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This study examined the prospective associations among the trajectories of maternal depressive symptoms, maternal sensitivity, and child executive function (EF) across early and middle childhood, and tested the mediating role of maternal sensitivity in the links between change in maternal depressive symptoms and the growth of child EF. Participants included 1,364 children and mothers from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development (NICHD SECCYD). We found that maternal depressive symptoms (from 6 months to Grade 5) and sensitivity (from 36 months to Grade 5) decreased, whereas child EF (planning skills; from Grade 1 to 5) increased over time. We also found several direct associations: (a) lower maternal depressive symptoms at 36 months predicted higher sensitivity at 54 months; (b) higher sensitivity at 54 months and a faster decrease in sensitivity from 36 months to Grade 5 predicted higher child EF in Grade 1; and (c) higher sensitivity at 54 months predicted greater growth of EF from Grade 1 to 5. In addition, two mediation effects were found as follows: Lower levels of maternal depressive symptoms at 36 months predicted both higher levels of child EF in Grade 1 and greater growth of EF from Grade 1 to 5 through higher levels of maternal sensitivity at 54 months. The results suggest that early maternal depressive symptoms may have long-term effects on the growth of EF, especially planning skills, during middle childhood, and that one important pathway that maternal depressive symptoms affect child EF outcomes through maternal sensitivity. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

We identified family risk profiles at 6 months using socioeconomic status (SES) and maternal mental health indicators with data from the Family Life Project (N = 1,292). We related profiles to executive function (EF) at 36 months (intercept) and growth in EF between 36 and 60 months. Latent profile analysis revealed five distinct profiles, characterized by different combinations of SES and maternal mental health symptoms. Maternal sensitivity predicted faster growth in EF among children in the profile characterized by deep poverty and the absence of maternal mental health symptoms. Maternal sensitivity also predicted higher EF intercept but slower EF growth among children in the profile characterized by deep poverty and maternal mental health symptoms, and children in the near poor (low SES), mentally healthy profile. Maternal sensitivity also predicted higher EF intercept but had no effect on growth in EF in the near poor, mentally distressed profile. In contrast, maternal sensitivity did not predict the intercept or growth of EF in the privileged SES/mentally healthy profile. Our findings using a person-centered approach provide a more nuanced understanding of the role of maternal sensitivity in the growth of EF, such that maternal sensitivity may differentially affect the growth of EF in various contexts.

Sensitive caregiving is an essential aspect of positive parenting that influences executive functions development, but the mechanisms underlying this association are less clear. Using data from the Family Life Project, a large prospective longitudinal sample of 1292 families residing in rural, predominately low-income communities, the current study examined whether sensitive caregiving impacts executive functions development by shaping behavioral reward processing systems in early postnatal life. Results indicated that higher levels of sensitive caregiving during infancy were associated with heightened reward responsivity at age 4, which in turn predicted superior executive functions ability at age 5. Notably, children's reward responsivity partially mediated the relationship between sensitive caregiving in infancy and executive functions ability at school entry. These findings add to prior work on early experience and children's executive functions and highlight caregiver scaffolding of developing reward processing systems as a potential foundational mechanism for supporting adaptive behavior and self-regulation across the lifespan.

The socialization of emotion in preschool-aged children is an important developmental task, which is associated with a number of socioemotional outcomes. This study examined the contribution of both fathers' and mothers' emotion coaching to their 3- to 4-year-old children's emotion socialization. Two time points of data were collected for 69 families. We employed a time sampling observational method to capture the emotion socialization process in the naturalistic home environment. Fathers' and mothers' emotion coaching and expression, as well as children's emotion expression, were assessed at home using an audio recording device. Children's emotion expressions were also captured during an emotion eliciting task in a lab setting 1 year later. Regression analyses revealed that children of more positively expressive fathers also showed more positive emotion expression concurrently. Paternal emotion coaching, but not maternal emotion coaching, was predictive of children's increased positive expression in the lab 1 year later. This study provides evidence for unique contributions of fathers, above and beyond mothers, to the emotion socialization outcomes of their children. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

