Family Functioning and Externalizing Behaviour among Low-income Children: Self-regulation as a Mediator

Relations between adolescent perceptions of household chaos and externalizing and internalizing behaviors in low- and middle-income families

A large body of literature has established that chaos in the home environment, characterized by high levels of disorganization, lack of household routine, crowding, noise, and unpredictability, undermines social-emotional and behavioral development in early childhood. It is less clear whether household chaos is linked to elevated risk for behavior problems in adolescence. The aims of this study were 3fold: (1) characterize the variability of adolescent and caregiver reports of household chaos over time; (2) examine associations among caregiver and adolescent reports of chaos over a 9-month period; (3) consider how between- and within- individual variability in household chaos predicts adolescent externalizing and internalizing problems. This study drew data from the Family Income Dynamics study, a 9-month longitudinal study. Participants included 104 adolescents between 14 and 16 years old (55% female; M age = 14.85) and their caregiver (92% female) from low- and middle-income families. Results showed that adolescent-reports of household chaos were more variable over time compared to caregivers' reports. Adolescent-reports of household chaos had positive within- and between-level associations with externalizing problems and between-level associations with internalizing, while caregiver-reports of chaos had no links to behavior. This work highlights the importance of adolescents' own perceptions of household chaos when considering its links to adolescent development.

Resilience: supporting children's self-regulation in infant and toddler classrooms

Introduction

Resilience is a process that develops as a complex transaction as children experience and shape their social-ecological contexts. The dynamic development of self-regulation is an aspect of resilience that has received increased attention as a key mechanism predicting a variety of important short- and long-term outcomes. The current study examined how the self-regulation skills of infants and toddlers in a classroom could potentially shape classroom interactions and quality which, in turn, could potentially shape the development of self-regulation skills of the individual infants and toddlers enrolled in the classroom across an early childhood program year. The unique contribution of this study is the focus on a critical component of resilience, self-regulation, in an understudied age group, infants and toddlers, in an important and understudied context, the infant-toddler early childhood classroom.

Methods

Data are from a statewide evaluation of early childhood programs serving children birth to age 3 growing up in low-income contexts. Multi-level mediation models were employed to examine the mediation effect of classroom quality between classroom-level self-regulation and individual children's gain in self-regulation over a year.

Results

We found a significant indirect path. The results showed that classroom-level self-regulation skills demonstrated by infants and toddlers in the fall predicted higher levels of teachers' implementation of three important aspects of classroom quality - support for social-emotional, cognitive, and language development - in the winter. We also found that higher levels of teachers' support for social-emotional, cognitive, and language development associated with children's increased growth in self-regulation skills from fall to spring. The direct path from classroom-level self-regulation demonstrated in the fall to individual children's gain in self-regulation was not significant.

Discussion

These findings, unique due to the focus on infants and toddlers in a classroom context, are discussed within the larger body of existing self-regulation research conducted with older children and prevalent theories outlining developmental mechanisms. Implications for both infant-toddler classroom practices and future research are addressed. Relative to practice, our findings have implications for informing how the development of self-regulation, an important component of resilience, can be supported in the youngest children, infants and toddlers, specifically those enrolled in center-based classrooms serving young children growing up in families with low incomes. We focus on the need to improve the support and professional development of infant-toddler teachers which, in turn, can improve classroom quality and foster resilience in infants and toddlers. Relative to research, our use of a relatively new measure of infant-toddler classroom quality, the Quality of Care for Infants and Toddlers (QCIT), shows how this tool can expand infant-toddler research, a need in the current literature. Future research using different measures, designs, analytical strategies, and diverse samples and contexts is needed to further explain very young children's development of self-regulation, a critical component of resilience.

Pre-pandemic family resources and child self-regulation in children's internalizing problems during COVID-19: a multi-level social-ecological framework for emotional resilience

Introduction

Children's psychological adjustment to adverse events can be determined by multiple risk and resilience factors. This study explored multi-level protective factors against children's internalizing problems and investigated the mechanism regarding how diverse environmental and child-level resources influence children's mental health in the context of COVID-19.

Methods

Our participants included a nationally representative sample of 2,619 young children (48.3% girls) and their primary caregivers (95.1% mothers) in Singapore. They were a subset of the participants in the Singapore Longitudinal Early Development Study (SG LEADS). Data were collected over two waves-before the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic (Wave 1) when these children aged 3 to 6, and during the second year of the pandemic (Wave 2). Primary caregivers completed measures of verbal cognitive ability, self-control, economic stress, and positive and negative parental control in Wave 1. Children's self-regulation was assessed by the Delay of Gratification task in Wave 1, and their internalizing problems were rated by their primary caregivers in both waves. Other pre-pandemic family and community characteristics were collected as covariates. Structural equation modeling was performed.

