Early relational origins of Theory of Mind: A two-study replication.

BACKGROUND: Research implies early relational factors - parental appropriate mind-mindedness (MM) and mutually responsive orientation (MRO) - as antecedents of children's Theory of Mind (ToM), yet the longitudinal path is unclear. Furthermore, little is known about the process in father-child relationships. In two studies of community families in a Midwestern state in United States, we tested a path from parental appropriate MM in infancy to parent-child MRO in toddlerhood to children's ToM at preschool age in mother- and father-child relationships, using comparable observational measures at parallel ages. METHODS: In Children and Parents Study (CAPS) of children born in 2017 and 2018, we collected data at 8 months (N = 200, 96 girls), 38 months, age 3 (N = 175, 86 girls), and 52 months, age 4.5 (N = 177, 86 girls). In Family Study (FS) of children born mostly in 2001, we collected data at 7 months (N = 102, 51 girls), 38 months, age 3 (N = 100, 50 girls), and 52 months, age 4.5 (N = 99, 49 girls). Parental MM (verbal comments aligned with the infant's psychological state) was observed in infancy, MRO (parent and child responsiveness to each other and shared positive affect) at age 3, and ToM (false belief tasks) at age 4.5. RESULTS: The findings supported the proposed indirect effects of parents' MM on children's ToM, mediated by MRO, for fathers and children in both studies, and for mothers and children, in CAPS. In FS, mothers' MM predicted MRO and ToM, but there was no mediation. CONCLUSIONS: This investigation, testing a path from MM to MRO to ToM in both mother- and father-child relationships in two longitudinal studies, adds to the literature that has described relations among those constructs but rarely integrated those in one model.

Developmental psychopathology: Our welcoming, inclusive, and eclectic intellectual home.

The integrative nature of developmental psychopathology is its defining and most remarkable feature. Since its inception, often identified with the special issue of Child Development (Cichetti, 1984), this new discipline has shattered barriers and divisions that until then had artificially compartmentalized the study of human development, and perhaps even psychology in general, and it has proposed new ways of integrative thinking about development. One, developmental psychopathology has programmatically integrated research on typical or adaptive and atypical or maladaptive developmental processes and demonstrated how those inform each other. Two, developmental psychopathology has promoted bridges between developmental research and other disciplines. Three, less explicitly but equally importantly, developmental psychopathology has abolished conceptual and empirical barriers that had existed among various theories and perspectives within developmental psychology by creating a welcoming niche for research inspired by theories often historically seen as contradictory or incompatible. Ideas originating in psychoanalytic, learning, cognitive, ethological, and sociocultural theories all find a welcoming home and seamlessly coexist in heuristically productive harmony within developmental psychopathology, inform each other, and generate exciting questions and insights. This eclectic and conceptually inclusive nature is one reason for developmental psychopathology's lasting appeal and inspirational power.

Elucidating mechanisms linking mothers' and fathers' mind-mindedness in infancy with children's self-regulation at early preschool age.

Extensive research has examined factors that contribute to individual differences in children's self-regulation (SR), a key social-emotional competence crucial to adjustment and mental health. Those differences become salient and measurable at late toddler age. In the CAPS (N = 200 community families), we examined mothers' and fathers' appropriate mind-mindedness (MM)-the ability to view the child as a psychological agent and correctly interpret his or her mental states-as a predictor of children's SR. MM was observed in parent-child interactions at 8 months, and SR was observed as the capacity for deliberate delay in standard tasks at 3 years. Reflecting a family system perspective, processes both within and across mother-child and father-child relationships were examined in one model. Parent-child mutual responsiveness, observed during interactions at 16 months, was modeled as a mediator of the paths from MM to SR. Fathers' MM had a significant, direct positive effect on SR; in addition, it enhanced mutual responsiveness in both father-child and mother-child dyads and promoted child SR through enhanced mother-child mutual responsiveness. The findings elucidate relatively poorly understood mechanisms linking parental MM in infancy with SR at early preschool age, highlight similarities and differences in the processes unfolding in mother-child and father-child relationships, and emphasize interparental dynamics in socialization.

