The Associations Between Parent-Infant Attachment, Infant Temperament, and Effortful Control At Three Years of Age

There is significant variability in children’s capacities for effortful control – the ability to suppress a dominant response and perform a subdominant response. With wide-stretched influences throughout the lifespan, it is important to understand what factors contribute to the development of a healthy capacity for effortful control. Effortful control has a relatively late pattern of development compared to other aspects of temperament, beginning around 12 months of age and ending around 3 years of age. For this reason, constructs that precede effortful control in development can contribute to the developing capacity. The current study examined whether motherand father-infant attachment relationships and expression of other temperament constructs (negative effect and surgency/extraversion) were contributing factors to the development of effortful control. Data was collected from mothers (n =33), fathers (n =33), and children (n=33), over a time span of two years. Infant temperament was measured at 6-months of age, qualities of mother-infant and father-infant attachment relationships were assessed around 12and 13-months of age respectively, and toddler capacity for effortful control was measured around 36-months of age. Two attachment interaction behaviors, proximity-seeking with father and resistance with mother, were positively correlated with capacity for effortful control. ATTACHMENT, TEMPERAMENT, AND EFFORTFUL CONTROL 1 The Associations Between Parent-Infant Attachment, Infant Temperament, and Effortful Control At Three Years of Age Effortful control – the ability to suppress a dominant response and perform a subdominant response – has been a popular area of focus for developmental researchers due to its crucial underpinning in the development of internalization of moral standards (Derryberry & Reed, 1994), socialization (Kochanska et al., 1996), emotion regulation (Eisenberg, Fabes, Guthrie, & Reiser, 2000) and effortful attention (Rothbart, Derryberry, & Posner, 1994). These capabilities have been linked to individual differences in morally relevant behavior in adolescence and adulthood, such as drug use (Ayduk et al., 2000; Block, Block, Keyes, 1988) and empathy (Rothbart, Ahadi, & Hershey, 1994). Due to its lasting influence on human development and behavior, it is important to understand the intrinsic and extrinsic factors that contribute to the development of effortful control in children. There are two aims of the current longitudinal study. First, we investigated the fatherinfant attachment and mother-infant relationships at 12 month of age as predictors of children’s capacities for effortful control. Research has shown that maternal warmth and positive expressivity are predictors of a high capacity for effortful control (Brody & Ge, 2001; Eisenberg, Zhou, Spinrad, Valiente, Fabes, & Liew, 2005; Gottman et al., 1997). A noteworthy limitation of this body of research is that it focuses on the mother-infant attachment relationship and fails to examine the father-infant attachment relationship. Second, we investigated other temperamental constructs present at 12 months of age as predictors of children’s capacities for effortful control at three years of age. Theoretical models of temperament suggest that an individual’s actions are determined by individual differences in positive and negative affect (Rothbart & Rueda, 2005). However, it is also important to consider effortful control as a motivator of behavior, as it allows ATTACHMENT, TEMPERAMENT, AND EFFORTFUL CONTROL 2 individuals to suppress and initiate behaviors. Keeping this in mind, we investigated the relationship between effortful control and other temperamental constructs. Effortful control is a characteristic of temperament and personality that underlies the capacity to suppress an often inappropriate dominant response and perform a subdominant response that is often more socially desirable (Kochanska, 2009). Unlike other aspects of temperament, it emerges relatively late in infancy, beginning development around 12 months of age, surging around 24 months, and continuing to develop throughout the toddler and preschool years (Rothbart, 1989). This relatively late pattern of development is partially due to the fact that contributing factors in the growth of effortful control are formed during the first few years of life, including other temperamental constructs (Derryberry & Reed, 1994), attachment relationships (Stayton, Hogan, & Ainsworth, 1971), parental control (Macoby, 1980), and capacity for effortful attention (Rothbart, Derryberry, & Posner, 1994). The capacity for effortful control increases as childhood progresses. During the preschool years, in a naturalistic environment, effortful control can be observed in the emergence of certain skills, such as following parental requests and sharing toys with peers. The current study examines effortful control at 3 years of age based on Posner and Rothbart’s (1998) findings that at 30 months, children show significant improvement in effortful control compared to levels in infancy, and by 36 to 38 months most children achieved high levels of accuracy on tasks that measured effortful control.