Results

Pre-pandemic parental resources (i.e., verbal cognitive ability, self-control, and low economic stress) predicted children's fewer internalizing problems during the pandemic and less aggravation of internalizing problems from before to during the pandemic, through more positive parental control (i.e., limit setting) and less negative parental control (i.e., harsh discipline). Moreover, children's self-regulation during early childhood was predicted by their primary caregivers' verbal cognitive ability and self-control, as well as positive parental control. Early childhood self-regulation further alleviated the aggravation of internalizing problems over time. Among the covariates, parental education, family income, parental psychological well-being, living with both parents, having a live-in domestic helper, and neighborhood quality also longitudinally predicted fewer child internalizing problems.

Discussion

Our findings underscore the importance of nurturing children's emotional resilience under adverse and uncertain circumstances by boosting protective factors in their social-ecological system, including community-, family-, parent-, and child-level resources.

Inhibitory control within the context of early life poverty and implications for outcomes

Early life poverty confers risk for unfavorable outcomes including lower academic achievement, behavioral difficulties, and neurodevelopmental disorders. Disruptions in inhibitory control (IC) have been posed as one mechanism to explain the relationship between early life poverty and deleterious outcomes. There is robust research to suggest that early life poverty is associated with development of poorer IC. Further, poorer IC in children is related to decreased academic achievement and social competence, and increased externalizing and internalizing behavior. There is some parent-report evidence to suggest that IC is a mediator of the relationship between poverty and externalizing behaviors, as well as some limited evidence to suggest that IC is a mediator between poverty and academic achievement. Future work should aim to determine whether early life poverty's relation to IC could be explained by verbal ability which is thought to be central to the development of effective IC. In addition, future neuroimaging work should utilize IC fMRI tasks to identify key neural mechanisms that might contribute to a relationship between early life poverty and IC.

Chaos during the COVID-19 outbreak: Predictors of household chaos among low-income families during a pandemic

OBJECTIVE

The objective of this study was to explore whether household chaos measured during the COVID-19 pandemic is predicted by prepandemic parental and household characteristics.

BACKGROUND

The COVID-19 pandemic has dramatically altered children's home environments and routines due to stay-at-home orders, school closures, and economic shocks. These disruptions have been especially challenging for low-income families who have limited resources and have been disproportionately affected by the pandemic. Household chaos, which captures routines, organization, stability, noise, and crowding in the home, is a documented threat to parent functioning and positive child development. The pandemic has likely exacerbated household chaos, especially for low-income families.

METHOD

Data come from a larger, ongoing study of low-income children and their parents in Tulsa, Oklahoma; this analysis relies on data from the subset of low-income parents who responded to surveys when their children were in kindergarten (in 2018-2019) and during the pandemic, when their children were in first grade (n = 335). We use multivariate ordinary least squares regression models to test whether household chaos measured during the pandemic is predicted by prepandemic parental and household characteristics.

RESULTS

Prepandemic parental depression and household chaos were significantly predictive of chaos during the pandemic, even after accounting for household demographics.

IMPLICATIONS

The current study highlights pandemic-induced elevations in parental distress and household chaos among low-income families. Results will provide valuable direction to policymakers, educators, and parents on how best to offset negative impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on family functioning and child development.

The role of household chaos on levels and trajectories of socioemotional behavior in the second year

The second year of life is a time of formative developmental change as basic behavioral systems undergo rapid integration and expansion. This study examined the developmental trajectories of social-emotional (SoE) outcomes and the effects of infant sex and household chaos (HC) on the development of SoE outcomes across the second year of life. The participating families (N = 143) were ethnically homogenous (88% Caucasian) but economically diverse (31% low-to-very-low income). Mothers reported on their children's SoE outcomes including externalizing, internalizing, dysregulating problem behaviors as well as SoE competence when infants (54% girls) were 12, 18, and 24 months old. At each age point, HC was assessed through observations during home visits and compliance to the study protocols. Multilevel modeling revealed increasing developmental trajectories in all of the domains of SoE outcomes across the second year of life, reflecting the premise that these behavioral systems continue to form and become increasingly part of the infant's behavioral repertoire as development unfolds. However, compared to infants in less chaotic homes, infants in more chaotic households experienced steeper increases in both externalizing and internalizing problem behaviors across the second year, and girls showed higher levels of internalizing problem behaviors compared to boys. Results emphasize the increasing trajectories of problem behaviors in relation to ongoing chaotic caregiving environment among infants as young as 2 years of age. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Structural Relationships among Household Chaos, Maternal Negative Parenting, Child Executive Function, and Child Aggression

Objectives: This study aimed to identify the structural relationships among household chaos, maternal negative parenting behavior, child execution function, and child aggression; further, it demonstrates the mediating effects of maternal negative parenting and child execution function on the relationship between household chaos and child aggression.Methods: The participants comprised 206 children, aged between 3 and 5, and their mothers. This study observed Cronbach’ α and the descriptive statistics and performed frequency analysis, one-way random analysis, and partial correlation analysis via SPSS 20.0 program. The bootstrapping method was used to examine the mediating effect while the structural equation model analysis was performed using AMOS 22.0.Results: First, child aggression was positively associated with household chaos, mother’s intrusiveness, coercion, and neglect parenting but negatively associated with child inhibition, transition, working memory, and satisfaction delay tasks. Second, maternal negative parenting and child executive function were shown to mediate sequentially in the relationship between household chaos and child aggression. It was also found that maternal negative parenting and child executive function were partially mediated in the relationship between household chaos and child aggression.Conclusion: The data suggest the importance of mediating the effects of maternal negative parenting and child executive function on the relationship between household chaos and child aggression. These findings could highlight the significance of child executive function for the development of aggression and provide the basic data for the program to help those children who show aggressive behaviors in their early childhood educational institutions along with the evidence of parental education programs.

