Predicting child effortful control: An integrative analysis of child physiological, familial, and community factors

Abstract

Effortful control (EC) is a regulatory capacity that refers to children's ability to inhibit a dominant response to perform a subdominant response. Although attempts have been made to identify early predictors of children's EC, the confluence and interaction of child‐, familial‐, and community factors has not been pursued adequately. This study investigated how predictors from different aspects of children's rearing environment interacted to predict later EC. In a sample of 88 primiparous women with elevated depressive symptomotology and low household income, we examined how children's own psychobiology (baseline cortisol), familial relationship (mother–child attachment), and community resources (social support) at 17 months independently and jointly predicted EC at age 5. Our results showed that, controlling for maternal depressive symptomotology and household income, predictors from child‐, familial‐, and community‐aspect function integratively, rather than independently, in predicting later EC. Specifically, within the context of a secure attachment relationship, baseline cortisol positively predicts later EC only for children of mothers who reported low social support. Whereas within the context of an insecure attachment relationship, baseline cortisol negatively predicts later EC, regardless of the perceived social support levels. Our results highlighted the importance of taking into consideration predictors from multiple aspects for intervention designs.

Exposure to intimate partner violence alters longitudinal associations between caregiver depressive symptoms and effortful control in children and adolescents

“…Furthermore, adaptive intimate partner relationships have been found to buffer the influence of mothers' depressive symptoms on their young children's EC (Goldstein et al, 2022). Indeed, a confluence of research across multiple levels of analysis suggests that the factors that influence EC development depend on the context in which the child or adolescent is developing, where factors associated with low EC become more salient in higher-risk contexts (e.g., contexts with greater levels of family conflict, cumulative risk, violence exposure) (S. Kim & Kochanska, 2021;Rioux et al, 2016;Sun et al, 2021;Waxman et al, 2014). This may be especially true when contextual factors contribute to the deployment of "fast" life history strategies, including low measured EC, which may be adaptive in response to one salient developmental threat (e.g., IPV) and then exacerbateand be exacerbated byothers (e.g., CD).…”

Differential effects of parental control on preschool‐age adjustment depending on child effortful control

“…There are both genetic and environmental contributions to children's effortful control (Ganiban et al., 2021), and multiple factors, including parenting, child psychophysiology, and contextual influences, shape nascent effortful control abilities (Sun et al., 2021). This study evaluated how children's levels of executive control and delay ability at age 3 (referred to as initial levels) interacted with specific aspects of parental control behaviors to predict later effortful control and adjustment.…”