Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-ndw9j Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-14T16:48:41.616Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Birth and adoptive parent anxiety symptoms moderate the link between infant attention control and internalizing problems in toddlerhood

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 January 2014

Rebecca J. Brooker ,
Jenae M. Neiderhiser ,
Jody M. Ganiban ,
Leslie D. Leve ,
Daniel S. Shaw  and
David Reiss
Rebecca J. Brooker*
Affiliation:
Montana State University
Jenae M. Neiderhiser*
Affiliation:
Pennsylvania State University
Jody M. Ganiban
Affiliation:
George Washington University
Leslie D. Leve
Affiliation:
University of Oregon
Daniel S. Shaw
Affiliation:
University of Pittsburgh
David Reiss
Affiliation:
Yale Child Study Center
*
Address correspondence and reprint requests to: Jenae Neiderhiser, 141 Moore Building, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802; E-mail: jenaemn@psu.edu; or Rebecca J. Brooker, Department of Psychology, 210 AJM Johnson Hall, Montana State University, PO Box 173440, Bozeman, MT 59717-3440; E-mail: rebecca.brooker@montana.edu.
Address correspondence and reprint requests to: Jenae Neiderhiser, 141 Moore Building, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802; E-mail: jenaemn@psu.edu; or Rebecca J. Brooker, Department of Psychology, 210 AJM Johnson Hall, Montana State University, PO Box 173440, Bozeman, MT 59717-3440; E-mail: rebecca.brooker@montana.edu.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Attention control plays an important role in the development of internalizing symptoms in children. We explored the degree to which infants' genetic and environmentally based risk moderated the link between attention control and internalizing problems during toddlerhood. These associations were examined within a prospective adoption design, enabling the disentanglement of genetic and environmental risk for internalizing problems. Attention control in adopted infants was observed during periods of distress at age 9 months. Birth parents' anxiety symptoms were used as an index of genetic risk, while adoptive parents' anxiety symptoms were used as an index of environmental risk. Adoptive mothers and fathers reported on children's internalizing problems when children were 18 and 27 months old. Greater attention control in infancy appeared to mitigate genetically based risk for internalizing problems during toddlerhood when children were raised by adoptive parents who were low in anxiety. Findings suggest that for genetically susceptible children who are raised in low-risk environments, attention control may provide a protective factor against developing internalizing problems across early life.

Type
Regular Articles
Information
Development and Psychopathology , Volume 26 , Issue 2 , May 2014 , pp. 347 - 359
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2014 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Achenbach, T. M., & Rescorla, L. A. (2000). Manual for the ASEBA Preschool Forms & Profiles. Burlington, VT: University of Vermont, Department of Psychiatry.Google Scholar
Aiken, L. S., & West, S. G. (1991). Multiple regression: Testing and interpreting interactions. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.Google Scholar
Bakermans-Kranenburg, M. J., & van IJzendoorn, M. H. (2007). Genetic vulnerability or differential susceptibility in child development: The case of attachment. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 48, 1160–1173.Google Scholar
Beck, A. T., & Steer, R. A. (1993). Beck Anxiety Inventory manual. San Antonio, TX: Psychological Corporation.Google Scholar
Belsky, J., & Pleuss, M. (2009). Beyond diathesis stress: Differential susceptibility to environmental influences. Psychological Bulletin, 135, 85–108.Google Scholar
Briggs-Gowan, M. J., Carter, A. S., Bosson-Heenan, J., Guyer, A. E., & Horwitz, S. M. (2006). Are infant–toddler social–emotional and behavioral problems transient? American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 45, 849–858.Google Scholar
Broderick, P. C., & Korteland, C. (2004). A prospective study of rumination and depression in early adolescence. Clinical Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 9, 383–394.Google Scholar
Brooker, R. J., Neiderhiser, J. M., Kiel, E. J., Leve, L. D., Shaw, D. S., & Reiss, D. (2011). Attention control moderates associations between infants' risk for anxiety and social inhibition. Infancy, 16, 490–507.Google Scholar
