Schoolchildren's autobiographical memory: COMT gene Val158Met polymorphism effects on emotional content and quality of first memories.

Autobiographical memory is a cognitive function strongly related to emotional processing as autobiographical memory often includes emotional content. The COMT gene Val158Met polymorphism is associated with both cognitive and emotional processing. COMT gene Val158Met polymorphism effects on the emotional content and quality of Estonian schoolchildren's first autobiographical memories were investigated in the present study. In addition, gender effects were considered and the emotional valence of the first memory was taken into account. Schoolchildren's (N = 234) first memories were coded for valence, emotion words, specificity, and details. Girls were more likely to provide specific memories and recollections with an emotional valence than boys were. Children described memories with a positive or a negative valence in more detail than neutral memories. Interactions between the COMT gene Val158Met polymorphism and gender and valence of the events were detected: Val/Met heterozygotes provided fewer details for emotional events; Val/Met heterozygote boys reported fewer details for their first memories than Val/Met heterozygote girls did; Met/Met homozygote children provided fewer evaluative details for emotional events.

Is silence golden? A pilot study exploring associations between children's language environment and their language skills in Estonian-speaking families.

This two-wave longitudinal study explored how Estonian children's language environment relates to their language skills. The Language ENvironment Analysis (LENA) system's automated measures were used as a source of information about children's home language environment. Children's expressive vocabulary was measured via the parent-reported Estonian CDI III (ECDI-III), and language comprehension and production were measured via the examiner-administered New Reynell Developmental Language Scales (NRDLS). The assessments were made 1 year apart at ages 3;0 (years; months) (N = 22) and 4;0 (N = 19). The results revealed wide variability in children's home language environment and language skills. Girls' language production scores were higher; they heard a larger quantity of adult words and spent less time in noisy environments than boys at Wave 2. At Wave 1, children's word count was positively associated with productive language scores, whereas silence was negatively associated with language production and expressive vocabulary. At Wave 2, children who had been more exposed to electronic media scored higher on expressive vocabulary. Distant speech at Wave 1 was positively correlated with language comprehension scores at Wave 2 also when controlling for language comprehension scores at Wave 1. The results, which indicate that distant talk is a positive aspect and silence is a negative aspect of the language environment, highlight the importance of "languagizing" homes also in cultures where silence tends to be more highly valued and talkativeness tends to be less highly valued when compared with English-speaking middle-class families.

Resolving conflicts with friends: Adolescents' strategies and reasons behind these strategies.

The study examined adolescents' strategies for managing hypothetical conflicts with the same-sex best friend and their reasons behind these strategies. The sample included 905 14-year-old Estonian adolescents. The findings indicated that negotiation was the most frequently suggested strategy by adolescents. At the same time, adolescents' strategies and reasons strongly depended on the source of conflict. Coercive strategies and self-oriented reasons were more common in case of severe conflicts that could damage interpersonal relatedness or pose a threat to the attainment of autonomy. Girls reported having conflicts more frequently and suggested more negotiation than boys in all conflict situations. Sex differences did, however, occur only in adolescents' strategies. Boys' and girls' reasons behind their strategies were similar. Implications will be discussed.

Brief report: value priorities of early adolescents.

Although adolescence is considered to be the formative period of values, relatively few studies have addressed values held by adolescents. The present short-term longitudinal study explores value priorities of early adolescents from two social groups (among ethnic Estonians and Russian-speaking minority) in terms of the 10 value types defined by Schwartz, and the question whether values change during one year. 575 early adolescents filled out a 21-item version of the Portrait Values Questionnaire. Adolescents' value priorities differed from the pan-cultural value hierarchy of adults (Bardi, Lee, Hoffmann-Towfigh, & Soutar, 2009) by attributing more importance to hedonism and stimulation, and less importance to benevolence and conformity. Although Russian-speaking students rated Self-Enhancement and Openness to Change more highly than Estonians, the value hierarchy of adolescents from two social groups was rather similar. Boys considered Self-Enhancement more important than girls. More value change was observable in Russian-speaking students, and boys.

How congruent are parent reports on 3-4-year-old children's language skills with other sources of data?