The Association Between Family Function and Adolescents' Depressive Symptoms in China: A Longitudinal Cross-Lagged Analysis

The complex interrelationships between family function and adolescents' depressive symptoms are not yet fully clarified, especially in China. Based on the family systems theory, this study explored the relationships between family function and Chinese adolescents' depressive symptoms by a 3-year longitudinal study design. Three waves of data were collected from 1,301 Chinese middle school students in Grade 7 to Grade 9. All participants completed the Chinese Family Assessment Instrument (CFAI) and the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D) once a year during the junior middle school period. Our results showed that both family function and adolescent depressive symptoms were stable in Grade 7 and Grade 8, but in Grade 9, family function increased and depressive symptoms declined. Furthermore, we found that the family function in Grade 7 negatively influenced depressive symptoms of adolescents in Grade 8, while adolescent depressive symptoms in Grade 8 negatively impacted subsequent family function in Grade 9, namely there was a circular effect between family function and adolescent depressive symptoms. These findings suggest that the associations between family function and adolescents' depressive symptoms are dynamic and time-dependent. Our study contributes to the intervention aimed at the reduction of adolescent depressive symptoms from the family perspective.

Leveraging the developmental science of psychosocial risk to strengthen youth psychotherapy

More than 50 years of randomized clinical trials for youth psychotherapies have resulted in moderate effect sizes for treatments targeting the most common mental health problems in children and adolescents (i.e., anxiety, depression, conduct problems, and attention disorders). Despite having psychotherapies that are effective for many children, there has been a dearth of progress in identifying the contextual factors that likely influence who will respond to a given psychotherapy, and under what conditions. The developmental psychopathology evidence base consistently demonstrates that psychosocial risk exposures (e.g., childhood adversities, interpersonal stressors, family dysfunction) significantly influence the onset and course of youth psychopathology. However, the developmental psychopathology framework remains to be well integrated into treatment development and psychotherapy research. We argue that advances in basic developmental psychopathology research carry promising implications for the design and content of youth psychotherapies. Research probing the effects of psychosocial risks on youth development can enrich efforts to identify contextual factors in psychotherapy effectiveness and to personalize treatment. In this article we review empirically supported and hypothesized influences of individual- and family-level risk factors on youth psychotherapy outcomes, and we propose a framework for leveraging developmental psychopathology to strengthen psychotherapies.

Household Chaos, Parental Responses to Emotion, and Child Emotion Regulation in Middle Childhood

Parents' responses to children's negative emotional states play a key role in the socialization of emotion regulation skills in childhood. Much of the prior research on child ER has focused on early development using cross-sectional designs. The current study addresses these gaps by using a longitudinal design to examine individual differences of ER at two times points in middle childhood. We examined the development of children's ER by testing hypotheses about the interplay of parent response to emotions and household chaos in the prediction of individual differences in children's ER. Participants were the mothers of children at 6 and 9 years of age among 224 families in a socioeconomically diverse sample that was part of an ongoing longitudinal study. Mothers completed questionnaires regarding themselves, their children, and their home environment. Mothers' reports of better child ER at both time points were positively associated with mothers' more supportive responses and negatively associated with mothers' less non-supportive responses, as well as lower household chaos. Chaos statistically moderated the link between non-supportive parental responses to emotion and child ER, but only at 6 years of age. The strength of the link between child ER and non-supportive parental responses to emotions was strong only at lower levels of household chaos. At the beginning of middle childhood, family processes linking parent responses to child emotions and children's developing ER may not function at higher levels of household chaos.

Preschoolers' dynamic respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) change during a challenging parent-child interactive task: Relations with preschoolers' socioemotional health

Respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) is a biomarker of physiological functioning that has been implicated in self-regulatory processes and shown to relate to children's socioemotional health. RSA is a dynamic process reflecting an individual's response to their environment; thus, temporally sensitive methods are critical to better understanding this self-regulatory process in different contexts. Prior work has studied young children's RSA change in the context of emotion clips and interactions with a stranger. The present study meaningfully expanded upon this work by examining: (a) preschoolers' dynamic RSA change during a challenging task with their mothers, and (b) factors that may explain variability in children's dynamic RSA change. Preschoolers (N = 108; M_age  = 3.56 years) and their mothers from diverse backgrounds completed a challenging activity together while children's physiological activity was monitored. Mothers reported on children's positive affect, parent emotional support, and family cohesion and indicators of socioemotional health. Children's positive affect and family cohesion explained variability in children's dynamic RSA change, which concurrently related to better socioemotional health. This study advances research and theory on biological correlates implicated in the development of children's self-regulation and furthers our understanding of factors that may support children's developing self-regulation at the physiological level.