Despite rich cultural, lingual, and tribal assets, American Indian and Alaska Native (AIAN) children experience suboptimal educational outcomes that start before kindergarten entry. Evidence suggests that home literacy activities may be supportive of developmental outcomes within this population, but these home literacy activities have not been substantially investigated with AIAN populations. This study examined how the overall home literacy context and individual home literacy indicators (i.e., frequency of shared book reading, singing songs, telling stories, and the number of books in the home) relate to AIAN children’s preschool reading and math skills. This study comprised data from the ECLS-B, which included a nationally-representative sample of 10,400 children born in 2001 and a deliberate oversample of AIAN children. Hierarchical regression analyses were conducted to investigate the relationships between home literacy and preschool reading and math skills with an analytic sample of 650 AIAN children. Overall home literacy context was supportive of AIAN children’s reading and math skill development, and the particular import of shared book reading was found in improving reading skills. Findings support the value of what parents do with their children (i.e. participate in home literacy activities) above and beyond relatively static economic or social characteristics (e.g., maternal education, income-to-needs ratio).

We identified familial risk profiles and examined interactions between these profiles and child emotionality in predicting child executive function (EF). Among 126 mother-child dyads (child mean age = 3.23 years), four profiles were found based on maternal education, family income-to-needs ratio, and maternal depressive symptoms, anxiety, and parenting stress: Higher SES-Lower Mental Health Risk, Lower SES-Lower Mental Health Risk, Lower SES-Average Mental Health Risk, and Lower SES-Higher Mental Health Risk profiles. We found that high child positive emotionality at age 3 predicted high inhibitory control and low attention flexibility a year later exclusively in the Lower SES-Higher Mental Health Risk profile. Overall, children in the Higher SES-Lower Mental Health Risk profile showed better inhibitory control and attention flexibility than those in the Lower SES-Higher Mental Health Risk. This study extends our understanding of how different constellations of familial risks interact with child emotionality to contribute to child EF development.

We present a hierarchical integrated model of self-regulation in which executive function is the cognitive component of the model, together with emotional, behavioral, physiological, and genetic components. These five components in the model are reciprocally and recursively related. The model is supported by empirical evidence, primarily from a single longitudinal study with good measurement at each level of the model. We also find that the model is consistent with current thinking on related topics such as cybernetic theory, the theory of allostasis and allostatic load, and the theory of skill development in harsh and unpredictable environments, referred to as “hidden talents.” Next, we present literature that the integrative processes are susceptible to environmental adversity, poverty-related risk in particular, while positive social interactions with caregivers (e.g., maternal sensitivity) would promote self-regulatory processes or mitigate the adverse effect of early risk on the processes. A hierarchical integrative model of self-regulation advances our understanding of self-regulatory processes. Future research may consider broader social contexts of the integrative self-regulation system, such as neighborhood/community contexts and structural racism. This can be an integral step to provide children with equitable opportunities to thrive, even among children living in socioeconomically and psychosocially disadvantaged environments.

This study examined the interplay between maternal depressive symptoms and emotion coaching in predicting preschoolers' emotion regulation skills. Participants included 126 preschoolers and their mothers, assessed at two time points, when children were 3 (T1) and 4 (T2). Mothers' coaching of sadness and anger was observationally assessed in a laboratory task at T1 under two categories, high and low elaborative styles of emotion coaching. Mothers also reported their depressive symptoms at T1. Children's emotion regulation was observed in laboratory tasks eliciting sadness and anger at T1 and T2. Path analyses revealed three-way interactions among maternal depressive symptoms, low elaborative emotion coaching, and high elaborative emotion coaching in predicting preschoolers' emotion regulation in both sadness- and anger-eliciting tasks 1 year later. Maternal low elaborative emotion coaching of sadness reduced children's focus on distress in the sadness-eliciting task only when mothers showed high depressive symptoms and used little high elaborative emotion coaching. In contrast, maternal low elaborative emotion coaching of sadness and anger predicted maladaptive child emotion regulation in both sadness- and anger-eliciting tasks, respectively, when mothers were depressed or used greater high elaborative emotion coaching. Findings highlight the importance of considering different types of maternal emotion coaching language styles in the context of maternal depression and have implications for intervention efforts. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

