bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Emotionality, emotion regulation, and preschoolers' social adaptation
Authors: Rubin Kenneth H. , Coplan Robert J. , Fox Nathan A. , Calkins Susan D. 
Published: March 2009

AbstractIt was proposed that the interaction between the constructs of emotion regulation and social interaction would predict social adaptation in preschoolers. Ninety-six 4-year-olds were observed in quartets of unfamiliar same-sex peers. Based on parent temperament ratings and observed free play behaviors, 68 children from the original sample were classified as: low social interaction, good emotion regulators; low social interaction, poor emotion regulators; high social interaction, good emotion regulators; high social interaction, poor emotion regulators; or average. The results indicated that the low social interaction children who were poor regulators displayed more wary and anxious behaviors during free play and other episodes, and were rated as having more internalizing problems than both the low social interaction children who were good regulators and the average group. The high social interaction children who were poor regulators were rated as having more externalizing problems than either the high social interaction children who were good regulators or the average group. Thus, it seems as if emotion dysregulation is associated with psychological maladaptation, but that this association is tempered by the degree to which children engage in social interaction.
Joint attention and social-emotional approach behavior in children with autism
Authors: Mundy Peter 
Published: March 2009

AbstractAutism is a development disorder that is characterized by a significant disturbance of social development. Research strongly suggests that this disorder results from neurological anomalies or deficits. However, both the specific neural systems involved in autism, and the most pertinent behavioral functions of those systems remains unclear. One current topic of debate concerns the degree to which the social disturbance of autism may result from developmental anomalies in neurological systems that subserve cognitive, or affective processes. In this paper a model of the neurological, cognitive, and affective processes involved in the pathogenesis of autism will be described in the context of an attempt to understand dissociations in the early social-skill development of these children. Young children with autism are better able to use social-communication gestures to request objects or events than they are able to use similar gesture simply to initiate joint or socially shared attention relative to an object or event. An integration of recent research suggests that joint attention skill development differs from requesting skill development with regard to affective and cognitive processes that may be associated with frontal and midbrain neurological systems. In particular, this integration of the literature suggests the following: (a) there is a specific neurological subsystem that regulates and promotes what are called social-emotional approach behaviors; (b) the tendency to initiate joint attention bids is prototypical of a social-emotional approach behavior; and (c) attenuation of social-approach behaviors in children with autism leads to a specific impoverishment of social information processing opportunities. This impoverishment has a lifelong negative effect on the social cognitive development of these children.
Affect regulation in depressed and nondepressed children and young adolescents
Authors: Garber Judy , Braafladt Nancy , Weiss Bahr 
Published: March 2009

AbstractThe present study examined children's reported frequency and efficacy of strategies for regulating their negative affect in response to a description of a particular affiliative (fight with a friend) or achievement (loss at a game) situation. The 275 children were in kindergarten through eighth grade; they completed the Children's Depression Inventory and either the “Fight” or “Game” version of the Child Affect Questionnaire (CAQ-F or CAQ-G). Children who endorsed higher levels of depressive symptoms generally reported using affect regulation strategies significantly less often than did nondepressed children, and they rated these responses as significantly less effective in altering their negative mood. Depressed girls rated mother-initiated affect regulation strategies as less effective than did nondepressed girls. Younger children rated both self- and mother-initiated strategies as more effective than did older children. Several directions for future research are suggested.
To what extent can children with autism understand desire?
Authors: Phillips Wendy , Baron-Cohen Simon , Rutter Michael 
Published: March 2009

AbstractPrevious studies of theory of mind abilities in young people with autism have found that their understanding of false belief is specifically impaired, but that simple aspects of desire are understood in line with mental age. We explored the possibility that more complex aspects of desire (in which comparison of goals with outcomes is not a sufficient strategy) are not understood by children with autism. In two experiments, we found that these children were specifically impaired in understandingdesire satisfactionanddesire change, when compared with children with mental handicap and normal 4-6-year-olds. Although there was some evidence that understanding of desires may be easier for individuals with autism than understanding false belief, it would appear that they have difficulties in understanding both epistemic and volitional mental states.
Vagal tone in infants of depressed mothers
Authors: Field Tiffany , Pickens Jeffrey , Fox Nathan A. , Nawrocki Thomas , Gonzalez Jeanette 
Published: March 2009

