Approach and Positive Affect in Toddlerhood Predict Early Childhood Behavior Problems

Abstract

The aim of the study was to examine the moderating role of positive affect on the relation between approach behaviors and adjustment outcomes. One hundred eleven toddlers participated in a laboratory assessment of approach and positive affect at 24 months. Behavior problems were reported by a parent in the fall of the child’s kindergarten year. Results supported our hypotheses that children who displayed high approach and high positive affect in both non-threat and low threat contexts were rated as higher in externalizing behavior problems. On the other hand, for children showing low positive affect, increases in approach in a moderate threat context lowered the risk of developing internalizing behavior problems. Implications for these findings are discussed including methodological considerations of differences among eliciting contexts and advantages of separating positive affect and approach.

If You Go Down to the Woods Today: Infants’ Distress During a Teddy Bear's Picnic in Relation to Peer Relations and Later Emotional Problems

“…In particular, distressed infants were less likely to use physical force against peers, a finding in line with prior evidence for a link between fearlessness in infancy and aggressive conduct problems (Baker et al., ; Buss et al., ; Dollar & Buss, ). Infants’ use of bodily force is indeed associated with known risk factors for aggression, especially mothers’ own history of conduct problems (Hay et al., ), and significantly associated with the infants’ general anger and use of force, as reported by family members (Hay et al., ).…”

“…Fearfulness in response to novel environments predicts shyness with peers in later childhood (Fox, Henderson, Rubin, Calkins, & Schmidt, ) and anxiety in young adulthood (Frenkel et al., ). In contrast, infants who show fearless reactions to novel stimuli are more likely to have conduct problems in later childhood (e.g., Baker et al., ; Buss, Kiel, Morales, & Robinson, ; Dollar & Buss, ), especially if they also expressed positive affect (Buss et al., ). However, the evidence is mixed: Conduct‐disordered children who eventually developed callous‐unemotional traits actually showed elevated stress in response to novelty when they were infants (Mills‐Koonce et al., ).…”

Maternal Responsiveness Protects Exuberant Toddlers From Experiencing Behavior Problems in Kindergarten

“…Both the academic and socioemotional skills necessary for school readiness are determined by a number of characteristics and experiences even before children enter school. Attention, self-regulation, as well as broader temperamental characteristics, such as fearfulness or exuberance, have been shown to influence the development of social, emotional, and behavioral skills (Dollar & Buss, 2014; Liew, 2012). Early individual differences in the expression and regulation of emotions and behavior, otherwise known as temperament, have been largely shown to predict both proximal outcomes (e.g., externalizing problems in early childhood; Abulizi et al, 2017; Degnan et al, 2011) and more distal outcomes (e.g., conduct disorder in adolescence; Frick & Morris, 2004).…”

“…While exuberance is also closely related to low fearfulness or fearlessness in young children (Kochanska et al, 2007), it is not fully captured by these measures (Dollar et al, 2017). When children are exuberant, they are more likely to have high levels of approach in new situations; high levels of activity; and high levels of positivity (Putnam & Stifter, 2005; Dollar & Buss, 2014). However, these children are also more easily frustrated when their goals are blocked and display externalizing problems (Degnan et al, 2011).…”

“…Children’s own characteristics, such as positivity or regulation, have been shown to impact the trajectories of children who are high in approach or exuberance. Dollar and Buss (2014) for instance, found that toddlers high in approach were rated as having more externalizing problems only when they also were higher in positivity. Another moderator for exuberant temperament is regulation.…”