Background: Parental report measures such as the MacArthur-Bates Communicative Development Inventories (CDIs) are frequently used to study communicative skills of children under 3 years of age. Less is known about the usability of such reports for assessing communication skills in older children due to their advanced language skills, and a higher variety of communicative partners and communication contexts. Aims: To assess the concurrent and predictive validity of the Estonian (E) CDI-III at ages 3;0 and 4;0 years. The first research goal was to examine its concurrent variability-associations with teacher reports and directly measured language skills. The second goal of the study was to investigate the predictive validity of parent reports-the degree to which parent-and teacher-reported language scores for children at age 3;0 are useful for predicting examiner-administered language comprehension and production scores 1 year later. Methods: Estonian monolingual children were investigated longitudinally at ages 3;0 (n = 104; M age = 35.77 months, SD = 0.84; 42% males) and 4;0 (n = 87; M age = 48.18 months, SD = 1.16; 42% males) years. Children were assessed with the parent-reported ECDI-III, with teacher-reported assessments on children's talkativeness, vocabulary size and grammatical skills, and the examiner-administered New Reynell Developmental Language Scales IV (NRDLS). Results: Results indicated significant positive relationships between the ECDI-III total scores, teacher reports, and directly measured language comprehension and production scores, demonstrating concurrent validity of parental reports of children language skills at both ages. When controlling for mothers' education, children's gender, and reported language difficulties, parental and teacher reports were predictive of language production scores, whereas only parental reports predicted comprehension scores 1 year later. None of the controls was predictive of later language comprehension and production scores. Conclusion: In sum, good concurrent and predictive validity of the ECDI-III shows that the instrument is a valid tool for assessing communicative skills in Estonian children. Results suggest that parent reports can offer useable information also about communicative skills of children older than three years.

Longitudinal links between maternal directives, children's engagement in family conversations, and child linguistic skills.

Background: Research on mother-child verbal interaction is largely inspired by Vygotsky. The results align with his view that children acquire language and culture-specific ways of using language through actively participating in daily conversations with adults. Supporting Vygotsky's concept of the Zone of Proximal Development, the facilitative features of such conversations have been found to depend on age, the level of the child's language skills, and the interactional context. Most previous studies in the field have been conducted in English-speaking Western families with a focus on the first years of children's lives. As Estonian middle-class mothers have been found to put greater emphasis on controlling children than mothers from other cultural contexts, we included the frequency of using directives as one of the features of mothers' speech that might have an impact on child language development. Aim: Accordingly, the current study explored the relative impact of various aspects of mother-child interaction (e.g., mothers' vocabulary diversity, use of attentional and behavioral directives, wh-questions, and the amount of children's talk) on children's language skills using data collected from Estonian middle-class families at two timepoints, 1 year apart. As a novel approach to this topic, the study also examined the correlation between mothers' input features and children's participation in the parent-child conversation. Method: A total of 87 children aged 3;0 and 4;0 and their mothers participated in the study. We observed the mother-child interactions during a semistructured videotaped game played at home. Mothers reported their children's language skills via the ECDI-III. Children's language comprehension and production were measured using the examiner-administered NRDLS. Results and conclusion: Although the results showed somewhat differential effects of various aspects of mothers' speech on different measures of child language skills at two timepoints, the diversity of mothers' speech was positively, and mothers' frequent use of directives negatively related to children's language skills. At both ages, the diversity of mothers' speech predicted the amount of children's verbal contribution to conversations. The findings will be discussed in light of Vygotskian and his followers' theoretical views and theories about child language development.

Making sense of the pandemic: Parent-child conversations in two cultural contexts.

The present study focused on parent-child conversations about COVID-19 related changes in children's lives in Estonia and Germany with an aim to understand how children's conceptual understanding of the disease and their emotional security is created and reflected in these interactions. Twenty-nine parent-child dyads from both cultural contexts provided self-recorded conversations. The conversations were analyzed for the type of explanations, emotional content, and valence. Estonian conversations were longer than those of German dyads. Explanatory talk appeared in both contexts but was general in nature. Conversations in both cultural contexts also included very few emotional references and tended to focus on both positive and negative aspects of the situation. The conversations show that parents tend to support children's coping with stressful situations by helping them conceptually understand COVID-19 and paying little attention to children's comprehension of feelings about the situation.

Content of maternal open-ended questions and statements in reminiscing with their 4-year-olds: links with independence and interdependence orientation in European contexts.