The parent's and the child's internal working models of each other moderate cascades from child difficulty to socialization outcomes: Preliminary evidence for dual moderation?

Infants' difficulty, typically characterized as proneness to negative emotionality, is commonly considered a risk for future maladaptive developmental trajectories, mostly because it often foreshadows increased parental power assertion, typically linked to future negative child outcomes. However, growing evidence of divergent developmental paths that unfold from infant difficulty has invigorated research on causes of such multifinality. Kochanska et al. (2019) proposed that parent and child Internal Working Models (IWMs) of each other are key, with the parent's IWM of the child moderating the link between child difficulty and parental power assertion, and the child's IWM of the parent moderating the link between power assertion and child outcomes. In Children and Parents Study (200 community mothers, fathers, and children), child difficulty was observed at 8 months, parents' power assertion at 16 months, and children's outcomes rated by parents at age 3. Parents' IWMs were assessed with a mentalization measure at 8 months and children's IWMs were coded from semi-projective narratives at age 3. The cascade from infant difficulty to maternal power assertion to negative child outcomes was present only when both the mother's and the child's IWMs of each other were negative. We did not support the model for father-child dyads.

Sequelae of infants' negative affectivity in the contexts of emerging distinct attachment organizations: Multifinality in mother-child and father-child dyads across the first year.

Infants' high negative affectivity often initiates maladaptive parent-child relational processes that may involve both the parent's and the child's sides of the relationship. We proposed that infants' high negative affectivity triggers distinct sequelae in dyads classified as avoidant, resistant, and disorganized, compared to secure dyads. In 200 community families, at 8 months, we observed infants' negative affectivity; at 16 months, we assessed attachment organization and collected observations and reports of parent-related (responsiveness, resentment of child, power assertion, and intrusiveness) and child-related (social-emotional competence, opposition, and anger) constructs. In mother-child avoidant dyads, infants' high negative affectivity was a significant precursor of mothers' higher resentment and intrusiveness and children's lower social-emotional competence. Those associations were significantly different than in secure dyads (in which none were significant). In father-child disorganized dyads, infants' high negative affectivity was a significant precursor of fathers' lower responsiveness and higher resentment; there were no association in secure dyads. Regardless of infants' negative affectivity, compared to secure dyads, parents in resistant dyads expressed more resentment of child, and avoidant and resistant children were more oppositional to their fathers. The study illustrates multifinality in parent- and child-related processes that characterize unfolding early relational dynamics in dyads differing in just-emerging attachment.

Revisiting the debate on effects of parental power-assertive control in two longitudinal studies: early attachment security as a moderator.

Although there is a consensus that harsh, hostile, abusive discipline has uniformly adverse effects on children, scholars continue to debate implications of varying degrees of power assertion commonly used by most parents in daily interactions with young children. Attachment theory can inform this debate, as early attachment organization can serve as a catalyst, or moderator, of future socialization trajectories. Specifically, insecure attachment can amplify, whereas secure attachment can attenuate, detrimental effects of parental power-assertive control. In two community studies of mothers, fathers, and infants, Family Study (FS, N = 102), and Children and Parents Study (CAPS, N = 200), we assessed attachment security in infancy, parental power-assertive control at 4.5 years in FS and at 16 months in CAPS, and child positive orientation to the parent at 10 years in FS and at 3 years in CAPS. In both studies, fathers' power-assertive control undermined children's positive orientation toward the fathers, but only for children with less secure attachment histories in infancy (Attachment Q-Set in FS and Strange Situation Paradigm in CAPS), and not for those with more secure histories. The findings highlight indirect yet powerful, long-term effects of the early parent-child security, and suggest distinct processes in mother- and father-child dyads.

Mutual synergies between reactive and active inhibitory systems of temperament in the development of children's disruptive behavior: Two longitudinal studies.