Relationship between parenting measures and parents and child psychopathological symptoms: a cross-sectional study

BACKGROUND

Increasing evidence suggests a complex role of family influences, such as the exposure to parent psychopathology through parenting behavior, in parent-to-child psychopathology transmission. Parenting behaviour could represent a relevant target of psychoeducative intervention. Given these premises, we aimed to evaluate homotypic and heterotypic relationships between parent and child psychopathology, mediated by parenting behaviours, taking into account the constructs of parent and offspring internalizing and externalizing psychopathology.

METHODS

Internalizing and externalizing symptoms in 272 clinically-referred subjects (mean age = 14.5 ± 2.3; F = 23.5%) and their parents (mothers n = 272, fathers n = 242) were assessed through the Child Behavior Checklist and the Adult Self Report; four areas of parenting behaviours were investigated through the Family Life Questionnaire. Multiple mediation models were built, considering mother and father psychopathology scales as independent variables, parenting measures and family functioning as mediators (Affirmation, Rules, Discipline and Special Allowances), child psychopathology scales as dependent variables and demographic variables as covariates.

RESULTS

Regression models showed a significant effect of maternal internalizing symptomatology on child externalizing behavioral problems; high levels of maternal pathology predicted high levels of children's psychopathology. A total mediating effect of parenting measures was found: high levels of internalizing symptoms in mothers predicted low levels of affirmation, which in turn predicted high levels of externalizing psychopathology in children.

CONCLUSIONS

Our study results confirmed the existence of interdependent links between mothers' psychiatric symptomatology, parenting behaviour and offspring outcomes, specifically in an Italian context. On a clinical and rehabilitation basis, this work offers suggestions about parenting practices, specifically maternal, involved in the maintenance of child psychopathology.

The relationship between household chaos and child, parent, and family outcomes: a systematic scoping review

BACKGROUND

Household chaos, represented by the level of disorganisation or environmental confusion in the home, has been associated with a range of adverse child and family outcomes. This review aims to (1) identify how household chaos is measured, (2) chart study details of household chaos literature, and (3) map the existing literature with respect to the relationship between household chaos and child, parent, and family outcomes. We expect that this review will highlight the need to consider the importance of household chaos in child well-being research, particularly in those families where children may be more vulnerable to the adverse effects of household chaos.

METHODS

We searched five electronic databases (last updated September 1st 2018) in addition to Google Scholar, and identified publications via a 3-stage screening process, which was conducted by two researchers. Published studies were included if they investigated the association between household chaos and child, parent, or family outcomes. Research that investigated household chaos as a mediator or moderator, or that investigated how the relationship between household chaos and the outcome of interest was mediated or moderated, were also included.

RESULTS

One hundred twelve studies in 111 publications were included. The majority were conducted in the United States (n = 71), and used either cross-sectional (n = 60) or longitudinal (n = 49) study designs. Outcomes of interest were categorised into seven categories: (1) cognitive and academic (n = 16), (2) socio-emotional and behavioural (n = 60), (3) communication (n = 6), (4) parenting, family, and household functioning (n = 21), (5) parent outcomes (n = 6), (6) hormone (n = 8), and (7) physical health and health behaviours (n = 19). There was consistent evidence for significant correlations between household chaos and adverse outcomes across all seven categories in diverse populations with respect to age, disease status, and socio-economic status (SES).

CONCLUSION

There is consistent evidence for associations between household chaos and a number of adverse child, parent, and family-level outcomes. Household chaos may also help describe variations in outcomes between low SES and child development.

Relative contribution of maternal adverse childhood experiences to understanding children's externalizing and internalizing behaviours at age 5: findings from the All Our Families cohort

BACKGROUND

The negative effect of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) on physical and mental health has led to calls for routine screening for ACEs in primary care settings. We aimed to examine the association between maternal ACEs and children's behaviour problems (externalizing and internalizing) at age 5 in the context of other known predictors.

METHODS

We analyzed data from mother-and-child dyads participating in the All Our Families cohort in Calgary, Canada, between 2011 and 2017. Data were collected for factors related to the individual child (sex, age, temperament and behaviour), the mother (adverse childhood experiences, mental health, personality and parenting) and sociodemographic characteristics (family income, ethnicity and family structure) when the children were 3 and 5 years of age. We used logistic regression models to estimate crude and adjusted associations between maternal ACEs and children's externalizing (hyperactivity and aggression) and internalizing (anxiety, depression and somatization) behaviours.

RESULTS

Data were available for 1688 mother-and-child dyads. In the crude models, the presence of 4 or more maternal ACEs was associated with children's externalizing and internalizing behaviours at age 5. However, these associations were attenuated with adjustment. Persistent maternal mental health symptoms were associated with both externalizing and internalizing behaviours at age 5 (adjusted odds ratio [OR] 4.20, 95% confidence interval [CI] 2.50-7.05, and adjusted OR 2.52, 95% CI 1.66-3.81, respectively). High levels of ineffective parenting behaviours were also associated with both externalizing and internalizing behaviours at age 5 (adjusted OR 6.27, 95% CI 4.30-9.14, and adjusted OR 1.43, 95% CI 1.03-1.99, respectively).