AbstractEmotional reactivity and expressivity in infants have been previously correlated with vagal tone. This study investigated vagal tone of 3- and 6-month-old infants of depressed mothers. Vagal tone did not differ for infants of depressed versus nondepressed mothers at 3 months, but lower vagal tone was noted in infants of depressed versus nondepressed mothers at 6 months. The developmental increase in vagal tone that occurred between 3 and 6 months for infants of nondepressed mothers did not occur for infants of depressed mothers. Correlation analyses suggested that higher vagal tone at 6 months was related to more vocalizations and more optimal neurological scores.
Genetic mediation of longitudinal associations between family environment and childhood behavior problems
Authors: Braungart-Rieker Julia , Rende Richard D. , Plomin Robert , DeFries J. C. , Fulker David W. 
Published: March 2009

AbstractPrevious studies have reported significant associations between measures of the family environment and behavior problems in children. However, because children in these studies were genetically related to their parents, such links may not be caused solely by environmental influences. The goal of this study was to investigate genetic influence on associations between family environment and problem behavior using an adoption design. Participants in the study included 179 adopted and 176 nonadopted children, as well as their parents and teachers, in the Colorado Adoption Project (CAP; Plomin, DeFries, & Fulker, 1988). Mothers and fathers each completed the Family Environment Scale (FES) when their child was 1, 3, and 5 years of age; the child's problem behavior at age 7 was rated by both mothers and teachers using the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL). Patterns of correlations for nonadopted versus adopted boys indicated that associations between aspects of the family's relationship (conflict, cohesion, expressiveness) and behavior problems in home and school were mediated genetically. For girls, however, these links appeared to be influenced by direct shared environmental effects.
Attachment in the context of high-risk conditions
Authors: Radke-Yarrow Marian , McCann Kathleen , DeMulder Elizabeth , Belmont Barbara , Martinez Pedro , Richardson Dorothy T. 
Published: March 2009

AbstractThe role of attachment in interaction with other relationships and conditions was investigated in relation to children's later psychosocial development (at ages 6 and 9). Thirty-nine unipolar depressed mothers, 24 bipolar mothers, and 32 normal control mothers and their children were studied. The network of conditions defining early experience included, in addition to attachment, maternal psychopathology, marital discord, other disordered relationships in the family, and recent losses of significant persons. Patterns of mother-child interaction were also examined. Assessments of children's problems were based on psychiatric evaluations of depressive affect, anxiety, and disruptive-oppositional behavior.The findings support the conclusion that attachment enters into development in interaction with other relationships and conditions. Maternal psychopathology, in particular, in interaction with the attachment relationship, is linked to later developmental outcomes. The importance of considering mother-child interactional and dispositional characteristics is indicated. The early attachment relationship together with the ways in which the mother's depression is expressed with her child, and the child's style of coping with the mother's functioning establish patterns of behavior that influence the child's vulnerability to later problems. Multiple pathways of transmission of affective problems are discussed.
Attachment security and indiscriminately friendly behavior in children adopted from Romanian orphanages
Authors: Chisholm Kim , Carter Margaret C. , Ames Elinor W. , Morison Sara J. 
Published: March 2009

AbstractAttachment security was assessed in children who had spent at least 8 months in a Romanian orphanage (RO) and two comparison groups of children: a Canadian-born, nonadopted comparison group (CB) and a comparison group adopted from Romania before the age of 4 months (RC). We also assessed differences in displays of indiscriminately friendly behavior between the two adopted groups of children. Attachment security was assessed using parent report on a questionnaire comprised of the 23 items with the highest and lowest loadings on the Waters and Deane (1985) attachment Q-sort. Indiscriminately friendly behavior was assessed using parents' responses to five questions about their children's behavior with new adults. Children's attachment security scores were also compared to parents' scores on the parent attachment subscale of the Parenting Stress Index (Abidin, 1990). RO children scored significantly lower on security of attachment than did either the RC or CB children. RC and CB children did not differ on attachment security. Based on their parents' reports, RO children displayed significantly more indiscriminately friendly behaviors than did RC children, but such behaviors were not correlated with security of attachment. Children's attachment security scores were related to their parents attachment scores only in the RO group. It is suggested that RO children's experience of extreme neglect contributed to their low attachment-security scores, and that indiscriminate friendliness may be an important behavior to consider in the study of attachment in institutionalized children.
Relational aggression: The role of intent attributions, feelings of distress, and provocation type
Authors: Crick Nicki R. 
Published: March 2009