Individual differences in two inhibitory temperament systems have been implicated as key in the development of early disruptive behaviors. The reactive inhibition system, behavioral inhibition (BI) entails fearfulness, shyness, timidity, and caution. The active inhibition system, or effortful control (EC) entails a capacity to deliberately suppress, modify, or regulate a predominant behavior. Lower scores in each system have been associated with more disruptive behaviors. We examined how the two systems interact, and whether one can alleviate or exacerbate risks due to the other. In two community samples (Study 1, N = 112, ages 2.5 to 4, and Study 2, N = 102, ages 2 to 6.5), we assessed early BI and EC, and future disruptive behaviors (observed disregard for rules in Study 1 and parent-rated externalizing problems in Study 2). Robustly replicated interactions revealed that for children with low BI (relatively fearless), better EC was associated with less disruptive behavior; for children with low EC, more BI was associated with less disruptive behavior. This research extends the investigation of Temperament × Temperament interactions in developmental psychology and psychopathology, and it suggests that reactive and active inhibition systems may play mutually compensatory roles. Those effects emerged after age 2.

Parents' early representations of their children moderate socialization processes: Evidence from two studies.

Difficult infants are commonly considered at risk for maladaptive developmental cascades, but evidence is mixed, prompting efforts to elucidate moderators of effects of difficulty. We examined features of parents' representations of their infants - adaptive (appropriate mind-mindedness, MM) and dysfunctional (low reflective functioning, RF, hostile attributions) - as potential moderators. In Family Study (N = 102), we tested parents' appropriate MM comments to their infants as moderating a path from infants' observed difficulty (negative affect, unresponsiveness) to parents' observed power assertion at ages 2-4.5 to children's observed and parent-rated (dis)regard for conduct rules at age 5.5. In father-child relationships, MM moderated that path: for fathers with low MM, the infants' increasing difficulty was associated with fathers' greater power assertion, which in turn was associated with children's more disregard for rules. The path was absent for fathers with average or high MM. In Children and Parents Study (N = 200), dysfunctional representations (low RF, hostile attributions) moderated the link between child objective difficulty, observed as anger in laboratory episodes, and difficulty as described by the parent. Reports of mothers with highly dysfunctional representations were unrelated to children's observed anger. Reports of mothers with average or low dysfunctional representations aligned with laboratory observations.

Infants' attachment security and children's self-regulation within and outside the parent-child relationship at kindergarten age: Distinct paths for children varying in anger proneness.

Research in developmental psychology has robustly documented positive associations between parent-child attachment security and the child's self-regulation (SR). This study of 102 community mothers, fathers, and infants contributes to that research by examining the role of attachment security, observed at 15 months using the Attachment Q-Set, as a predictor of two distinct aspects of self-regulation at 67 months: executive functioning (SR-EF), observed in abstract Stroop-like tasks (Day/Night & Snow/Grass and Tapping), and parent-related (SR-PR), observed within the context of the parent-child relationship in response to the mother's (SR-MR) and father's (SR-FR) requests and prohibitions. We also examined child anger proneness, observed at 7 months, as a moderator of those associations. In both mother-child and father-child dyads, child security predicted SR-EF; More secure children performed better in executive functioning tasks. In mother-child dyads, security also predicted SR-MR, but the effect was qualified by the interaction of security and anger proneness, such that the effect was significant only for highly anger-prone children. The effect reflected differential susceptibility: Compared with lower-anger peers, highly anger-prone children developed worse SR-MR if their security was low, but they developed better SR-MR if their security was high. The findings highlight the benefits of a nuanced approach to self-regulation, considering child individuality as interacting with security and examining processes in both mother-child and father-child dyads.

Negative internal working models as mechanisms that link mothers' and fathers' personality with their parenting: A short-term longitudinal study.

