal cluster analysis to identify four childhood temperament profiles across ages 3-6: (1) Introverts (29.6%), (2) Extraverts (26.6%), (3) Conflicted-shy (24.6%), and (4) Avoidant-shy (19.2%). A latent growth curve model was used to test the interactive effects of childhood residential moves and temperament profiles on development of CRP across childhood to adulthood (ages 9 to 24). The results showed that Avoidant-shy children who had two or more residential move during early childhood exhibited the greatest increase in the slope of CRP across age and elevated CRP at age 24 compared to all other temperament profiles (see Figure 1 and Table 1 for estimates). These associations were not observed among children with 0-1 residential moves. Notably, these associations were adjusted for a range of early developmental precursors and confounders, including early socioeconomic status, maternal depression, body mass index, child sex, ethnicity, birth weight and gestational age.
Conclusions: The development of heightened inflammatory tendencies was related to both changes in the environment and child temperament. These findings suggest the importance of ensuring stable housing, as well as understanding individual differences in children’s development, as some children are able to adapt to changing environments, whereas others may need additional support.

Authors

• Alva Tang, University of Texas at Dallas
  Presenting Author

• Natalie Slopen