Poster #2 - Developmental Pathways from Sustained Attention and Social Competence to Effortful Control

• In Event: Poster Session 08

Abstract

Effortful control (EC), a dimension of temperament, involves the ability to inhibit responses, detect errors, and engage in planning (Rothbart & Bates, 2006). Individual differences in early social interaction and attention skills are predictors of EC (see Eisenberg et al., 2011, for a review). Further, EC has been shown to be an important predictor of socioemotional development and cognitive outcomes in children (Rothbart & Putnam, 2002; Valiente et al., 2010, 2011).
Few studies have assessed individual differences in early attention skills, particularly for dynamic audiovisual events, along with social competence as predictors of temperament outcomes. Using a new individual difference measure, the Multisensory Attention Assessment Protocol (MAAP; Bahrick et al., 2018), our prior findings demonstrated that greater sustained attention (SA) at 12 months predicted greater social competence (SC) at 18 months, which in turn predicted greater EC at 48 months of age. The present study extends these findings by assessing the developmental pathways from sustained attention and social competence at later ages (18 and 36 months) to effortful control at 48 months. This could provide a more complete understanding of developmental pathways from SA and SC to EC.
Children (N=98; 50 F) participated in an ongoing, longitudinal study from 3- to 72-months of age. Predictors: At 12- and 18-months, SA to social events was assessed using the MAAP (Bahrick et al., 2018). SA was calculated as the proportion of total looking time to the video displays of women speaking in the presence of a distractor event (morphing geometric shapes; see Figure 1). At 18- and 36-months, SC was assessed using the Infant Toddler Social Emotional Assessment (Carter & Briggs-Gowan, 2006). Outcome: At 48-months, EC was assessed via the Children’s Behavior Questionnaire (Rothbart et al., 2001).
Correlational analyses served to guide the construction of our SEM model. We derived a model with very good fit that extends our previous model (SA12months → SC18months → EC48months) by including all significant pathways among these variables (see Figure 2). The present model showed one primary pathway to EC: SA12months → SA18months → SC18months → EC48months (holding constant SC36months), ps<.05.
Greater sustained attention (SA) and social competence (SC) across infancy and early childhood predict greater effortful control (EC) at 48 months of age. Interestingly, SC at 18 months (but not 36 months) emerged as the strongest predictor of EC at 48 months. These findings demonstrate the importance of SC at 18 months as a mediator between early attention skills and later EC. These results also provide support for the foundational role of early attention to dynamic faces and voices and how this cascades to SC, and, in turn, EC in childhood.

Authors

• Bethany K Ramirez, Florida International University
  Presenting Author

• James Torrence Todd, Florida International University

• Lorraine E. Bahrick, Florida International University