OBJECTIVE: Research on associations between parents' personality and parenting has a long history, but mechanisms that explain them remain unsettled. We examined parents' explicit and implicit negative internal working models (IWMs) of the child, assessed at toddler age, as linking parental personality and parenting. METHOD: Mothers and fathers from 200 community families provided personality self-reports (Neuroticism, Agreeableness, Empathy, and Anger/Hostility) when their children were infants. When children were toddlers, the explicit negative IWMs included self-reported low-mentalizing reflective functioning and resentment regarding the child. The implicit negative IWMs were coded as negative relational schemas from parental interviews. Parental positive affect, responsiveness, and power-assertive control were observed in lengthy interactions. Measures were parallel for mother- and father-child dyads. RESULTS: Mothers' implicit IWMs linked the association between low Empathy and more power-assertive control. Fathers' explicit IWMs linked the associations between high Neuroticism and low Agreeableness and lower responsiveness. Additionally, fathers' Agreeableness and Empathy directly predicted their parenting. Two paths (Agreeableness â†’ implicit IWMs, and explicit IWMs â†’ responsiveness) significantly differed between mothers and fathers. CONCLUSIONS: IWMs may link parental personality with parenting. The findings integrate and inform several bodies of literature in personality, social cognition, and developmental psychology.

Parent-child relationship and child anger proneness in infancy and attachment security at toddler age: a short-term longitudinal study of mother- and father-child dyads.

Early parent-child relationship and child negative emotionality have both been studied as contributors to attachment security, but few studies have examined whether negative emotionality can moderate effects of parent-child relationship on security and whether the process is comparable across mother- and father-child dyads and different security measures. In 102 community families, we observed parent-child shared positive affect and infants' anger proneness at 7 months, and attachment security at 15 months, using observer-rated Attachment Q-Set (AQS) and a continuous measure derived from Strange Situation Paradigm (SSP). For mother-child dyads, high shared positive affect and low anger proneness were associated with AQS security. Those effects were qualified by their interaction: Variations in shared positive affect were associated with security only for relatively more anger-prone children.  That effect reflected the diathesis-stress model. For father-child dyads, shared positive affect was associated with security. There were no effects for SSP security with either parent.

Family sociodemographic resources moderate the path from toddlers' hard-to-manage temperament to parental control to disruptive behavior in middle childhood.

Research inspired by ecological perspectives has amply documented broad effects of the family's sociodemographic resources on children's outcomes, with parents' young age, low education, and low income considered risk factors. Typically, sociodemographic characteristics have been studied as influencing child outcomes either directly or indirectly through parenting. We tested a more nuanced longitudinal model in a community sample of 102 infants, mothers, and fathers. We conceptualized family sociodemographic resources, measured as a composite of parents' ages, education, and income, as moderating developmental cascades from children's hard-to-manage temperament to parental power-assertive control to children's disruptive behavior problems. Children's temperament measures encompassed proneness to anger and inability to delay, observed at 2 and 3 years in standard laboratory episodes. We observed parents' control at 4.5 and 5.5 years in lengthy naturalistic prohibition paradigms, and obtained parental ratings of children's disruptive behavior at 6.5 and 8 years. As expected, moderated mediation analyses, covarying stability of children's difficulty and parental control, revealed that the cascade from hard-to-manage temperament to child behavior problems, mediated by parental power-assertive control, was present in families with relatively more disadvantaged sociodemographic characteristics, or fewer resources, but absent in families with more advantageous sociodemographic features, or more resources. The findings were parallel for mother- and father-child dyads.

Children's emerging receptive, positive orientation toward their parents in the network of early attachment relationships.

Early security plays a major role in inaugurating the child's receptive, positive orientation - a foundation for cooperative parent-child relationships and successful socialization. However, few studies have considered the association between children's attachments with both mothers and fathers and multiple aspects of children's receptive, positive orientation, or compared all four attachment groups (secure, avoidant, resistant, and disorganized). In 192 mother-child and 186 father-child dyads from community families, children's attachment was assessed at 15-17 months in Strange Situation Paradigm. Aspects of receptive, positive orientation toward each parent - positive affect, committed compliance, empathic concern, and restraint in response to parental prohibition - were observed in naturalistic laboratory contexts. Generally, securely attached children were more receptive and positive than insecure, although specific effects depended on the measure, comparison group (avoidant, resistant, disorganized), and the relationship (mother- or father-child). For positive orientation in the father-child dyads, being secure with both parents conferred a modest additional benefit.

