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

Abstract

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.

Cascades of infant happiness: Infant positive affect predicts childhood IQ and adult educational attainment.

“…In preschoolers, a 12-week intervention designed to promote kindness was associated with better grades and well-being at the end of the year (Flook et al, 2015). A longer study linked socioemotional skills (but not happiness) at age 3 to educational achievement at age 15 (Dindo et al, 2017). A 3-year study of college students found associations between happiness and other markers of academic success like grades (Coffey et al, 2016).…”

“…Happiness during infancy and childhood may be just as important as happiness during adulthood for initiating cascades of success and well-being (Coffey, 2018; Davis & Suveg, 2014). A primary marker of childhood success—education—is linked to earlier intellectual abilities, such as cognitive abilities and IQ (Abe & Izard, 1999; Ritchie & Tucker-Drob, 2018) and nonintellectual factors, such as emotions, emotion regulation, and relationship quality (e.g., Abe & Izard, 1999; Coffey, Wray-Lake, Mashek, & Branand, 2016; Dindo et al, 2017; Duyme, Dumaret, & Tomkiewicz, 1999; Davis & Suveg, 2014; Moffitt et al, 2011). As with happiness (Lyubomirsky, King, et al, 2005), intelligence and education are also linked to future success and well-being (Alloway & Alloway, 2010; Calvin et al, 2017; Lynn, 2010; Lynn & Mikk, 2009; Montez & Barnes, 2016; Ritchie & Tucker-Drob, 2018; Vaillant & Mukamal, 2001).…”

Attentional bias assessed by a facial expression cuing paradigm in infants

“…The efficiency of executive attention is called “effortful control” 12,13 . Recent work 15 shows that the development of effortful control is influenced by parent-child attachment security. Combined with the findings of Peltola et al .…”

Sincronía materna asociada al rendimiento académico en niños en edad escolar

“…Del mismo modo, Mize y Pettit (1997) descubrieron que la alta sincronía madre-hijo estaba relacionada con las calificaciones de los maestros de preescolar respecto al funcionamiento social positivo del niño, es decir, con la atención, las habilidades para resolver problemas y con un menor uso de la agresión con sus pares. Dindo et al (2017) encontraron que prácticas de crianzas sincrónicas, caracterizadas por alta afectividad, interacción y seguridad durante la infancia predice el rendimiento académico durante la adolescencia. Muy especialmente, la sincronía materna se ha relacionado con la disposición a la obediencia infantil (Vite et al, 2010), con la reducción del estrés materno e infantil (Tarullo, John, & Meyer, 2017), y con el incremento en la frecuencia de conducta prosocial infantil (Ferreira et al, 2016), y estas variables tienen implicaciones importantes en el rendimiento académico (Rogers, Wiener, Marton, & Tannock, 2009).…”