INTERPRETATION

The association between maternal ACEs and children's behaviour at age 5 was weakened in the presence of other maternal and family-level factors. Assessments of maternal mental health and parenting behaviours may be better targets for identifying children at risk of behavioural problems.

Effortful Control Development in the Face of Harshness and Unpredictability

Using psychosocial acceleration theory, this multimethod, multi-reporter study examines how early adversity adaptively shapes the development of a self-regulation construct: effortful control. Investigation of links between early life harshness and unpredictability and the development of effortful control could facilitate a nuanced understanding of early environmental effects on cognitive and social development. Using the Building Strong Families national longitudinal data set, aspects of early environmental harshness and early environmental unpredictability were tested as unique predictors of effortful control at age 3 using multiple regression. Early harshness variables were financial harshness, mothers' and fathers' observed parenting, mothers' and fathers' reported use of harsh discipline, and harsh neighborhood conditions. Early unpredictability was measured by number of paternal transitions. Cues of harshness, specifically observed unresponsive parenting, observed harsh parenting, and neighborhood harshness, did significantly negatively predict effortful control. Paternal transitions also significantly predicted effortful control, but in the opposite (i.e., positive) direction. The results corroborate previous research linking quality of parenting to the development of children's effortful control and place it within an evolutionary-developmental theoretical framework. Further, the results suggest that neighborhood harshness may also direct developmental trajectories of effortful control in young children, though the mechanisms through which this occurs are still unclear. This is the first study to explicitly investigate effortful control development in early childhood within the harshness and unpredictability framework.

Fathering across contexts: The moderating role of respiratory sinus arrhythmia in predicting toddler emotion regulation

Caregivers play an integral role in promoting children's emotion regulation, while children's individual physiology affects how they respond to the caregiving environment. Relatively little is known about how fathering influences toddler emotion regulation, particularly within African American and low-income communities, where risk related to the development of emotion regulation is higher. This study investigated relations among fathering, toddler parasympathetic regulation, and toddler emotion regulation in a sample of 92 families. Fathering was assessed during two interactions: engagement following a stressor during a triadic task and a dyadic play task. Respiratory sinus arrhythmia (resting and reactivity) was obtained as an index of toddler parasympathetic arousal. Findings demonstrated an association between fathers' engagement poststressor and toddler emotion regulation. Toddler RSA moderated this association: toddlers with elevated levels of resting RSA benefitted from parenting engagement following a stressor. Fathering during play did not relate to toddler emotion regulation. The importance of fathering and physiologic contexts in early regulatory development is discussed.

Early student (dis)engagement: Contributions of household chaos, parenting, and self-regulatory skills

Previous studies suggest that the roots of school dropout (a) can be established early in life, (b) are likely to involve multilevel factors (home, child, classroom) operating prior to and during the elementary school years, and (c) can be identified by 3rd grade. The decision to drop out of school is thus a dynamic developmental process that can begin with disengagement in elementary school. Yet few studies have examined the multilevel factors that might contribute to children's early disengagement from school. In the present study, we examined associations between household chaos (i.e., disorganization and instability) from birth to age 5 and student (dis)engagement in third grade. We also examined positive parenting in early childhood (6-60 months) and child self-regulatory skills at kindergarten as potential mediators in this pathway. Participants were 1,097 children who participated in the Family Life Project, a longitudinal study of the development of children living in underresourced high poverty rural areas. Study questions were addressed using structural equation models. Results indicated that, even after taking into account a considerable number of covariates, early positive parenting and children's self-regulatory skills were viable process mechanisms through which early household disorganization, but not instability, was linked to student (dis)engagement in third grade. Findings are discussed with respect to the multilevel proximal forces at play in children's risk for early disengagement from school. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

Examining the Relationship Between Children's ADHD Symptomatology and Inadequate Parenting: The Role of Household Chaos

OBJECTIVE

This study examines the interrelations of parenting practices, emotional climate, and household chaos in families with children with and without ADHD. In particular, indirect pathways from children's ADHD symptomatology to inadequate parenting and negative emotional climate via household chaos were investigated.

METHOD

Parenting, emotional climate, and household chaos were assessed using questionnaires and a speech sample of parents of 31 children with and 53 without ADHD, aged 7 to 13 years.

RESULTS

Group differences were found for certain parenting dimensions, the parent-child relationship, critical comments, and household chaos. While we found significant indirect effects between children's ADHD and certain parenting dimensions through household chaos, no effects were found for any aspect of emotional climate.

CONCLUSION

Children's ADHD symptoms translate into inadequate parenting through household chaos, which underlines the need for interventions to improve household organization skills in parents of children with ADHD.

