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Conversational turn-taking is a complex communicative skill that requires both linguistic and executive functioning (EF) skills, including processing input while simultaneously forming and inhibiting responses until one's turn. Adult-child turn-taking predicts children's linguistic, cognitive, and socioemotional development. However, little is understood about how disruptions to temporal contingency in turn-taking, such as interruptions and overlapping speech, relate to cognitive outcomes, and how these relationships may vary across developmental contexts. In a longitudinal sample of 275 socioeconomically diverse mother-child dyads (children 50% male, 65% White), we conducted pre-registered examinations of whether the frequency of dyads' conversational disruption during free play when children were 3 years old related to children's executive functioning (EF; 9 months later), self-regulation skills (18 months later), and externalizing psychopathology in early adolescence (age 10-12 years). Contrary to hypotheses, more conversational disruptions significantly predicted higher inhibition skills, controlling for sex, age, income-to-needs (ITN), and language ability. Results were driven by maternal disruptions of the child's speech, and could not be explained by measures of overall talkativeness or interactiveness. Exploratory analyses revealed that ITN moderated these relationships, such that the positive effect of disruptions on inhibition was strongest for children from lower ITN backgrounds. We discuss how adult-driven "cooperative overlap" may serve as a form of engaged participation that supports cognition and behavior in certain cultural contexts., (© 2023 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)

Although children of mothers who have elevated borderline personality disorder (BPD) features are a high-risk group, there remains little research examining developmental mechanisms that place these offspring at risk for emerging psychopathology. The current study included 68 mother-preschooler dyads, in which mothers with elevated BPD features were oversampled. Preschoolers (aged 3 and 4 years) completed a battery of executive functioning (EF) and theory of mind (ToM) measures. Accounting for several covariates (family income, maternal depression, child age, and child cognitive ability), maternal BPD features were associated with preschoolers' poorer EF and, although not associated with the overall ToM measure, were associated with affect perspective taking, a component of ToM.

This study tested child characteristics (temperamental executive control and negative reactivity) and maternal characteristics (parenting behaviors and maternal depressive symptoms) as predictors of a mother's emotion-related socialization behaviors (ERSBs). Further, parenting behaviors and ERSBs were examined as predictors of children's emotion knowledge, social competence, and adjustment problems. ERSBs and children's emotion knowledge were tested as mediators of the effects of child and parent characteristics on adjustment. A community sample (N = 306) of mothers and children (36-40 months at T1) were assessed 4 times, once every 9 months, and assessments included maternal reports of depressive symptoms, observed temperament, observational ratings of general parenting at T1, maternal report of ERSBs at T1 & T2, behavioral measures of emotion knowledge at T3, and teacher ratings of children's adjustment at T4. There were no predictors of ERSBs above prior levels. Higher executive control and lower maternal depressive symptoms predicted greater child emotion knowledge, highlighting the roles of maternal and child contributors to emotion knowledge. Greater emotion knowledge and positive affective quality in parenting predicted children's adjustment, with emotion knowledge mediating the effects of executive control on children's adjustment. In addition, lower levels of maternal supportive ERSBs predicted greater adjustment problems. This study highlights the roles of key variables in Eisenberg, Cumberland, and Spinrad's (1998) heuristic model of emotion socialization and the importance of emotion socialization and emotion knowledge in children's adjustment. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

Bidirectional associations between child temperament (fear, frustration, positive affect, effortful control) and parenting behaviors (warmth, negativity, limit setting, scaffolding, responsiveness) were examined as predictors of preschool-age children's adjustment problems and social competence. Participants were a community sample of children (N = 306; 50% female, 64% European American) and their mothers. Observational measures of child temperament and parenting were obtained using laboratory tasks at two time points (children's ages 36 and 54 months). Teacher-reported adjustment measures were collected at the first and third time points (children's ages 36 and 63 months). Cross-lagged analyses were performed to examine whether child temperament and parenting predict changes in one another, whether they each contribute independently to children's adjustment, and whether these transactional relations account for adjustment outcomes. Maternal negativity at 36 months predicted increases in child frustration at 54 months. Maternal negativity and child effortful control predicted decreases in each other from 36 to 54 months. Maternal warmth predicted increases in child effortful control over time. Child frustration, child effortful control, maternal warmth, and maternal negativity at 54 months each independently predicted child adjustment problems at 63 months, controlling for problems at 36 months. Child executive control at 54 months predicted increases in child social competence at 63 months. The findings suggest that temperament and parenting have independent and additive effects on preschool-age child adjustment, with some support for a bidirectional relation.

The study examined growth in effortful control (executive control, delay ability) in relation to income, cumulative risk (aggregate of demographic and psychosocial risk factors), and adjustment in 306 preschool-age children (50 % girls, 50 % boys) from families representing a range of income (29 % at- or near-poverty; 28 % lower-income; 25 % middle-income; 18 % upper-income), with 4 assessments starting at 36-40 month. Income was directly related to levels of executive control and delay ability. Cumulative risk accounted for the effects of income on delay ability but not executive control. Higher initial executive control and slope of executive control and delay ability predicted academic readiness, whereas levels, but not growth, of executive control and delay ability predicted social competence and adjustment problems. Low income is a marker for lower effortful control, which demonstrates additive or mediating effects in the relation of income to children's preschool adjustment.

