The Multilevel Factors Influencing the Development of Temperament

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Abstract

Temperament represents one robust foundation for children’s socioemotional development. Identifying factors predicting the development of temperament is a critical step in developing timely interventions for children at increased risk for clinical symptoms. This symposium will stress a biopsychosocial framework and examine the influences of behavioral, psychobiological, environmental factors, and their complex interactions on the development of temperament using a longitudinal design. The first paper examines the interactive effect of reactivity and regulation on the development of shyness across pre and early adolescence, suggesting that lower levels of regulation interacting with high levels of reactivity predict a steeper decrease in shyness over time compared with higher levels of regulation and high reactivity. The second paper conceptualizes frontal EEG asymmetry (FA) as a neurophysiological underpinning of temperament and reports that parenting stress indirectly predicts 6- to 12-month-olds’ FA measured in the Still Face procedure through mindfulness in parenting. The third paper suggests the effects of maternal intrusiveness at age 4 on the developmental trajectories of shyness and anger/frustration across childhood differ between children who have left and right resting FA at age 4. The fourth paper demonstrates bidirectional associations between maternal internalizing symptoms and infant fear and baseline RSA during the first year of life, highlighting the importance of considering transactional processes in the development of infant fear within families. Together, these findings highlight the influences of multilevel factors on the development of temperament using a multi-method approach and shed light on the nature and developmental pathways of temperament across development.

Sub Unit

• Social, Emotional, Personality

Chair

• Ran Liu, Columbia University

Individual Presentations

• Development of Shyness across Pre and Early Adolescence: Reactivity, Regulation, or Both? - Presenting Author: Raha Hassan, McMaster University; Non-Presenting Author: Teena Willoughby, Brock University; Non-Presenting Author: Louis A. Schmidt, McMaster University

• Stress in the Parental Role and Mindful Parenting: Contributions to Infant EEG Asymmetry - Presenting Author: Maria Amy Gartstein, Washington State University

• Maternal Intrusiveness, Frontal EEG Asymmetry, and the Trajectories of Shyness and Anger/Frustration Across Childhood - Presenting Author: Ran Liu, Columbia University; Non-Presenting Author: Jennifer Julia Phillips, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University; Non-Presenting Author: Martha Ann Bell, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University

• The Development of Infant Temperamental Fear and Baseline RSA: Bidirectional Associations with Maternal Internalizing Symptoms - Presenting Author: Anna M Zhou, University of Utah; Non-Presenting Author: Elizabeth Youatt, Pennsylvania State University, University Park; Non-Presenting Author: Koraly Elisa Perez-Edgar, Pennsylvania State University, University Park; Non-Presenting Author: Vanessa Lobue, Rutgers University; Non-Presenting Author: Kristin A. Buss, Pennsylvania State University, University Park