Poster #11 - Joint Attention in Naturalistic Context: A Mediator of Caregiver Behaviors on Early Childhood Executive Functions

• In Event: 1-115 - Poster Session 03
  In Poster Session: PS 03 Section - Attention, Learning, Memory

Integrative Statement

Infants develop in rich social contexts. Caregivers act as infants’ primary social figures in early life and help regulate and scaffold children’s neurodevelopment during a time when many important cognitive functions and their underlying brain areas are rapidly developing (Cuevas et al., 2014). Specifically, caregivers are thought to moderate the development of cognitive control processes such as attention in infants (Wass et al., 2018). For example, maternal responsive behaviors like joint attention are reported to affect the quality of information transmitted to their infants which is critical for the development of higher-order cognitive abilities like executive functions (EF) (Yu & Smith, 2016). There is a lack of literature, however, investigating how parenting behaviors may influence the development or onset of joint attention. Moreover, joint attention has historically been assessed in lab-based settings despite being a phenomenon that develops in socially rich, naturalistic contexts. Therefore, the goal of the present work was to investigate relations between joint attention, parenting behaviors, and EF using an ecologically valid joint attention assessment method conducted in the home environment. Specifically, we examined joint attention at 24 months of age as a potential mediator by which positive parenting behaviors predicted EF at 48 months of age. Data for this analysis come from The Family Life Project (Vernon-Feagans, Cox, & Investigators, 2013), a large prospective longitudinal sample (N=1,292) of children and families living in predominantly low-income and non-urban communities. At child age 7 and 15 months, families were visited in their homes and positive parenting behaviors were observed and coded by a research assistant during a semi-structured free play task. At child age 24 months, joint attention was assessed using a wordless picture book task. During the task, research assistants counted the frequency of shared mutual gazes between infants and their caregivers. At child age 48 months, EF was assessed using a battery of tasks measuring working memory, inhibitory control and attention switching. We tested a path model of early-life positive parenting predicting early childhood EF through joint attention after controlling for the effects of individual attention, maternal language input, and a range of demographic covariates. Direct effects demonstrated that positive parenting was positively associated with joint attention at 24 months of age (β=.13, p=.001). Further, joint attention positively predicted EF at 48 months of age (β=.08, p=.006). Tests of indirect effects demonstrated that joint attention significantly mediated the relation between positive parenting and EF (β=.011, p=.03). These results highlight joint attention as one possible mechanism by which positive parenting behaviors may scaffold the development of higher-order cognitive abilities.

Authors

• Sashana Rowe-Harriott, Hunter College CUNY
  Presenting Author

• Kevon Williams, California State Polytechnic University, Pomona
  Non-Presenting Author

• Krystalle Lyons, Stony Brook University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Annie Brandes-Aitken, Department of Applied Psychology, New York University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Stephen H. Braren, New York University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Clancy Blair, New York University
  Non-Presenting Author