Mother's open-ended questions and elaborative statements during reminiscing were analysed for their content (child agency, co-agency, non-social, and social context) in three cultural contexts. Participants were 115 mothers and their 4-year-old children: 35 dyads from Berlin, Germany, 42 from Stockholm, Sweden, and 38 from Tallinn, Estonia. Across samples the most prominent content was talk about non-social context followed by co-agency and child agency. Tallinn mothers asked the children to talk about themselves, and Berlin mothers asked the children to talk about themselves together with other people, more frequently than they talked about these contents themselves. The content was related to the cultural orientations of mothers assessed through questionnaires: the Berlin mothers whose independence/ interdependence ratio was higher talked less about other people and asked the children fewer questions about other people; the Stockholm mothers with a higher independence/interdependence ratio talked more about child agency. In Tallinn both correlations existed on a trend level. The results are discussed in the light of common conversational practices and mothers' orientation to independence and interdependence in these cultural contexts.

Differences between girls and boys in emerging language skills: evidence from 10 language communities.

The present study explored gender differences in emerging language skills in 13,783 European children from 10 non-English language communities. It was based on a synthesis of published data assessed with adapted versions of the MacArthur-Bates Communicative Development Inventories (CDIs) from age 0.08 to 2.06. The results showed that girls are slightly ahead of boys in early communicative gestures, in productive vocabulary, and in combining words. The difference increased with age. Boys were not found to be more variable than girls. Despite extensive variation in language skills between language communities, the difference between girls and boys remained. This suggests that the difference is caused by robust factors that do not change between language communities.

Early vocabulary and gestures in Estonian children.

Parents of 592 children between the age of 0 ; 8 and 1 ; 4 completed the Estonian adaptation of the MacArthur-Bates Communicative Development Inventory (ECDI Infant Form). The relationships between comprehension and production of different categories of words and gestures were examined. According to the results of regression modelling the production of object gestures and gestural routines was positively correlated with the use of all the word categories. Comprehension of common nouns was positively correlated to the production of common nouns and predicates, whereas the comprehension of predicates was negatively correlated to the production of common nouns and social terms. The older the children were the more they produced words from each category. Girls were reported to produce more social terms. First-born children had an advantage over later-born children in the production of common nouns. Maternal educational level was associated with the production of common nouns and predicates.

Toddlers' Early Communicative Skills as Assessed by the Short Form Version of the Estonian MacArthur-Bates Communicative Development Inventory II.

Purpose The purpose of the current study is to develop a valid and reliable screening tool to identify children with risk of developing language difficulties for Estonian-speaking 2- to 3-year-old children. Method Nine hundred ninety parents of children ages 1;8-3;1 (years;months) filled in the Estonian MacArthur-Bates Communicative Development Inventory II (ECDI-II SF)-containing a 100-word vocabulary checklist, questions about decontextualized language use, and sentence production. A subset of parents filled in the long form of the MacArthur-Bates Communicative Development Inventory: Words and Sentences (n = 131). We examined the results of 31 children with language problems on the ECDI-II SF to assess the accuracy of the instrument. Results The concordance of scores on the ECDI-II long form and ECDI-II SF is high. Toddlers' results on the ECDI-II SF are related to their gender, with girls outscoring boys on the expressive vocabulary and sentence complexity subscales. We also found that children of highly educated mothers outperform others in the acquisition of grammatical skills. The sensitivity and specificity of the ECDI-II SF vocabulary section supported the implementation of this screening tool in order to identify toddlers with difficulties in their language development. Conclusions ECDI-II SF vocabulary scores are the most informative for determining whether a 2- or 3-year-old is following typical developmental patterns or should be referred to a speech and language specialist for a direct assessment. We provide a discussion on early language screening process and its implications for public health policies.

Child temperament predicts maternal socialization values.

The longitudinal study examined whether and how children's temperament traits in particular but also their age, sex as well as maternal education and age predict maternal socialization values. The sample was drawn from the IDEFICS study and included 567 mothers from Estonia whose children were 2-9 years old at Time 0 and 4-11 years old at Time 1. The findings showed that children's temperament at Time 0 predicted maternal socialization values at Time 1, but not vice versa. Mothers who perceived their child to be more imaginative at Time 0 considered self-maximization socialization values more important and social conformity-related values less important at Time 1. Child's conscientiousness and extraversion were linked positively to social conformity-related socialization values. Older mothers and those with higher level of education put more emphasis on self-maximization socialization values. Children's age and sex were not related to socialization values.

Influence of internal and external factors on early language skills: A cross-linguistic study.

