The Role of Paternal Sensitivity in Child Executive Functions During Toddlerhood

• In Event: Parental sensitivity and its correlates

Abstract

Individual differences in executive functions (EF) during early childhood predict many aspects of health and adaptation throughout life (Moffitt et al., 2011; Morgan et al., 2019). Thus, identifying the factors associated with better EF development during childhood is important. According to a meta-analysis (Valcan et al., 2018), parental behaviors such as sensitivity are associated with more optimal development of EF among children. Parental sensitivity refers to the ability to perceive the child's signals and respond to them in a coherent, prompt, warm and adequate manner (De Wolff & van Ijzendoorn, 1997). Most studies, however, have been conducted with mothers and school-aged children. Thus, the role of paternal sensitivity in the early development of child EF remains poorly understood. The goal of the present longitudinal study was to explore the role of paternal sensitivity in the development of EF during toddlerhood after controlling for maternal sensitivity.
The present sample included 121 families met at home when children were 12, 18, and 24 months of age. Toddlers’ EF were measured at 12 and 24 months using three tasks: Prohibited Toy (inhibition, Friedman et al., 2011), Hide and Seek (working memory, Garon et al., 2014), and Reverse Categorization (cognitive flexibility, Carlson et al., 2004). Paternal and maternal sensitivity at 12 months were measured through observations of parent-child interactions during structured and free-play activities. Mothers’ and fathers’ sensitive behaviors were coded using the short version of the Maternal Behavior Q-Sort (Tarabulsy et al., 2009) by independent coders and inter-rater agreement was good for both (ICCs > 0.80).
Correlational (Table 1) and regression (Table 2) analyses were performed. Correlations demonstrated that associations between parental sensitivity and child EF existed only for inhibition, and as such, regression analyses were only conducted for this indicator of child EF. Regressions revealed that maternal sensitivity at 12 months (β = .19, p = .047) was the only significant predictor of child inhibition skills at the same age while controlling for paternal sensitivity, family income, and child sex, age, and general cognitive skills. Moreover, paternal sensitivity at 12 months was found to be the only predictor of child inhibition at 24 months (β = .39, p = .003), controlling for the same factors and maternal sensitivity. Thus, children experiencing higher levels of maternal sensitivity at 12 months demonstrate a better capacity to inhibit their impulses at the same age while children experiencing higher levels of fathers’ sensitivity at 12 months have greater inhibition skills a year later.
The present study suggests that while mothers’ sensitivity may have a more immediate impact on toddler’s inhibition skills, fathers’ sensitivity at 12 months has a more lasting impact on toddler’s inhibition over the next 12 months. This research highlights the value of including both mothers and fathers. While findings suggests that both paternal and maternal sensitivity might be important targets for interventions aiming to promote toddlers’ development of inhibitory control, more research is needed to understand why mothers’ sensitivity may have a more immediate impact on this development than fathers’ sensitivity.

Authors

• Jessyka Beauregard-Blouin, Université Laval
  Presenting Author

• Célia Matte-Gagné, Laval University