Children's theory of mind as a mechanism linking parents' mind-mindedness in infancy with children's conscience.

Growing research on parental mind-mindedness has revealed significant positive associations between parents' appropriate mind-minded (MM) comments to their infants and children's future theory of mind (ToM). In turn, ToM has been broadly linked with a range of social-moral competencies. However, few (if any) studies have examined long-term paths from mothers' and fathers' mind-mindedness in infancy to conscience at early school age, with ToM serving as a mediator of those links. We tested such a model in a prospective longitudinal study of 102 community infants, mothers, and fathers. Parents' MM comments to their infants were coded in naturalistic interactions in snack and play contexts at 7 months. Children's ToM was assessed in false-belief tasks at 4.5 and 5.5 years, and two aspects of their conscience were assessed at 6.5 years: discomfort following transgressions and prosocial judgments in hypothetical moral dilemmas. We tested our model in a comprehensive path analysis that accounted for developmental continuity of both aspects of conscience. Children's ToM was positively associated with both measures of future conscience. The long-term paths from parental mind-mindedness in infancy to conscience were found for mother-child relationships only. For mothers and children, we supported the paths from maternal appropriate MM comments during a snack context in infancy to both aspects of children's conscience mediated by children's ToM. The findings extend earlier evidence suggesting the potentially important role of the parent-child interactive context for long-term effects of early parental mind-mindedness and highlight differences in the roles MM comments may play in mother-child and father-child relationships.

Anger in infancy and its implications: History of attachment in mother-child and father-child relationships as a moderator of risk.

Growing research has documented distinct developmental sequelae in insecure and secure parent-child relationships, supporting a model of early attachment as moderating future developmental processes rather than, or in addition to, a source of direct effects. We explored maladaptive developmental implications of infants' anger proneness in 102 community families. Anger was assessed in infancy through observations in the Car Seat episode and parents' ratings. Children's security with parents was assessed in the Strange Situation paradigm at 15 months. At preschool age, child negativity (defiance and negative affect) was observed in interactions with the parent, and at early school age, oppositionality was rated by parents and teachers. Security was unrelated to infant anger; however, it moderated associations between infant anger and future maladaptive outcomes, such that highly angry infants embarked on a negative trajectory in insecure, but not in secure, parent-child dyads. For insecure, but not secure, mother-child dyads, infants' mother-rated anger predicted negativity at preschool age. For insecure, but not secure, father-child dyads, infants' anger in the Car Seat predicted father- and teacher-rated oppositional behavior at early school age. Results highlight the developmentally complex nature of the impact of attachment, depending on the relationship with mother versus father, type of measure, and timing of effects.

Attachment and Effortful Control in Toddlerhood Predict Academic Achievement Over a Decade Later.

A child's attachment to his or her caregiver is central to the child's development. However, current understanding of subtle, indirect, and complex long-term influences of attachment on various areas of functioning remains incomplete. Research has shown that (a) parent-child attachment influences the development of effortful control and that (b) effortful control influences academic success. The entire developmental cascade among these three constructs over many years, however, has rarely been examined. This article reports a multimethod, decade-long study that examined the influence of mother-child attachment and effortful control in toddlerhood on school achievement in early adolescence. Both attachment security and effortful control uniquely predicted academic achievement a decade later. Effortful control mediated the association between early attachment and school achievement during adolescence. This work suggests that attachment security triggers an adaptive cascade by promoting effortful control, a vital set of skills necessary for future academic success.

Commentary: An exciting evolutionary framework for new bridges between social-emotional and cognitive development - a reflection on Suor et al. (2017).