Cross-linguistic studies can provide information about general and language specific features of language development, but relatively few such studies are available in literature. The main aim of the present study was to investigate, from a cross-linguistic perspective, the roles of the internal factor of gender and external factors of birth order and parental education level on the development of language in 2-year-old children. We examined 351 children growing up in three European language contexts: Croatian (N = 104), Estonian (N = 141) and Finnish (N = 106). Information on lexical skills and word combination ability was collected using the short form of the MacArthur-Bates Communicative Development Inventories and the influence of background factors on these aspects of language development was investigated. No significant differences were found in lexical skills or word combination ability among the three language groups. These aspects of language development varied significantly with gender, but not with external factors. Our findings suggest that internal factors may influence early language development more than external factors.

Cultural, contextual, and gender differences in peer talk: a comparative study.

The study focused on cultural, contextual, and gender differences in children's peer talk. Same-sex dyads of Estonian (n = 38), Finnish (n = 38), and Swedish (n = 34) preschool age children were videotaped during unstructured and structured play settings. We found only one gender difference in children's talkativeness and in the use of regulatory speech: during free play, Swedish boys used more imperatives per directives than Swedish girls. At the same time there were significant cultural and contextual differences. Estonian children were most directive and Swedish children were least directive. Finnish children were less directive than Estonian children but more directive than Swedish children. It was concluded that cultural and contextual factors strongly influence the likelihood, extent, and nature of gender differences in peer talk.

Language skills at corrected age 2;0 are poorer in extremely and very preterm boys but not girls compared with their full-term peers.

PURPOSE: To date, there are contradictory findings concerning if, at which age, and to what extent children's language development is affected by prematurity at birth. The objective was to compare language skills of extremely preterm (EPT) and very preterm (VPT) girls and boys at 24 months corrected for gestational age (GA) at birth with those of full-term (FT) girls and boys, and to explore the effect of perinatal and demographic factors. METHOD: Parents of 138 preterm (PT) children born <32 weeks' gestation (48 EPT with GA below 28 weeks, 90 VPT with GA 28-31 weeks) and of 150 FT controls completed the short Estonian version of the MacArthur-Bates Communicative Development Inventory: Words and Sentences (ECDI-II SF). Language skills of PT children were also assessed with the Bayley-III Language Scale (BSID-III), and compared with data from 152 FT controls. RESULTS: Mean scores of all language measurements were significantly lower in boys (not girls) from both PT groups compared to FT girls and boys, while no significant differences were found between PT groups. Across groups, girls obtained significantly better language scores than boys. In PT children, being a girl, and attending day care at corrected age (CA) 2;0 years, predicted a larger expressive vocabulary (measured by the ECDI-II SF). Bayley language composite scores (sum of expressive and receptive language) were higher in PT girls than in boys, and the scores were negatively affected by the number of severe neonatal morbidities. CONCLUSIONS: The findings highlight the importance of systematic language-focused assessments (using parents and trained examiners) of EPT and VPT boys, as well as the need to support their development.

The role of gender, values, and culture in adolescent bystanders' strategies.

We examined the relationship between adolescent bystanders' strategies for intervening in the bullying-like situation and their gender, values, and cultural origin. The sample consisted of 682 Estonian and Russian-Estonian adolescents (M age = 13.02 years). They were shown a video of a bullying-like situation with a non-intervening adult bystander and asked to describe what they would do if they, instead of the adult, witnessed that situation. Only 10% said that they would not intervene. Girls were more likely than boys to suggest multiple actions. Adolescents who valued conformity were less likely to propose using physical aggression. Doing nothing was less likely suggested by those who placed more importance on conformity and less on power. Estonian adolescents were more likely than their Russian-Estonian peers to suggest finding out what is going on, and less likely to say that they would do nothing. The findings suggest that although most adolescents express willingness to help the victim, they might not actually know how to intervene.

Fears in the General Population: More Frequent in Females and Associated With the Serotonin Transporter Promoter Polymorphism and Perceived Relationship With Mothers.