Effects of socioeconomic status and executive function on school readiness across levels of household chaos

Isolating child attributes and familial characteristics that support school readiness in children on the upper half of the socioeconomic spectrum can complement existing research on lower-socioeconomic status (SES) children and facilitate a more complete understanding of how children's performance varies across the full SES spectrum. This study examined if relations between SES, two components of executive function (EF; set-shifting and inhibitory control), and school readiness vary as a function of household chaos in 564 four-year-old children, primarily from middle-to upper-middle class families in the Northeast Region of the United States. Structural equation modeling of direct and indirect effects revealed three major findings: 1) higher levels of EF were related to better school readiness regardless of level of household chaos; 2) SES had an indirect effect on school readiness through set-shifting; and 3) household chaos was negatively associated with school readiness.

Parasympathetic Regulation and Inhibitory Control Predict the Development of Externalizing Problems in Early Childhood

The current report examined the longitudinal relations between cognitive self-regulation, physiological self-regulation, and externalizing problems. At age 4 (n = 98; 49 girls) and 6 (n = 87; 42 girls), children completed the Day-Night task, which taps the inhibitory control dimension of executive function. During the task, cardiac activity was measured and respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) was derived as an index of parasympathetic activity. Mothers reported on externalizing problems. A cross-lagged path model was used to estimate longitudinal predictions while controlling for stability in all constructs over time. Earlier inhibitory control negatively predicted later externalizing problems, but not vice versa. However, RSA reactivity moderated this link; better inhibitory control predicted fewer externalizing problems only when reactivity to the Day-Night task ranged from mild RSA suppression to RSA augmentation. Externalizing problems at 6 years were highest among preschoolers who augmented RSA but showed poor inhibitory control performance, suggesting that risk for psychopathology may be better delineated by viewing self-regulation from an integrated, multi-system perspective.

Self-Regulation Mitigates the Association between Household Chaos and Children's Behavior Problems

Given the potential negative effects that early childhood behavioral problems have on later development, it is important to elucidate risk and protective factors. This study examined household chaos as a predictor of externalizing and internalizing problems among young children from low-income families. Additionally, self-regulation was examined as a moderator of the association between chaos and behavior problems. One hundred young adult mother-toddler dyads participated. Moderation analyses indicated that self-regulation buffered the association between household chaos and child behavior problems. Specifically, greater household chaos was associated with more behavior problems, but only among children with poorer self-regulation. Notably, this pattern was observed for both externalizing and internalizing problems. These findings suggest that early interventions targeting young children's self-regulation skills could help prevent behavior problems among children living in chaotic home environments.

Structural Home Environment Effects on Developmental Trajectories of Self-Control and Adolescent Risk Taking

Extant literature has demonstrated that self-control is critical for health and adjustment in adolescence. Questions remain regarding whether there are individuals that may be most vulnerable to impaired self-control development and whether aspects of the structural home environment may predict membership in these subgroups, as well as the behavioral consequences of impaired self-control trajectories. The present study utilized growth mixture modeling and data from 1083 individuals (50% female, 82% White) from age 8.5 to 15 years to identify four latent classes of self-control development. Additionally, higher household chaos and lower socioeconomic status at age 8.5 were associated with maladaptive trajectories of self-control at ages 8.5-11.5. In turn, maladaptive self-control trajectories at ages 8.5-11.5 were associated with higher risk taking at age 15. The results highlight the importance of increased structure and support for at-risk youth.

Self-regulation as a predictor of patterns of change in externalizing behaviors from infancy to adolescence

We examined associations between specific self-regulatory mechanisms and externalizing behavior patterns from ages 2 to 15 (N = 443). The relation between multiple self-regulatory indicators across multiple domains (i.e., physiological, attentional, emotional, and behavioral) at age 2 and at age 5 and group membership in four distinct externalizing trajectories was examined. By examining each of these self-regulatory processes in combination with one another, and therefore accounting for their shared variance, we aimed to better understand which specific self-regulatory skills were associated most strongly with externalizing behavioral patterns. Findings suggest that behavioral inhibitory control and emotion regulation are particularly important in distinguishing between children who show normative declines in externalizing behaviors across early childhood and those who demonstrate high levels through adolescence.

Parenting and the development of effortful control from early childhood to early adolescence: A transactional developmental model

Poor effortful control is a key temperamental factor underlying behavioral problems. The bidirectional association of child effortful control with both positive parenting and negative discipline was examined from ages approximately 3 to 13-14 years, involving five time points, and using data from parents and children in the Oregon Youth Study-Three Generational Study (N = 318 children from 150 families). Based on a dynamic developmental systems approach, it was hypothesized that there would be concurrent associations between parenting and child effortful control and bidirectional effects across time from each aspect of parenting to effortful control and from effortful control to each aspect of parenting. It was also hypothesized that associations would be more robust in early childhood, from ages 3 to 7 years, and would diminish as indicated by significantly weaker effects at the older ages, 11-12 to 13-14 years. Longitudinal feedback or mediated effects were also tested. The findings supported (a) stability in each construct over multiple developmental periods; (b) concurrent associations, which were significantly weaker at the older ages;

