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Temperamental inhibitory control is a foundational capacity for children's social, emotional, and behavioral development. Even though temperament is suggested to have a biological basis, the physiological indicators of inhibitory control remain unclear amid mixed empirical results. In this study, we leveraged a multicohort longitudinal design to examine resting respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) as a physiological correlate of inhibitory control across the early and middle childhood years. Data were collected annually across four time points from cohorts of 4- (n = 150, Mage = 4.53; SD = 0.30; 49.7% female) and 8- (n = 150; Mage = 8.53; SD = 0.29; 49.7% female) year-old children and their caregivers. There were weak, albeit significant, associations between resting RSA and caregiver-reported inhibitory control in middle childhood but not in early childhood. A stronger association was found for older children when latent trait assessments of RSA and inhibitory control were derived from commonalities across the four annual assessments. We conclude that using repeated measures to extract latent trait scores increases power to detect potential physiological indicators of temperament. Public Significance Statement: In the current study we examined resting respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) as a biological correlate of temperamental inhibitory control with a multicohort, 4-year longitudinal design across early and middle childhood. The analyses examining associations between resting RSA and inhibitory control across the latent trait models (derived from four repeated measures) showed significant associations between resting RSA and inhibitory control in middle childhood but not in early childhood. Results indicated that the biological correlates of temperamental inhibitory control might become more crystalized in middle childhood and showed that the use of repeated measures to extract latent trait scores would increases power to detect potential physiological indicators of temperamental inhibitory control. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The goal of the present study was to examine the child, caregiver, and family domain predictors of mothers' perceived changes in warm and punitive parenting during the COVID-19 outbreak. We investigated child temperament (sociability, activity, emotionality), maternal efficacy in caregiving and depressive symptoms, interparental conflict and home chaos as predictors of pandemic-related perceived changes in parenting. A total of 1787 Turkish mothers of children aged 18 to 41 months completed an online survey. Correlational analysis revealed that higher levels of maternal education were associated with perceived increases in warm and punitive parenting, whereas child and mother age were associated with more perceived warm parenting only. After controlling for demographic characteristics, mothers were more likely to report perceived decrease in warmth and an increase in punitive parenting when they felt less efficacious in their caregiving role and when their household contained high levels of chaos. Maternal depressive symptoms emerged as an additional risk factor for mothers' perceived increase in punitive parenting, while high levels of child physical activity predicted perceived increase in warmth. The roles of child, caregiver, and family-contextual characteristics on the perceived changes in parenting during the stressful time of COVID-19 have been discussed with implications for interventions. Highlights: This study identified child, caregiver, and family characteristics that contributed to changes in caregiving for toddlers during the COVID-19 pandemic. Increases in perceived maternal warmth during the pandemic were predicted by active child temperament, high caregiving efficacy, and low home chaos. Increases in perceived punitive parenting during the pandemic were predicted by high maternal depression, low caregiving efficacy and high home chaos. Findings can help identify at-risk parents to strengthen their caregiving capacity and help children adapt to stressful conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Parental warmth and child emotion regulation have each been implicated in the development of child pro‐social behaviours; however, their interactive benefits remain unclear. In this multi‐method, multi‐cohort longitudinal study, we examined the effect of parental warmth on child pro‐social behaviours at different levels of child emotion regulation. We collected data from 6‐ and 10‐year‐olds in Canada (NT1 = 233; Mage = 8.41; SD = 2.08) and their parents. Parental warmth, child emotion regulation, and child pro‐social behaviours were assessed via parent report. Children's baseline respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA; an indicator of cardiac regulatory capacity) was assessed as a correlate of emotion regulation. Child pro‐social behaviours were assessed concurrently and 1 year later. Results showed that higher parental warmth was related to higher concurrent prosocial behaviours and greater increases in prosocial behaviours over 1 year. These effects were strengthened for children with higher emotion regulation whether measured by parent report or RSA. We discuss implications for understanding pro‐social development in middle childhood from a strengths‐based perspective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Parents' discipline and children's inhibitory control are important predictors of children's prosocial behaviors. Yet few studies have examined how these factors are related across early and middle childhood. In the current study, we examined the relations between parental disciplinary techniques (i.e., power assertion, love withdrawal, other-oriented induction, and disappointment) and child inhibitory control with child prosocial behaviors. We also examined the indirect role of child sympathy in these associations and investigated these associations in early and middle childhood years to assess the moderating role of age. We collected data from the caregivers of 4-, 6- and 8-year-old children (N = 301; Mage = 6.46, SD = 1.54; 54% males) in Canada. Results revealed that other-oriented induction (i.e., reasoning aiming to make the child understand the association between their actions and another's distress) and disappointment (i.e., showing displeasure with the child's behavior) were indirectly related to prosocial behaviors via higher child sympathy. Children's inhibitory control was positively associated with their prosocial behaviors directly and, for 6- and 8-year-olds, indirectly via sympathy. Parental disappointment was related to children's sympathy for 6- and 8-year-olds, but not for 4-year-olds, while children's inhibitory control was more strongly associated with sympathy for 4- and 6-year-olds as compared to 8-year-olds. Overall, the results show that parental discipline practices and child temperament differentially influence child prosocial outcomes at different ages. Highlights: We examined the links between parental disciplinary techniques and child inhibitory control with child prosocial behaviors. Parental discipline practices (induction and disappointment) were indirectly related to children's prosocial behaviors via children's sympathy. Children's inhibitory control was related to their prosocial behaviors directly and indirectly via sympathy. Children's age was a significant moderator in the associations between disappointment and sympathy as well as inhibitory control and sympathy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study is one of the first to examine emotion socialization behaviors of Turkish mothers; it also provides information on psychometric properties of the Coping with Children's Negative Emotions Scale (CCNES; Fabes et al. 1990) in a sample of Turkish mothers of preschoolers. Participants were mothers ( M = 35.07, SD = 4.14) of 141 children attending daycare centers in middle and upper-middle class suburbs of Istanbul. The patterns of inter-correlations between emotion socialization reactions and general child-rearing behaviors showed that they reflect related but different aspects of broader parenting styles. Both aspects of parenting displayed associations with child emotional reactivity in the expected direction, further confirming patterns previously revealed for emotion socialization in Western samples. The results also confirmed the six emotion socialization behaviors assessed by the CCNES and all dimensions had good internal consistencies. The pattern of inter-correlations among maternal emotion socialization behaviors, general child-rearing behaviors, and child negative emotionality confirmed construct validity of the instrument for Turkish mothers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]