Calkins, S. D. (2007). The emergence of self-regulation: Biological and behavioral control mechanisms supporting toddler competencies. In Brownell, C. A. & Kopp, C. B. (Eds.), Socioemotional development in the toddler years (pp. 261–284). New York: Guilford Press.Google Scholar
Canli, T., Ferri, J., & Duman, E. A. (2009). Genetics of emotion regulation. Neuroscience, 164, 43–54.Google Scholar
Cohen, J., & Cohen, P. (1983). Applied multiple regression/correlation analysis for the behavioral sciences (2nd ed.). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Cole, P. M., Michel, M. K., & Teti, L. O. (1994). The development of emotion regulation and dysregulation: A clinical perspective. Monographs for the Society for Research in Child Development, 59, 73–100.Google Scholar
Crockenberg, S. C., Leerkes, E. M., & Bárrig Jó, P. S. (2008). Predicting aggressive behavior in the third year from infant reactivity and regulation as moderated by maternal behavior. Development and Psychopathology, 20, 37–54.Google Scholar
Dogan, S., Lei, A., Milne-Kahn, J., Pong, H., Wu, E., & Conger, R. (2005). Family interaction behavioral codes for the Early Growth and Development Study. Unpublished coding manual.Google Scholar
Egger, H. L., & Angold, A. (2006). Common emotional and behavioral disorders in preschool children: Presentation, nosology, & epidemiology. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 47, 313–337.Google Scholar
Eisenberg, N., Cumberland, A., Spinrad, T. L., Fabes, R. A., Shepard, S. A., Reiser, M., et al. (2001). The relations of regulation and emotionality to children's externalizing and internalizing problem behavior. Child Development, 72, 1112–1134.Google Scholar
Eley, T. C., Bolton, D., O'Connor, T. G., Perrin, S., Smith, P., & Plomin, R. (2003). A twin study of anxiety-related behaviours in pre-school children. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 44, 945–960.Google Scholar
Feng, X., Shaw, D. S., & Silk, J. S. (2008). Developmental trajectories of anxiety symptoms among boys across early and middle childhood. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 1, 32–47.Google Scholar
Gerardi-Caulton, G. (2000). Sensitivity to spatial conflict and the development of self-regulation in children 24–36 months of age. Developmental Science, 3, 397–404.Google Scholar
Gerull, F. C., & Rapee, R. M. (2002). Mother knows best: Effects of maternal modeling on the acquisition of fear and avoidance behavior in toddlers. Behavior and Research Therapy, 40, 279–287.Google Scholar
Goldsmith, H. H., Lemery, K. S., Buss, K. A., & Campos, J. J. (1999). Genetic analyses of focal aspects of infant temperament. Developmental Psychology, 35, 972–985.Google Scholar
Goldsmith, H. H., & Rothbart, M. K. (1999). The Laboratory Temperament Assessment Battery: Prelocomotor version 3.1. Unpublished manuscript.Google Scholar
Graham, J. W., Olchowski, A. E., & Gilreath, T. D. (2007). How many imputations are really needed? Some practical clarifications of multiple imputation theory. Prevention Science, 8, 206–213.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Greco, L. A., & Morris, T. L. (2002). Paternal child-rearing style and child social anxiety: Investigation of child perceptions and actual father behavior. Journal of Psychopathology and Behavioral Assessment, 24, 259–267.Google Scholar
Grolnick, W. S., Bridges, L. J., & Connell, J. P. (1996). Emotion regulation in two-year-olds: Strategies and emotional expression in four contexts. Child Development, 67, 928–941.Google Scholar
Gross, J. J. (1998). The emerging field of emotion regulation: An integrative review. Review of General Psychology, 2, 279–299.Google Scholar
Hatzinikolaou, K., & Murray, L. (2011). Infant sensitivity to negative maternal emotional shifts: Effects of infant sex, maternal postnatal depression, and interactive style. Infant Mental Health Journal, 31, 591–610.Google Scholar
Hettema, J. M., Neale, M. C., & Kendler, K. S. (2001). A review of meta-analysis of the genetic epidemiology of anxiety disorders. American Journal of Psychiatry, 158, 1568–1578.Google Scholar
Hummel, R. M., & Gross, A. M. (2001). Socially anxious children: An observational study of parent–child interaction. Child and Family Behavior Therapy, 23, 19–40.Google Scholar
Johnson, M. H., Posner, M. I., & Rothbart, M. K. (1991). Components of visual orienting in early infancy: Contingency learning, anticipatory looking and disengaging. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 3, 335–344.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kiel, E. J., & Buss, K. A. (2010). Toddlers' duration of attention toward putative threat. Infancy, 16, 198–210.Google Scholar