Suor et al. () present a compelling new evolutionary framework that offers an alternative interpretation of the well-established findings of cognitive deficits in children raised in harsh early environments. They argue that such findings do not convey a complete picture of those children's cognitive development, because children's cognition becomes specialized to solve problems in fitness-enhancing ways, and traditional abstract problem-solving tasks do not fully capture their abilities. The authors demonstrate that children exposed to early harshness, particularly children with Hawk temperaments, preferentially shift cognition to salient fitness-enhancing stimuli, and thus develop better skills for solving reward-oriented tasks. This intriguing and heuristically generative study inspires multiple new research avenues, of which we outline three: (a) Further examination of the concept of harsh environments, (b) addressing questions about the conceptualization and the role of child temperament, and (c) further advances in the measurement of children's distinct skills.

Infant Attachment Moderates Paths From Early Negativity to Preadolescent Outcomes for Children and Parents.

Although infant attachment has been long seen as key for development, its long-term effects may be complex. Attachment may be a catalyst or moderator of future developmental sequelae rather than a source of main effects. In 102 mothers, fathers, and infants, attachment was assessed at 15 months; children's negativity (rejection of parental rules and modeling attempts) at 25, 38, 52, and 67 months; and developmental outcomes (the child's parent-rated externalizing problems and the parent-child observed relationship quality) at ages 10 and 12. In both mother-child and father-child relationships, children's higher negativity was associated with more detrimental outcomes but only in dyads with formerly insecure infants. Infant insecurity appears to amplify detrimental cascades, whereas infant security appears to defuse such risks.

A cascade from disregard for rules of conduct at preschool age to parental power assertion at early school age to antisocial behavior in early preadolescence: Interplay with the child's skin conductance level.

Young children's disregard for conduct rules (failing to experience discomfort following transgressions and violating adults' prohibitions) often foreshadows future antisocial trajectories, perhaps in part because it elicits more power-assertive parental discipline, which in turn promotes children's antisocial behavior. This process may be particularly likely for children with low skin conductance level (SCL). In 102 two-parent community families, we tested a model in which children's SCL, assessed at 8 years, was posed as a moderator of the cascade from children's disregard for conduct rules at 4.5 years to parents' power assertion at 5.5 and 6.5 years to antisocial behavior at 10 and 12 years. Children's disregard for conduct rules was observed in scripted laboratory paradigms, parents' power assertion was observed in discipline contexts, and children's antisocial behavior was rated by parents. Conditional process analyses revealed that the developmental cascade from early disregard for rules to future parental power assertion to antisocial outcomes occurred only for the children with low SCL (below median), but not their high-SCL (above median) peers. By elucidating the specific interplay among children's disregard for rules, the parenting they receive, and their psychophysiology, this study represents a developmentally informed, multilevel approach to early etiology of antisocial behavior.

Toward a developmentally informed approach to parenting interventions: Seeking hidden effects.

Drawing from developmental psychology and psychopathology, we propose a new, developmentally informed approach to parenting interventions that focuses on elucidating changes in the unfolding developmental process between the parent and child. We present data from 186 low-income mothers of toddlers, randomly assigned to a child-oriented play group or a play-as-usual group. We examined the maladaptive cascade from child difficulty to mother adversarial, negative parenting to child maladjustment, well documented in the literature. The measures incorporated multiple observations and reports. As expected, the sequence from child difficulty (pretest) to mother adversarial, negative parenting (Posttest 1, after 3-month intervention) to child maladjustment (Posttest 2, 6 months later) was present in the play-as-usual group, but absent, or defused, in the child-oriented play group. The findings are consistent with a view of intervention presumably enhancing the mother-child relationship, which in turn served to moderate future mother-child dynamics, altering its otherwise anticipated negative trajectory. A closer examination of the cascade revealed that, at Posttest 1, mothers in the play-as-usual group engaged in more adversarial, negative parenting (controlling for pretest) than did mothers in the child-oriented play group when their children were of high difficulty. The intervention appears to exert its primary influence on the cascade by weakening the link between child difficulty and maternal adversarial, negative parenting.