Child cortisol moderates the association between family routines and emotion regulation in low-income children

Biological and social influences both shape emotion regulation. In 380 low-income children, we tested whether biological stress profile (cortisol) moderated the association among positive and negative home environment factors (routines; chaos) and emotion regulation (negative lability; positive regulation). Children (M age = 50.6, SD = 6.4 months) provided saliva samples to assess diurnal cortisol parameters across 3 days. Parents reported on home environment and child emotion regulation. Structural equation modeling was used to test whether cortisol parameters moderated associations between home environment and child emotion regulation. Results showed that home chaos was negatively associated with emotion regulation outcomes; cortisol did not moderate the association. Child cortisol level moderated the routines-emotion regulation association such that lack of routine was most strongly associated with poor emotion regulation among children with lower cortisol output. Findings suggest that underlying child stress biology may shape response to environmental influences.

Family instability and children's effortful control in the context of poverty: Sometimes a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush

Effortful control has been demonstrated to have important ramifications for children's self-regulation and social-emotional adjustment. However, there are wide socioeconomic disparities in children's effortful control, with impoverished children displaying heightened difficulties. The current study was designed to demonstrate how instability within the proximal rearing context of young children may serve as a key operant on the development of children's effortful control in the context of poverty. Two separate studies were conducted that included samples of children living within homes characterized by heightened economic risk. In Study 1, we tested the differential prediction of family instability on two domains of children's effortful control: cool effortful control and delay control. Consistent with hypotheses, elevated instability was associated with decreased hot effortful control but not cool effortful control over the span of 2 years. In Study 2, we examined how children's basal cortisol activity may account for associations between heightened instability and effortful control in reward tasks. The results were consistent with sensitization models, suggesting that elevated cortisol activity arising from increased uncertainty and unpredictability in rearing contexts may influence children's hot effortful control. The findings are interpreted within emerging evolutionary-developmental frameworks of child development.

Measuring the development of inhibitory control: The challenge of heterotypic continuity

Inhibitory control is thought to demonstrate heterotypic continuity, in other words, continuity in its purpose or function but changes in its behavioral manifestation over time. This creates major methodological challenges for studying the development of inhibitory control in childhood including construct validity, developmental appropriateness and sensitivity of measures, and longitudinal factorial invariance. We meta-analyzed 198 studies using measures of inhibitory control, a key aspect of self-regulation, to estimate age ranges of usefulness for each measure. The inhibitory control measures showed limited age ranges of usefulness owing to ceiling/floor effects. Tasks were useful, on average, for a developmental span of less than 3 years. This suggests that measuring inhibitory control over longer spans of development may require use of different measures at different time points, seeking to measure heterotypic continuity. We suggest ways to study the development of inhibitory control, with overlapping measurement in a structural equation modeling framework and tests of longitudinal factorial or measurement invariance. However, as valuable as this would be for the area, we also point out that establishing longitudinal factorial invariance is neither sufficient nor necessary for examining developmental change. Any study of developmental change should be guided by theory and construct validity, aiming toward a better empirical and theoretical approach to the selection and combination of measures.

Gender differences in the relation between mothering behaviors and child-behavior problems among Hispanic preschoolers

This is a report of an examination of gender differences in behavior problems and a prediction of their changes from 2.5 to 3.5 years from mothering qualities among 209 low-income Hispanic children. Externalizing behaviors declined over this time somewhat more for girls than for boys. Fewer externalizing behavior problems at age 3.5 were correlated with more supportive and less intrusive mothering at 2.5, but only for boys, and increases in externalizing behavior among boys were uniquely predicted by greater maternal intrusiveness. Implications for understanding parental control factors among Hispanic families are discussed.

Predictors of behavioral regulation in kindergarten: Household chaos, parenting, and early executive functions

Behavioral regulation is an important school readiness skill that has been linked to early executive function (EF) and later success in learning and school achievement. Although poverty and related risks, as well as negative parenting, have been associated with poorer EF and behavioral regulation, chaotic home environments may also play a role in understanding both early EF and later behavioral regulation at school age. To explore these relationships, a unique longitudinal and representative sample was used of 1,292 children born to mothers who lived in low-wealth rural America who were followed from birth into early elementary school. This study examined whether household chaos, which was measured across the first 3 years of life, predicted behavioral regulation in kindergarten above and beyond poverty-related variables. In addition, this study tested whether parent responsivity and acceptance behaviors, measured during the first 3 years of life, as well as EF skills, which were measured when children were 3 to 5 years of age, mediated the relationship between early household chaos and kindergarten behavioral regulation. Results suggested that household chaos disorganization indirectly predicted kindergarten behavioral regulation through intermediate impacts on parenting behaviors and children's early EF skills. These findings suggest the importance of early household chaos disorganization, the parenting environment, and early EF skills in understanding behavioral regulation above and beyond poverty-related risks.