AbstractIn recent research a relationally oriented form of aggression has been identified that, in contrast to overt aggression that harms others through physical means (e.g., hitting), harms others through damage to their peer relationships (e.g., angrily retaliating against a peer by excluding her from one's play group). The goal this research was to assess the role of intent attributions, feelings of distress, and provocation type (relational vs. instrumental) in children's relationally aggressive behavior. A total of 252 third- through sixth-grade children participated as subjects. A hypothetical provocation instrument was used to assess children's intent attributions and feelings of distress for ambiguous relational and instrumental provocation situations. Results showed that, as hypothesized, relationally aggressive children exhibited a hostile attributional bias and reported significantly higher levels of distress than did their nonaggressive peers for relational provocation situations. In addition, girls reported significantly higher levels of distress than did boys for relational provocation situations. Further, a comorbid group of relationally plus overtly aggressive children also exhibited a hostile attributional bias; however, their bias was evident for instrumental provocation situations only.
Covert visual attention in children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder: Evidence for developmental immaturity?
Authors: Pearson Deborah A. , Yaffee Laura S. , Loveland Katherine A. , Norton Amy M. 
Published: March 2009

AbstractShifts in covert visual attention were compared in children with and without Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) to determine if children with ADHD have developmental immaturities in covert attention, relative to their non-ADHD peers. Children were told to orient attention to a central fixation point and were then cued, by both central and peripheral cues, to direct their attention to either the left or right peripheral fields. Following variable time intervals, the target appeared and reaction times and errors were recorded. Although performance of all subjects showed faciliation when attention was directed by valid cues and inhibition when attention was directed by invalid cues, the performance of children with ADHD was far more disrupted when their attention was misled by invalid cues, especially at longer intervals. This inconsistency was reflected in significantly higher error rates in the ADHD group. They also showed a pattern of attentional “waxing and waning” in performance over longer time intervals that has been previously found in auditory attention switching over time within trials in children with ADHD. Overall, results are inconsistent with developmentally immature covert attention skills in ADHD. Findings are discussed in terms of the concept of global “developmental immaturity” in the attention skills of children with ADHD.
Memory and representation in young children with Down syndrome: Exploring deferred imitation and object permanence
Authors: Rast Mechthild , Meltzoff Andrew N. 
Published: March 2009

AbstractDeferred imitation and object permanence (OP) were tested in 48 young children with Down syndrome (DS), ranging from 20 to 43 months of age. Deferred imitation and high-level OP (invisible displacements) have long been held to be synchronous developments during sensory-motor “Stage 6” (18–24 months of age in unimpaired children). The results of the current study demonstrate deferred imitation in young children with DS, showing they can learn novel behaviors from observation and retain multiple models in memory. This is the first demonstration of deferred imitation in young children with DS. The average OP level passed in this sample was A-not-B, a task passed at 8–12 months of age in normally developing infants. Analyses showed that individual children who failed high-level OP (invisible displacements) could still perform deferred imitation. This indicates that deferred imitation and OP invisible displacements are not synchronous developments in children with DS. This asynchrony is compatible with new data from unimpaired children suggesting that deferred imitation and high-level OP entail separate and distinctive kinds of memory and representation
Intermodal perception of affect in persons with autism or Down syndrome
Authors: Loveland Katherine A. , Tunali-Kotoski Belgin , Chen Richard , Brelsford Kristin A. , Ortegon Juliana , Pearson Deborah A. 
Published: March 2009

AbstractPersons with autism (n = 28) or Down syndrome (n = 30) took part in a study of the ability to detect intermodal correspondence between facial and vocal/linguistic information for affect. Participants viewed 24 split-screen images of an individual talking and displaying a different affect on each side of the display (happy, sad, angry, surprised, or neutral). The vocal track, matching one affect (i.e., one side of the split-screen) but not the other, was played from a central speaker. Subjects were asked to point to the side matching the vocal track. The vocal track was desynchronized with both sides, so that rhythmic synchrony was greatly reduced and subjects must use affect to make their choices. In the first control condition, rhythmic synchrony information was restored. In a second control condition, inanimate objects and their sounds were presented. In the experimental condition, when verbal mental age and IQ were taken into account, the autism group performed more poorly than did the Down syndrome group in detecting intermodal correspondence of face and voice. When rhythmic synchrony information was available, both groups' performances improved, with the Down syndrome group performing slightly better than the group with autism. There were no group differences in the condition using inanimate objects. Results suggest that persons with autism may have difficulty detecting intermodal correspondence of facial and vocal/linguistic affect.
Children classified as controlling at age six: Evidence of disorganized representational strategies and aggression at home and at school
Authors: Solomon Judith , George Carol , De Jong Annemieke 
Published: March 2009