The effects of low income on children's adjustment might be accounted for by disruptions to hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA)-axis activity and to the development of effortful control. Using longitudinal data and a community sample of preschool-age children (N?=?306, 36-39?months) and their mothers, recruited to over-represent low-income families, we explored the associations among diurnal cortisol levels and effortful control, and we tested a model in which diurnal cortisol and effortful control account for the effects of family income on child adjustment. Continuous indicators of morning cortisol level and diurnal slope, as well as dichotomous indicators reflecting low morning levels and flat diurnal slope, were examined as predictors of rank-order changes in two dimensions of effortful control, executive control and delay ability. Low income was related to a flat diurnal cortisol slope, and above the effects of family income, a flat diurnal cortisol slope predicted lower social competence. Low morning cortisol level predicted smaller gains in executive control and higher total adjustment problems. Further, delay ability predicted lower adjustment problems above the effects of income and diurnal cortisol levels. The results suggest that HPA-axis dysregulation and effortful control contribute additively to children's adjustment.

While appraisal and coping are known to impact adolescent psychopathology, more vulnerable or resilient responses to stress may depend on individual temperament. This study examined early life temperament as a moderator of the prospective relations of pre-adolescent appraisal and coping with adolescent psychopathology. The sample included 226 (62% female, 14-15 years) adolescents with assessments starting at 3 years of age. Adolescents were predominately White (12% Black 9% Asian, 11% Latinx, 4% Multiracial, and 65% White). Observed early-childhood temperament (fear, frustration, executive control, and delay ability) were tested as moderators of preadolescent coping (active and avoidant) and appraisal (threat, positive) on internalizing and externalizing symptoms during the pandemic. Interaction effects were tested using regression in R. Sex and family context of stress were covariates. Early-childhood temperament was correlated with preadolescent symptoms, however, pre-adolescent appraisal and coping but not temperament predicted adolescent psychopathology. Frustration moderated the relations of active and avoidant coping and positive appraisal to symptoms such that coping and appraisal related to lower symptoms only for those low in frustration. Executive control moderated the associations of avoidant coping with symptoms such that avoidance reduced the likelihood of symptoms for youth low in executive control. Findings underscore the role of emotionality and self-regulation in youth adjustment, with the impact of coping differing with temperament. These findings suggest that equipping youth with a flexible assortment of coping skills may serve to reduce negative mental health outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examined whether effortful control (executive control [EC], delay ability [DA]) accounted for the effects of early‐childhood contextual factors (income, cumulative risk, parenting) on middle‐childhood adjustment (social competence, internalizing and externalizing problems), or whether contextual factors account for observed associations between effortful control and adjustment. A sample of children and parents (N = 306) were assessed when children were 3‐, 5‐, and 8‐years. Age‐3 income and cumulative risk predicted changes in age‐8 EC. Also, age‐3 parenting predicted changes in effortful control. Warmth and limit setting predicted increases in EC, whereas negativity predicted decreases in DA from the age of 3 to 5, and scaffolding predicted increases in EC and DA from the age of 5 to 8. In turn, age‐8 EC was associated with higher social competence. However, neither age‐8 EC nor DA was associated with internalizing or externalizing above the effects of age‐8 stress (negative life events). The findings indicate that early‐childhood income, adversity, and parenting are relevant in predicting effortful control development into middle‐childhood, and in turn, middle‐childhood social competence. However, concurrent stress appears more relevant to adjustment problems, implying some of the effects of effortful control might be accounted for by the context of risk. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, major gains toward understanding the emergence of borderline personality disorder (BPD) pathology, which is typically first noted during adolescence, have been made. Simultaneously, a profound shift has occurred in the adult personality pathology literature, in which empirical evidence rebuts the idea that personality disorders (PDs) are intractable disorders that do not develop or otherwise change over time, and therefore cannot be treated. The present study addresses a gap in our understanding of within-person change in BPD symptoms across adolescence and contributes to the limited literature on outcomes associated with adolescent BPD. Using an at-risk community sample of girls ( N = 2,450), the authors used bivariate latent growth curve models to analyze the codevelopment of BPD symptoms with eight domains of psychosocial functioning (e.g., academic achievement, social skills, sexual behavior) across ages 14-17. Findings revealed moderate to strong effect sizes for the associations between BPD symptoms and every domain of psychosocial functioning, suggesting that the development of BPD was coupled with poorer outcomes across development. Controlling for depression and conduct disorder features revealed unique associations between BPD and self-perception, social skills, and sexual behavior. These results highlight the increased need for extending advancements in the adult PD literature to research on PDs in adolescence, and for greater recognition of adolescent BPD in clinical settings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]