Resilience as Regulation of Developmental and Family Processes

Resilience can be defined as establishing equilibrium subsequent to disturbances to a system caused by significant adversity. When families experience adversity or transitions, multiple regulatory processes may be involved in establishing equilibrium, including adaptability, regulation of negative affect, and effective problem-solving skills. The authors' resilience-as-regulation perspective integrates insights about the regulation of individual development with processes that regulate family systems. This middle-range theory of family resilience focuses on regulatory processes across levels that are involved in adaptation: whole-family systems such as routines and sense of coherence; coregulation of dyads involving emotion regulation, structuring, and reciprocal influences between social partners; and individual self-regulation. Insights about resilience-as-regulation are then applied to family-strengthening interventions that are designed to promote adaptation to adversity. Unresolved issues are discussed in relation to resilience-as-regulation in families, in particular how risk exposure is assessed, interrelations among family regulatory mechanisms, and how families scaffold the development of children's resilience.

Family poverty and trajectories of children's emotional and behavioural problems: the moderating roles of self-regulation and verbal cognitive ability

Socio-economic disadvantage is strongly associated with children's emotional (internalising) and behavioural (externalising) problems. Self-regulation and verbal cognitive ability have been related to children's emotional and behavioural resilience to socio-economic disadvantage. Despite being inter-related, self-regulation and verbal cognitive ability have not been examined jointly as promoting resilience in young children. This study investigated the roles of self-regulation and verbal cognitive ability in children's emotional and behavioural resilience to family socio-economic disadvantage from early to middle childhood (ages 3, 5, and 7 years; N = 16,916; 49 % girls). Using multivariate response growth curve modelling, we found that the relationship between socio-economic disadvantage and internalising problems was stronger for children with lower verbal cognitive ability. Also, poor children with high and low levels of self-regulation showed a widening gap in both emotional and behavioural problems over time. Poor and non-poor children alike benefited from self-regulation, but poor children appeared to be more vulnerable to low self-regulation. Self-regulation and verbal cognitive ability seem to be important protective factors for young children growing up in poor families.

The mediating role of parenting in the associations between household chaos and children's representations of family dysfunction

Children's drawings are thought to reflect their mental representations of self and their interpersonal relations within families. Household chaos is believed to disrupt key proximal processes related to optimal development. The present study examines the mediating role of parenting behaviors in the relations between two measures of household chaos, instability and disorganization, and how they may be evidenced in children's representations of family dysfunction as derived from their drawings. The sample (N = 962) is from a longitudinal study of rural poverty exploring the ways in which child, family, and contextual factors shape development over time. Findings reveal that, after controlling for numerous factors including child and primary caregiver covariates, there were significant indirect effects from cumulative family disorganization, but not cumulative family instability, on children's representation of family dysfunction through parenting behaviors. Results suggest that the proximal effects of daily disorganization outweigh the effects of periodic instability overtime.

Maternal self-regulation, relationship adjustment, and home chaos: contributions to infant negative emotionality

There has been increasing interest in the direct and indirect effects of parental self-regulation on children's outcomes. In the present investigation, the effects of maternal self-regulation, home chaos, and inter-parental relationship adjustment on broad and specific indicators of infant negative emotionality (NE) were examined. A sample of maternal caregivers and their 4-month-old infants (N = 85) from a rural community participated. Results demonstrated that better maternal self-regulation was associated with lower infant NE broadly, as well as with lower infant sadness and distress to limitations/frustration and better falling reactivity (i.e., emotion regulation), specifically. Maternal self-regulation also predicted less chaotic home environments and better maternal inter-parental relationship adjustment. Findings also supported the indirect effects of maternal self-regulation on broad and specific indicators of infant NE through home chaos and maternal relationship adjustment. Some differential effects were also identified. Elevated home chaos appeared to specifically affect infant frustration/distress to limitations whereas maternal relationship adjustment affected broad infant NE, as well as several specific indicators of infant NE: frustration/distress to limitations, sadness, and falling reactivity. In conjunction with other recent investigations that have reported the effects of maternal self-regulation on parenting, the findings in the present investigation suggest that parental self-regulation may influence children's outcomes through several proximal environmental pathways.

Income and the Development of Effortful Control as Predictors of Teacher Reports of Preschool Adjustment

This study examined the relations of income and children's effortful control to teacher reports of preschoolers' social competence and adjustment problems. This study tested whether changes in effortful control accounted for the effects of income on children's adjustment. A community sample (N=306) of preschool-age children (36-40 mos.) and their mothers, representing the full range of income (29% at or near poverty, 28% at or below the local median income), was used. Path analyses were used to test the prospective effects of income on rank-order changes in two aspects of effortful control, executive control and delay ability, which in turn, predicted teacher-reported adjustment problems and social competence. Lower income predicted smaller rank-order change in executive control, but did not predict changes in delay ability. Smaller rank-order change in delay ability predicted greater adjustment problems above the effect of income. Larger rank-order change in executive control predicted greater social competence and fewer adjustment problems above the effect of income. These findings provided some support for the hypothesis that disruptions in the development of effortful control related to low income might account for the effects of low income on young children's adjustment. Effortful control is potentially a fruitful target for intervention, particularly among children living in low income and poverty.