Parenting-Temperament Transactions in Early Childhood Across Cultures

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Abstract

Parenting-temperament transactions are especially evident in early childhood. For one, parenting behaviors predict individual differences in temperamental characteristics at the physiological and behavioral levels. For another, children with varying levels of temperament react differentially to similar parenting behaviors. The current symposium brings together various theoretical and methodological approaches to examine the associations among parenting, child temperament, and socio-emotional outcomes in young children and their families from different socio-cultural backgrounds. The presentations take behavioral observations and physiological assessments into consideration and use advanced statistical methods to address the following topics: (a) the associations between parental behaviors and child physiological indicators of temperament (presentation 1); (b) the interplay between child temperament and parenting in predicting social adjustment and competence (presentations 2 and 3).
The first presentation focuses on the relations between mother-infant interactions and infant electroencephalograph asymmetry in a frustration-elicit task among U.S. families. The second presentation illustrates how child self-regulation (committed compliance and effortful control) moderates the links between autonomy-related parenting behaviors and internalization of rules or externalizing behaviors in Chinese families. The third presentation reports how toddlers’ difficult temperament moderates the associations between maternal warmth or prosociality-scaffolding practices and social competence in Dutch families.
Together, these studies show that the transactions between parenting and child temperament occur at the physiological and behavioral levels and their interactions shape socio-emotional development across Western and Eastern cultures. The discussant is an expert on early development whose work primarily focuses on associations among prenatal/postnatal parental factors, child physiological/psychobiological indicators, and child behavioral/psychological outcomes.

Sub Unit

• Social, Emotional, Personality

Chair

• Shuyang Dong, Universiteit Utrecht

Discussant

• Carolina de Weerth, Radboud University Medical Center

Individual Presentations

• Links Between Parent-Child Interactions and Context-Specific EEG Asymmetry: Neurophysiology Behind A Frustrating Task - Presenting Author: Josh Underwood, Washington State University; Non-Presenting Author: Maria Amy Gartstein, Washington State University; Non-Presenting Author: Sage Baker, Washington State University

• Internalization of Rules and Externalization Behaviors in Chinese Children: Moderations of Parenting and Child Self-Regulation - Presenting Author: Shuyang Dong, Universiteit Utrecht; Non-Presenting Author: Judith Semon Dubas, Utrecht University; Non-Presenting Author: Maja Deković, Utrecht University; Non-Presenting Author: Zhengyan Wang, Capital Normal University

• How Difficult Temperament and Parenting Processes Predict Toddler’s Social Competence: Differential Susceptibility or Vantage Sensitivity? - Presenting Author: Yue Song, Nanjing Normal University; Non-Presenting Author: Judith Semon Dubas, Utrecht University