Shyness trajectories in slow-to-warm-up infants: Relations with child sex and maternal parenting

Prenatal Exposure to a Climate-Related Disaster Results in Changes of the Placental Transcriptome and Infant Temperament

Maternal stress during pregnancy exerts long-term effects on the mental well-being of the offspring. However, the long-term effect of prenatal exposure on the offspring's mental status is only partially understood. The placenta plays a vital role in connecting the maternal side to the fetus, thereby serving as an important interface between maternal exposure and fetal development. Here, we profiled the placental transcriptome of women who were pregnant during a hurricane (Superstorm Sandy), which struck New York City in 2012. The offspring were followed longitudinally and their temperament was assessed during the first 6-12 months of age. The data identified a significant correlation between a Superstorm Sandy stress factor score and infant temperament. Further, analysis of the placental transcriptomes identified an enrichment of functional pathways related to inflammation, extracellular matrix integrity and sensory perception in the specimen from those infants with "Slow-to-Warm-up" temperament during the first year of life. Together, these findings provide initial evidence that maternal exposure to climate-related disasters results in altered placental transcriptome, which may be related to long-term emotional and behavioral consequences in children.

Temperamental Shyness and Anger/Frustration in Childhood: Normative Development, Individual Differences, and the Impacts of Maternal Intrusiveness and Frontal Electroencephalogram Asymmetry

This study used latent growth curve modeling to identify normative development and individual differences in the developmental patterns of shyness and anger/frustration across childhood. This study also examined the impacts of maternal intrusiveness and frontal electroencephalogram (EEG) asymmetry at age 4 on the developmental patterns of shyness and anger/frustration. 180 children (92 boys, 88 girls; M_age  = 4.07 years at baseline; 75.6% White, 18.3% Black, 6.1% multiracial/other) participated in the study. Normative development included significant linear decreases in shyness and anger/frustration. Individual variation existed in the developmental patterns. Children with left frontal EEG asymmetry showed a faster decreasing pattern of shyness. Children who experienced higher maternal intrusiveness and had left frontal EEG asymmetry showed a slower decreasing pattern of anger/frustration.

Fearful Temperament and the Risk for Child and Adolescent Anxiety: The Role of Attention Biases and Effortful Control

Fearful temperament represents one of the most robust predictors of child and adolescent anxiety; however, not all children with fearful temperament unvaryingly develop anxiety. Diverse processes resulting from the interplay between automatic processing (i.e., attention bias) and controlled processing (i.e., effortful control) drive the trajectories toward more adaptive or maladaptive directions. In this review, we examine the associations between fearful temperament, attention bias, and anxiety, as well as the moderating effect of effortful control. Based on the reviewed literature, we propose a two-mechanism developmental model of attention bias that underlies the association between fearful temperament and anxiety. We propose that the sub-components of effortful control (i.e., attentional control and inhibitory control) play different roles depending on individuals' temperaments, initial automatic biases, and goal priorities. Our model may help resolve some of the mixed findings and conflicts in the current literature. It may also advance our knowledge regarding the cognitive mechanisms linking fearful temperament and anxiety, as well as facilitate the continuing efforts in identifying and intervening with children who are at risk. Finally, we conclude the review with a discussion on the existing limitations and then propose questions for future research.

Shyness Trajectories across the First Four Decades Predict Mental Health Outcomes