Kochanska, G., & Aksan, N. (1995). Mother–child mutually positive affect, the quality of child compliance to requests and prohibitions, and maternal control as correlates of early internalization. Child Development, 66, 236–254.Google Scholar
Kopp, C. (1982). Antecedents of self-regulation: A developmental perspective. Developmental Psychology, 18, 199–214.Google Scholar
Kopp, C. (1992). Emotional distress and control in young children. In Eisenberg, N. & Fabes, R. A. (Eds.), Emotion and its regulation in early development (pp. 41–56). San Francisco, CA: Jossey–Bass.Google Scholar
Leve, L. D., Kerr, D. C. R., Shaw, D. S., Ge, X., Neiderhiser, J. M., Scaramella, L. V., et al. (2010). Infant pathways to externalizing behavior: Evidence of Genotype × Environment interaction. Child Development, 81, 340–356.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Leve, L. D., Neiderhiser, J. M., Shaw, D., Ganiban, J., Natsuaki, M. N., & Reiss, D. (2013). The early growth and development study: A prospective adoption study from birth through middle childhood. Twin Research and Human Genetics, 16, 412–423.Google Scholar
Meany, M. J. (2001). Maternal care, gene expression, and the transmission of individual differences in stress reactivity across generations. Annual Reviews in Neuroscience, 24, 1161–1192.Google Scholar
Mogg, K., & Bradley, B. P. (1998). A cognitive–motivational analysis of anxiety. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 36, 809–848.Google Scholar
Muris, P., Steerneman, P., Merckelbach, H., & Meesters, C. (1996). The role of parental fearfulness and modeling in children's fear. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 34, 265–268.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Natsuaki, M. N., Leve, L. D., Neiderhiser, J. M., Shaw, D. S., Scaramella, L., Ge, X., et al. (2013). Intergenerational transmission of risk for social inhibition: The interplay between parental responsiveness and genetic influences. Development and Psychopathology, 25, 261–274.Google Scholar
Radke-Yarrow, M., Zahn-Waxler, C., Richardson, D. T., Susman, A., & Martinez, P. (1994). Caring behavior in children of clinically depressed and well mothers. Child Development, 65, 1405–1414.Google Scholar
Rapee, R. M., & Melville, L. F. (1997). Recall of family factors in social phobia and panic disorder: Comparison of mother and offspring reports. Depression and Anxiety, 5, 7–11.Google Scholar
Richards, J. E. (2000). Localizing the development of covert attention in infants with scalp event-related potentials. Developmental Psychology, 36, 91–108.Google Scholar
Rothbart, M. K. (2011). Becoming who we are: Temperament and personality in development. New York: Guilford Press.Google Scholar
Rothbart, M. K., & Sheese, B. E., (2007). Temperament and emotion regulation. In Gross, J. J. (Ed.), Handbook of emotion regulation (pp. 331–350). New York: Guilford Press.Google Scholar
Rothbart, M. K., Ziaie, H., & O'Boyle, C. G. (1992). Self-regulation and emotion in infancy. In Eisenberg, N. & Fabes, R. A. (Eds.), Emotion and its regulation in early development (pp. 7–23). San Francisco, CA: Jossey–Bass.Google Scholar
Sroufe, L. A., & Rutter, M. (1984). The domain of developmental psychopathology. Child Development, 55, 17–29.Google Scholar
Suomi, S. J. (1997). Early determinants of behaviour: Evidence from primate studies. British Medical Bulletin, 53, 170–184.Google Scholar
Turner, S. M., Beidel, D. C., Roberson-Nay, R., & Tervo, K. (2003). Parenting behaviors in parents with anxiety disorders. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 41, 541–554.Google Scholar
Warren, S. L., Gunnar, M. R., Kagan, J., Anders, T. F., Simmens, S. J., Rones, M., et al. (2003). Maternal panic disorder: Infant temperament, neurophysiology, and parenting behaviors. Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 42, 814–825.Google Scholar
Weissman, M. M., Leckman, J. F., Merikangas, K. R., Gammon, G. D., & Prusoff, B. A. (1984). Depression and anxiety disorders in parents and children: Results from the Yale Family Study. Archives of General Psychiatry, 41, 845–852.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Whaley, S. E., Pinto, A., & Sigman, M. (1999). Characterizing interactions between anxious mothers and their children. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 67, 826–836.Google Scholar
Woodruff-Borden, J., Morrow, C., Bourland, S., & Cambron, S. (2002). The behavior of anxious parents: Examining mechanisms of transmission of anxiety from parent to child. Journal of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology, 31, 364–374.Google Scholar