2-085 - Temperamental Approach/Withdrawal in Early Childhood: Developmental Processes and Outcomes

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Integrative Statement

Approach/withdrawal processes are integral to the definition and structure of temperament. Historically defined as movement toward or away from stimuli of varying degrees of intensity, approach/withdrawal has been conceptualized in the childhood temperament literature as behavioral responses to novelty. Emotional reactions are also integral to these responses with some children showing positive emotions when confronted with novelty and some expressing negative emotions, specifically fear. This symposium represents the state of the field in observational and methodological approaches to approach-withdrawal processes and outcomes. Paper 1 reports on a study replicating and extending the development of inhibited approach by comparing approach/withdrawal responses to novel toys and acceptance/rejection of a novel food. The findings indicate similarities in change across infancy. Taking a latent growth approach, Paper 2 looks at the approach and withdrawal dispositions of positive reactivity and fear reactivity from 4 to 12 months and finds maternal behaviors to impact their trajectories. In Paper 3 the approach emotion of anger is examined. Using latent class analyses to create anger reactivity profiles across late infancy this paper shows that positive attention bias moderates the relation between anger profiles and later social competence. Paper 4 reports on a study of the social withdrawal, theory of mind and social competence. Results of this study demonstrate the mediating role of theory of mind in the developmental course of social wariness while illustrating independent effects of each on social competence. Taken together, these studies advance our understanding of the role of approach/withdrawal process in child development.

Sub Unit

• Social, Emotional, Personality

Chairs

• Cynthia Stifter, Pennsylvania State University

• Kameron J. Moding, University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus

Individual Presentations

• Concurrent associations and developmental trajectories of infants’ approach/withdrawal responses to novel toys and novel foods - Presenting Author: Kameron J. Moding, University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus; Mairin Augustine, The Pennsylvania State University; Cynthia Stifter, Pennsylvania State University

• Development of Approach/Avoidance Tendencies: Growth of Positive Affectivity and Fear across the First Year of Life - Presenting Author: Maria Gartstein, Washington State University; Sydney Iverson, Washington State University; Gregory Hancock, University of Maryland

• Relations of Anger Reactivity during Infancy and Later Social Competence: Moderating Role of Positive Attention Biases - Presenting Author: Sara Nozadi, University of Maryland; Kathryn Degnan, Catholic University; Heather Henderson, University of Waterloo; Nathan Fox, 3. Department of Human Development and Quantitative Methodology, University of Maryland

• The Interplay of Social Approach/Withdrawal and Theory of Mind in Early Childhood - Presenting Author: Heather Henderson, University of Waterloo; Lauren Usher, University of Miami; Catherine Burrows, University of Miami; Lindsay C. Bowman, University of California, Davis; Nathan Fox, 3. Department of Human Development and Quantitative Methodology, University of Maryland