Child temperament and child-teacher relationship quality: Implications for children's emotional functioning during preschool period.

Although, in the last years several studies have moved beyond analyzing the role of mother-child relationship in the association between child temperament and child emotional functioning, our knowledge is still limited about which fine-grained temperamental components of child reactivity and self-regulation are associated with child-teacher relationship quality. Also, fewer studies have looked at the moderating role of child-teacher relationship in the association between child temperament and child internalizing/externalizing problems during early childhood. The present study examined the relation between components of child temperamental Negative Affectivity, Surgency, and Effortful Control and child-teacher relationship quality (i.e., closeness, conflict) in preschool children. In addition, our aim was to test the moderating effect of the child-teacher relationship on the association between temperament and internalizing and externalizing problems. One hundred Romanian preschoolers (55 boys, mean age = 4.04 years) participated in this study. Mothers assessed their child's temperament by completing the Children's Behavior Questionnaire and externalizing and internalizing problems with the Child Behavior Checklist. Child-teacher relationship quality was evaluated by children's teachers using the Student-Teacher Relationship Scale. Our results revealed that teachers rated their relationship as less conflictual with children who were assessed by their mothers as better in shifting and focusing attention, enjoying situations involving low stimulus intensity and displaying higher levels of Shyness, Sadness and Activity Level. Moreover, higher levels of Discomfort were associated with more conflict and less closeness while emotional reactivity such as Sadness, Fearfulness, and Activity Level were positively associated with closeness. Teacher-child closeness was associated with three temperamental self-regulation factors in the expected direction, except inhibitory control. Furthermore, results revealed a statistically significant interaction between child temperamental Shyness and child-teacher closeness in the prediction of child internalizing problems. Thus, when child-teacher closeness was low, there was a significant and positive relationship between child temperamental Shyness and child internalizing problems. Results highlight the importance of child-teacher relationship quality in relation to child temperament and social-emotional development during preschool period.

Expressions of positive and negative shyness in preschool-age children: Temperamental correlates and visual attention to emotions.

Recent empirical evidence shows heterogeneity in the expression of shyness in children. Some children tend to express their shyness displaying positive affect along with gaze aversions (positive shyness), whereas others display more negative emotional reactions accompanied by gaze aversions (negative shyness). Temperamental differences in approach-avoidance tendencies are likely to explain these differences in shyness expression in children and influence their visual attention to social stimuli, yet little empirical attention has been devoted to these associations. Our study examined the temperamental profile (approach, fear, and inhibitory control) associated with positive and negative shyness and the relation between expression of shyness and attention to social stimuli in 47 children aged 3-6 years. Children's positive and negative expressions of shyness were assessed using a performance task. Visual attention to facial emotional expressions was measured with the dot - probe task, and temperament was measured with maternal reports. Positive shyness was found to be positively associated with temperamental dimensions of approach, inhibitory control, and fear. Positive shyness was significantly associated with attentional orientation to positive facial expressions and with less attentional avoidance of threatening facial expressions. Negative shyness was positively associated only with temperamental fear, and no associations were found with attention to social stimuli. Our study provides empirical support for the association between temperament and the multidimensional character of the expression of positive shyness and adds relevant evidence regarding the connection between the expression of shyness and attention to social stimuli.

Maternal Self-Construal, Maternal Socialization of Emotions and Child Emotion Regulation in a Sample of Romanian Mother-Toddler Dyads.

Over the recent years, there is growing recognition of the social and cultural regulatory processes that act upon individual emotions. The adult-to-child social regulation of emotion is even more relevant, given the development of child self-regulatory abilities during early years. Although it is acknowledged that parental regulatory attempts to their children's emotional expressions are influenced by cultural models, relatively little is known about the specific relationship between parental cultural models and socialization practices that foster emotion self-regulation, particularly in the case of toddlers. Therefore, in the present study, our first aim was to examine, in a Romanian sample of mother-toddler dyads, the relationships between maternal cultural model of self and maternal regulatory attempts targeting toddlers' emotions during a delay of gratification task, while controlling for maternal perceptions of child individual characteristics, namely temperament. The second aim was to analyze, within the delay of gratification task, the relations between maternal regulatory attempts, child regulatory strategies and child affect expression, as the outcome of emotion regulation. Results showed that mothers scored higher for Independence as compared to Interdependence dimensions of self-construal. Also, the multidimensional analysis of self-construal revealed that Autonomy/Assertiveness scores were significantly higher than Relational Interdependent scores. Moreover, different dimensions of Independence predicted different maternal regulatory strategies employed during the delay of gratification task. This pattern of results suggests that maternal representations of an independent self, evidenced in our sample, are reflected in regulatory practices, aimed to develop primary control in the toddler. Moreover, our data revealed several significant associations between maternal regulatory strategies and child regulatory strategies expressed during the delay of gratification task. Finally, we demonstrated that child self-regulation mediated the relation between maternal regulatory attempts and child expression of affect during this task.

Attentional Orientation Patterns toward Emotional Faces and Temperamental Correlates of Preschool Oppositional Defiant Problems: The Moderating Role of Callous-Unemotional Traits and Anxiety Symptoms.

The present study examined the independent contributions and the interaction effects of oppositional defiant problems (ODD), callous unemotional traits (CU) and anxiety symptoms on attentional orienting to emotional faces, in a community sample of preschoolers. Additionally, based on Rothbart's (2007) model of temperament, we analyzed whether fine-grained dimensions of reactivity (fear, anger, discomfort, sadness, activity level, approach, high intensity pleasure, impulsivity) and self-regulation (attentional shifting, attentional focusing, inhibitory control), as well as the higher order temperamental factors of negative affectivity, surgency and effortful control are associated with CU traits and ODD-related problems. Attentional orienting to emotional faces was assessed with pictorial Dot-probe task, while teachers rated CU traits and ODD-related problems. Also, parents reported on ODD-related problems, anxiety and temperament. Results indicated significant interaction effects between ODD-related problems and CU, as well as between CU and anxiety, in predicting attentional orientation patterns for angry, fearful and happy faces. Moreover, temperamental reactivity was positively associated with CU traits and ODD-related problems, whereas temperamental self-regulation was negatively related to CU traits and ODD-related problems. Results of this study have implications for early intervention and prevention approaches targeting preschool oppositional defiant problems.