This study examined a model of children's emotion expression as a moderator of the links between mothers' depressive symptoms and their responses to children's negative emotions. Participants were 127 mother-preschooler dyads. Children's emotion expressions were assessed both by maternal report and through observational tasks when children were three. Mothers were assessed for their depressive symptoms when children were three, and their responses to their children's negative emotions, when children were four. Results revealed that when children's reported submissive emotion expression was low, maternal depressive symptoms were related to lower maternal support; whereas, when children's reported submissive emotion was high, maternal depressive symptoms were associated with higher support. Moreover, when children's observed disharmonious emotion expression was low, maternal depressive symptoms were associated with lower maternal magnifying responses. This study enhances our understanding of the interaction between maternal depressive symptoms and child emotional characteristics in contributing to maternal emotion socialization practices.

Mothers’ emotion socialization practices are very important for children’s later outcomes; however, we know very little about how these practices may lead to different outcomes for European American (EA) and African American (AA) children. In the current study, maternal emotion socialization practices were investigated in relation to child emotion-related outcomes in 122 pairs of mothers and preschool-age children, and differences in associations were examined for EA and AA families. Mothers were assessed for their expressions of positive emotion with their child and their responses to their child’s negative emotions, including support of sadness/fear and magnification of anger, when children were 3. Children were assessed for their expression of positive emotion with their mother and their internalizing and externalizing problem behaviors when they were 4. When ethnicity was included as a moderator, results revealed that when AA mothers expressed more positive emotion, their children were also more positive 1 year later. Additionally, as AA mothers provided greater support for their children’s sadness/fear, these children tended to have fewer later internalizing problems. Finally, when AA mothers responded with more magnification of their children’s anger, these children tended to have greater internalizing and externalizing problems 1 year later. These associations were not found for EA families. Results highlighted differential effects based on the type of support provided by mothers and the role that mothers played in encouraging or suppressing their child’s expressions. The overall findings highlight the need to consider maternal emotion socialization from a culturally-informed perspective.

This paper examined the moderating role of maternal parenting stress on the reciprocal relations between maternal emotion coaching and child emotionality. Participants included 126 preschoolers and their mothers, assessed at two time points, when children were three (T1) and four (T2). Mothers' coaching of positive emotion, sadness, fear and anger was observationally assessed in a laboratory task at T1 and T2. Mothers reported child emotionality at T1 and T2, and their parenting stress at T1. Path analyses revealed that low levels of maternal coaching of sadness predicted more prospective child sad emotionality, only at moderate and high levels of maternal parenting stress. Child angry emotionality predicted less future maternal coaching of anger, only among highly stressed mothers. Additionally, child fearful emotionality predicted more subsequent maternal coaching of fear. Findings supported the importance of maternal emotion coaching in the context of stress and highlighted areas for intervention programs.

This study tested a model of children's emotionality as a moderator of the links between maternal emotion socialization and depressive symptoms and child emotion regulation. Participants were 128 mother–preschooler dyads. Child emotion expression and emotion regulation strategies were assessed observationally during a disappointment task, and a principal component analysis revealed three factors: passive soothing (including sadness and comfort seeking), negative focus on distress (including anger, focus on distress and low active distraction) and positive engagement (including positive emotion, active play and passive waiting, which was loaded negatively). Hierarchical linear regression models revealed that child positive emotionality (PE) and negative emotionality (NE) moderated the links between maternal support/positive emotion expression and child emotion regulation strategies. In particular, children's low PE exacerbated the association between lack of maternal support and child passive soothing, whereas high PE enhanced the association between maternal positive expression and reduced negative focus on distress. Furthermore, the associations of mothers' support and reduced passive soothing and negative focus on distress, as well as the association between mothers' positive expression and child positive engagement, were stronger for children with low levels of NE, compared with those with average and high levels of NE. Findings partially support a diathesis–stress model in understanding the effects of both child characteristics and the familial influence on child emotion regulation. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.