Published online by Cambridge University Press: 01 March 2018
Informed by a developmental psychopathology perspective, the present study applied a person-based approach to examine whether associations between early sociocontextual experiences (e.g., socioeconomic factors and maternal discipline practices) and preschool-age children's delay of gratification vary across profiles of children's temperamental reactivity. In addition, the study examined the direct and mediating role of children's set shifting in associations with delay of gratification within each profile. The sample consisted of 160 socioeconomically and ethnically diverse mothers and their 5-year-old children drawn from a longitudinal study of mother–child relationships. Latent profile analyses identified three profiles of temperamental reactivity distinguished by sensitivity to reward and punishment and negative affectivity. Multigroup analysis revealed maternal sensitive discipline (observed during a parent–child compliance task) at age 3.5 predicted longer delay of gratification at age 5 in the punishment reactivity/negative affectivity group. Maternal inductive reasoning discipline at age 3.5 predicted longer delay in the low temperamental reactivity group. For children with the reward reactivity/negative affectivity profile, higher family income at age 3.5 predicted longer delay of gratification at age 5, which was mediated by children's set shifting. Findings underscore the utility of person-based approaches for delineating differential developmental routes toward children's delay of gratification.
The research reported in this publication was supported by the National Institute of Nursing Research of the National Institutes of Health under Award Number R21NR010857-01, and by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development of the National Institutes of Health under Award Number F31HD086941. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health. We are much appreciative of the mothers and children who participated in this project. We also thank the students and staff on the project, including Courtney Ball, Janise Carmichael, Michael Skibo, Jennifer Torres, and Caryn Stark.