Self-regulation and frontal EEG alpha activity during infancy and early childhood: A multilevel meta-analysis.

Integrating behavioral and neurophysiological measures has created new and advanced ways to understand the development of self-regulation. Electroencephalography (EEG) has been used to examine how self-regulatory processes are related to frontal alpha power during infancy and early childhood. However, findings across previous studies have been inconsistent. To address this issue, the current meta-analysis synthesized all prior literature examining associations between individual differences in self-regulation and frontal EEG alpha power (baseline and/or task). In total, 23 studies consisting of 1275 participants between 1 month and 6 years of age were included, which yielded 149 effect sizes. Findings of the three-level meta-analytic model demonstrated a non-significant overall association between self-regulation and frontal alpha power. Yet, significant moderating effects were found for self-regulation construct (emotion regulation, effortful control, executive function), self-regulation measurement (behavioral task, computer assessment, lab observation, questionnaire), and children's mean age. Self-regulation was only significantly correlated with frontal alpha power when studies focused on the executive functioning construct. Moreover, the use of behavioral tasks or questionnaires and a higher mean age of the children resulted in small but significant effect size estimates. Higher frontal alpha power values were related to higher order top-down mechanisms of self-regulation, indicating that these mechanisms might become stronger when the frontal cortex is sufficiently developed. The findings of the current meta-analysis highlight the importance of longitudinal analyses and multimethod approaches in future work to reach a more comprehensive understanding of the role of frontal EEG alpha activity in the etiology of individual differences in early self-regulation. RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS: The first meta-analysis of individual differences in self-regulation and frontal EEG alpha power during infancy and early childhood demonstrated a non-significant overall association. Moderation analyses revealed that variations in frontal alpha power were significantly associated with executive function, but not with effortful control and emotion regulation. Frontal alpha power was related to variations in self-regulation when measured by behavioral tasks and questionnaires, but not via computer assessments and lab observations. The association between individual differences in self-regulation and frontal alpha power becomes significantly stronger with age.

Stability and change in maternal parenting profiles across infancy and toddlerhood.

During infancy and toddlerhood, parents show large individual differences in the extent to which they are able to tailor their parenting behaviors to their children's swiftly changing developmental needs. The first aim of our study was, therefore, to distinguish parenting profiles at three time points during infancy and toddlerhood (i.e., 5, 10, and 36 months) based on mothers' supportive presence, structure and limit-setting, and quality of instruction, as well as to examine the stability of profile structure and profile membership across time. The second aim was to examine how profile membership and profile transitions at each time point are associated with relevant parental, contextual, and child-specific factors. Data from 244 Dutch mother-child dyads were collected at three waves: when children were approximately 5 months (n = 203), 10 months (n = 181), and 3 years of age (n = 178). We found three types of parenting profiles at each wave: a competent profile, a sufficient profile, and a maladaptive profile. Only the competent parenting profile was found to have a stable structure across all three waves. In general, profile membership was least stable for the maladaptive profile. Results also showed that maternal agreeableness and a higher educational level increased the likelihood to exhibit a more competent parenting profile. Our findings advance our understanding of how parenting profiles might change due to children's swiftly changing needs and inform efforts to tailor parenting interventions to individual parents. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

The direct and indirect effects of parenting behaviors and functional brain network efficiency on self-regulation from infancy to early childhood: A longitudinal mediation model.

There is growing interest in the hypothesis that early parenting behaviors impact children's self-regulation by affecting children's developing brain networks. Yet, most prior research on the development of self-regulation has focused on either environmental or neurobiological factors. The aim of the current study was to expand the literature by examining direct and indirect effects of variations in parenting behaviors (support and stimulation) and efficiency of functional brain networks (small-worldness) on individual differences in child self-regulation, using a three-wave longitudinal model in a sample of 109 infants and their mothers. Results revealed that parental support predicted child self-regulation at 5 months, 10 months, and 3 years of age. This effect was not mediated by infants' small-worldness within the alpha and theta rhythm. Parental stimulation predicted higher levels of infants' alpha small-worldness, whereas parental support predicted lower levels of infants' theta small-worldness. Thus, parents may need to stimulate their infants to explore the environment autonomously in order to come to more efficient functional brain networks. The findings of the current study highlight potential influences of both extrinsic environmental factors and intrinsic neurobiological factors in relation to child self-regulation, emphasizing the role of parental support as a form of external regulation during infancy, when the brain is not yet sufficiently developed to perform self-regulation itself.

Towards an integrated account of the development of self-regulation from a neurocognitive perspective: A framework for current and future longitudinal multi-modal investigations.

Self-regulation is the ability to monitor and modulate emotions, behaviour, and cognition in order to adapt to changing circumstances. Developing adequate self-regulation is associated with better social coping and higher educational achievement later in life; poor self-regulation has been linked to a variety of detrimental developmental outcomes. Here, we focus on the development of neurocognitive processes essential for self-regulation. We outline a conceptual framework emphasizing that this is inherently an integrated, dynamic process involving interactions between brain maturation, child characteristics (genetic makeup, temperament, and pre- and perinatal factors) and environmental factors (family characteristics, parents and siblings, peers, and broader societal influences including media development). We introduce the Consortium of Individual Development (CID), which combines a series of integrated large-scale, multi-modal, longitudinal studies to take essential steps towards the ultimate goal of understanding and supporting this process.