This study aimed to examine the structure of fears of youth, and its associations with gender, genetic variation of the serotonin transporter (5-HTTLPR), and perceived maternal acceptance/rejection and control, in a population-representative sample. Participants were 453 adolescents and 540 young adults. Fears were assessed by a 18-item Fear Questionnaire, and perceived maternal relationships by the Mother Acceptance-Rejection/Control Questionnaire. A structured psychiatric interview was used to assess current and lifetime psychiatric disorders in participants from the older cohort. A principal component analyses indicated 2 components, named Fear/Phobia and Panic/Despair. Females expressed higher level of fears and symptoms of despair regardless of the serotonin transporter genotype. The 5-HTTLPR genotype nevertheless played a role in the association between fears and perceived relationships: in S/S-genotype, more Fear/Phobia was reported by the participants who perceived greater maternal acceptance in combination with strict maternal control, and had a history of psychiatric disorder.

Early vocabulary in full term and preterm Estonian children.

BACKGROUND: Preterm birth is considered to be a high risk factor for child development and early vocabulary can be used as an indicator for later development. AIMS: The aim of the present study is to compare the size of early vocabulary, proportional use of different word categories, and mean length of utterance (henceforth MLU) of preterm and full term children. METHOD: The sample consisted of 40 preterm (corrected ages 16-25 months) and two matched groups of full term children. First full term group consisted of 120 children who were matched by age and gender. Second full term group consisted of 109 children who were matched by age, gender and size of productive vocabulary. The data for this study were gathered using the Estonian adaptation of MacArthur-Bates Communicative Development Inventory: Words and Sentences. RESULTS: Full term children who were matched by age and gender had larger vocabulary as compared to the preterm children's vocabulary (U = 1758.5, p = 0.01). Poisson regression yielded that age, gender, and preterm birth explained significantly the variance in the vocabulary size. Poisson regressions showed that all three variables explained significantly variance in proportional use of social terms and predicates. Age had significant effect for proportional use of common nouns. Age and preterm birth had a significant effect on the proportional use of function words. MLU was shorter in preterm than in full term children (U = 1125.0, p = 0.002). CONCLUSIONS: Estonian preterm children's vocabulary is slightly smaller than full term children's vocabulary. There is a difference in the proportions of word categories used, as preterm children use more social terms, and less predicates, and function words.

Differences between humor comprehension and appreciation in healthy children and children with epilepsy.

This study explored verbal, visual, motor, and tactile humor appreciation and comprehension among preschool children with epilepsy as compared with healthy children. Participants included 32 children with focal epilepsy, as well as 70 healthy controls. The results suggest that children with epilepsy assess humor dichotomously (as either not funny at all or as extremely funny) and generally as less amusing when compared with ratings given by controls (M = 6.08, and M = 7.44, P = .01, respectively). They also gave significantly lower ratings to verbal jokes than to visual jokes. Furthermore, children with epilepsy assessed the jokes they understood (ie, gave expected explanations to the content of jokes) as less funny. An important finding from our study was that children with epilepsy assess aggressive humor as not funny. The most frequent emotional reaction in both groups to jokes from all subtests was a smile, followed by a half-smile.

A functional NOS1 promoter polymorphism interacts with adverse environment on functional and dysfunctional impulsivity.

RATIONALE: Neuronal nitric oxide synthase (NOS1) knockout results in increased impulsive aggression in mice under adverse housing conditions. In line with this, we have previously shown that a functional promoter polymorphism of NOS1, termed NOS1 ex1f-VNTR, is associated with impulsivity-related traits and related disorders. OBJECTIVE: This study aims to examine whether adverse environment interacts with the risk allele on impulsivity-related measures. METHODS: We here studied a population-based cohort of Estonian pupils, recruited at the age of 9 years and followed up for another 9 years. For 435 subjects, measures on impulsivity (Adaptive and Maladaptive Impulsivity Scale, BIS-11, Stop Signal data, and Visual Comparison Test, VCT), environmental conditions (stressful life events and family environment), and NOS1 ex1f-VNTR genotype were available. RESULTS: We found a genotype main effect in that presence of a short NOS1 ex1f-VNTR allele was associated with higher levels of adaptive impulsivity, especially in males, but also worse performance in the VCT and the Stop Signal test. Both stressful life events as well as adverse family environment interacted with the risk genotype to increase maladaptive impulsivity. CONCLUSIONS: This study provides further evidence that short alleles of NOS1 ex1f-VNTR go along with impulsive behavior. In the absence of adverse environmental conditions, this may lead to a beneficial effect as functional forms of impulsivity are affected. This however is reversed under negative conditions, as dysfunctional impulsivity is increased under these circumstances. This data provides evidence that NOS1 ex1f-VNTR is subject to balancing selection potentially explaining persistence of the risk allele in the population.