Intervention studies indicate that children’s childcare experiences can be leveraged to support the development of executive functioning (EF). The role of more normative childcare experiences is less clear. Increasingly, theory and empirical work suggest that individual differences in children’s physiological stress systems may be associated with meaningful differences in the way they experience these early environments. Using data from a large population-based sample of predominantly low-income rural families, we tested the degree to which children’s childcare experiences—quantity, quality, and type—in the first 3 years of life predicted emerging EF. Moreover, we examined whether these effects varied as a function of children’s basal cortisol levels in infancy and toddlerhood— an indicator of hypothalamic pituitary adrenal (HPA) axis stress physiology. Our results showed that higher quality care predicted more effective EF at 48 months, irrespective of quantity or type. This relation did not vary as a function of children’s early cortisol levels. Attending greater hours of care per week was also related to EF; however—consistent with theory—the positive association between spending more time in childcare and more positive EF extended only to children with low levels of basal cortisol at 7 or 24 months of age. Attending center-based care was unassociated with EF. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2013 APA, all rights reserved)
UR - http://doi.apa.org/getdoi.cfm?doi=10.1037/a0034700 JO - Developmental Psychology ER - TY - JOUR T1 - Emotional reactivity and regulation in infancy interact to predict executive functioning in early childhood. JF - Developmental Psychology Y1 - 2013 A1 - Ursache, Alexandra A1 - Clancy Blair A1 - Stifter, Cynthia A1 - Voegtline, Kristin AB -The relation of observed emotional reactivity and regulation in infancy to executive function in early childhood was examined in a prospective longitudinal sample of 1,292 children from predominantly low-income and rural communities. Children participated in a fear eliciting task at ages 7, 15, and 24 months and completed an executive function battery at age 48 months. Results indicated that the relation of child negative emotional reactivity at 15 months of age to executive functioning at 48 months of age was dependent on observed emotion regulation. High levels of executive function ability were observed among children who exhibited high levels of emotional reactivity and high levels of the regulation of this reactivity. In contrast, low levels of executive function ability were observed among children who exhibited high levels of reactivity but low levels of regulation. Among children exhibiting low levels of emotional reactivity, emotion regulation was unrelated to executive functioning. Moreover, emotionally reactive infants exhibiting high levels of emotion regulation were more likely to have primary caregivers who exhibited high levels of positive parenting behavior in a parent–child interaction task. Results provide support for a neurobiologically informed developmental model in which the regulation of emotional arousal is one mechanism whereby supportive environments are associated with higher levels of self-regulation ability for highly reactive infants. Findings are discussed with implications for differential susceptibility and biological sensitivity theories of child by context interaction. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2013 APA, all rights reserved)
VL - 49 UR - http://doi.apa.org/getdoi.cfm?doi=10.1037/a0027728 IS - 1 JO - Developmental Psychology ER -