Although childhood shyness is presumed to predict mental health problems in adulthood, no prospective studies have examined these outcomes beyond emerging adulthood. As well, existing studies have been limited by retrospective and cross-sectional designs and/or have examined shyness as a dichotomous construct. The present prospective longitudinal study (N = 160; 55 males, 105 females) examined shyness trajectories from childhood to the fourth decade of life and mental health outcomes. Shyness was assessed using parent- and self-rated measures from childhood to adulthood, once every decade at ages 8, 12-16, 22-26, and 30-35. At age 30-35, participants completed a structured psychiatric interview and an experimental task examining attentional biases to facial emotions. We found 3 trajectories of shyness, including a low-stable trajectory (59.4%), an increasing shy trajectory from adolescence to adulthood (23.1%), and a decreasing shy trajectory from childhood to adulthood (17.5%). Relative to the low-stable trajectory, the increasing, but not the decreasing, trajectory was at higher risk for clinical social anxiety, mood, and substance-use disorders and was hypervigilant to angry faces. We found that the development of emotional problems in adulthood among the increasing shy trajectory might be explained in part by adverse peer and social influences during adolescence. Our findings suggest different pathways for early and later developing shyness and that not all shy children grow up to have psychiatric and emotional problems, nor do they all continue to be shy.

Personality Development Within a Generational Context: Life Course Outcomes of Shy Children

Studies have shown that shy children born in the 1920s and 1950s had delayed marriage and parenthood, less stable careers, and lower occupational attainment as adults than other children. Do these effects still hold true? We examined demographic and social outcomes of children born between 1977 and 1982 in a prospective longitudinal study. We assessed shyness in childhood (age 8), adolescence (age 12-16), young adulthood (age 22-26), and adulthood (age 30-35), and derived three shyness trajectories (i.e., decreasing, increasing, and low-stable). Social and demographic outcomes for shy children who outgrew their shyness (i.e., decreasing trajectory) were indistinguishable from those who were consistently low on shyness measures. However, a shyness trajectory beginning in adolescence and increasing to adulthood was associated with poorer outcomes, similar to previous studies. These findings highlight the importance of multiple assessments in long-term longitudinal studies and the need to consider personality development within a generational context.

Components of Effortful Control and Their Relations to Children's Shyness

Relations between children's (N = 213) mother-reported effortful control components (attention focusing, attention shifting, inhibitory control at 42 months; activational control at 72 months) and mother-reported shyness trajectories across 42, 54, 72, and 84 months of age were examined. In growth models, shyness decreased. Inhibitory control and attention shifting predicted higher levels and lower levels of shyness at 42 months (the intercept), respectively. Inhibitory control negatively, and attention shifting positively, predicted the shyness slope. Children with higher inhibitory control had relatively more rapid decreases in shyness. Children with higher attention shifting had relatively slower decreases in shyness. Activational control was negatively correlated with the shyness intercept. Effortful control components should be examined separately, rather than in combination, in relation to shyness in the future. If results are replicated, it may suggest that fostering attention shifting and activational control development may help prevent, or maintain low levels of, shyness during childhood.

Hypertensive diseases of pregnancy predict parent-reported difficult temperament in infancy

OBJECTIVE

Recent research has linked hypertensive diseases of pregnancy with adverse neurodevelopmental outcomes in childhood and adulthood. This study aimed to establish whether such effects are observed in infancy.

METHODS

This was a prospective pregnancy cohort study of 2,785 pregnancies with complete data on hypertensive diseases of pregnancy. Mothers completed a validated Australian adaptation of the Toddler Temperament Scale when the children were 1 year of age (n = 2,384). Algorithms were used to classify children as difficult, slow to warm up, intermediate high, intermediate low, or easy, on the basis of their temperament scores. We then grouped difficult and intermediate-high infants together and compared them with easy, intermediate-low, and slow-to-warm-up infants. We used a multivariable logistic regression model and adjusted for known biomedical, sociodemographic, and psychological factors from the pre- and postnatal period that may influence child behavioral development.

RESULTS

After adjusting for confounders, mothers who were diagnosed with gestational hypertension (odds ratio [OR], 1.36; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.06-1.75) or preeclampsia (OR, 2.23; 95% CI, 1.18-4.23) were more likely to report that their infants were in the difficult or intermediate-high classifications in the first year of life compared with infants born to mothers without gestational hypertension or preeclampsia.

CONCLUSION

These data suggest that the link between maternal hypertensive diseases of pregnancy and child behavioral development begins in the first year of life.