AbstractThe purpose of this study was to determine whether children classified as controlling in attachment differ from children classified into the traditional Ainsworth attachment categories in their symbolic representations of attachment and level of behavior problems. Sixty-nine middle-class kindergarten children and their mothers participated in a laboratory separation and reunion. Children enacted doll-play stories about attachment-related themes. A four-group representation classification scheme was developed from the doll-play transcripts of 27 children. Mothers (n = 44) completed Achenbach's Child Behavior Checklist and teachers (n = 40) completed a 30-item inventory of classroom behavior. Results showed significant agreement between the representational system and Main and Cassidy's classification system (1988) for children's reunion behavior. The doll-play of controlling children was characterized by themes of catastrophe and helplessness or by complete inhibition of play and suggested disorganization of representational processes. Controlling children also were described by mothers and teachers as significantly more aggressive than other children. The results validate the distinction between the controlling and traditional classification groups and suggest that controlling children are at risk for behavioral maladaptation at home and at school.
Regulation of depressive affect and interpersonal behavior among children requiring residential or day treatment
Authors: Breen Mary P. , Weinberger Daniel A. 
Published: March 2009

AbstractDepression is often associated with social withdrawal. However, especially among children from traumatic backgrounds, dysphoric affect may also be manifested by increased demands for social contact. The present research employed intensive observations, children's self-reports, and therapist and staff ratings to investigate associations between affect regulation and interpersonal behavior among 32 emotionally disturbed children (ages 7 to 12 years) in residential or day treatment. As predicted, children who reported dysphoric moods on the Children's Depression Inventory (Kovacs, 1980/81) were most socially engaged and presented themselves as relatively vulnerable and dependent on others. These children not only expressed more overt sadness but also exhibited higher rates of excited/hyperactive behavior. The subgroup of children who were most prone to deny even normative levels of negative affect were least interpersonally involved as well as least impulsive. The results highlight the importance of individual differences in coping with traumatic relationship histories and the need for further study of the interplay between affect and interpersonal behavior in childhood psychopathology.
Longitudinal patterns of physical aggression: Associations with adult social, psychiatric, and personality functioning and testosterone levels
Authors: Windle Rebecca C. , Windle Michael 
Published: March 2009

AbstractA retrospective longitudinal research design was used to evaluate male adult outcomes associated with four patterns of physical aggression from childhood to adulthood—child-only aggression, child and adult continuity of aggression, adult-onset aggression, and a contrast group with low levels of aggression in childhood and adulthood. The continuity and adult-onset aggression groups had the highest levels of social maladjustment (e.g., marital instability), psychiatric disturbance (e.g., alcohol disorders, major depression), personality dysfunction (e.g., higher prevalence of elevated borderline and narcissistic personality disorder scores), and higher plasma testosterone levels. The child-only aggression group manifested more psychiatric and personality disturbance than the contrast group, but not nearly as much disturbance as the continuity and adult-onset groups. After controlling for age and socioeconomic status (SES) variables, race (White/Black) was typically not a significant predictor of outcome variables. Findings are discussed with regard to life course implications of the physical aggression patterns, and of the support provided for an adult-onset aggressive type.
Peer interactions of autistic children and adolescents
Authors: Lord Catherine , MaGill-Evans Joyce 
Published: March 2009

AbstractTwo observational studies of verbal, high-functioning children and adolescents with autism; nonautistic, behaviorally disordered youngsters of equivalent verbal skills and chronological age; and verbal age-matched normally developing students during integrated summer day camps are reported. In the first study, observations were made of spontaneous peer interaction and play over the course of 2 weeks of day camp. The eight autistic subjects were consistently more likely to not be interacting and less likely to be engaged in any purposeful activity than the 16 other children. During the 2 weeks, time interacting and purposeful activity increased overall. In the second study, the quality of spontaneous peer-directed initiations was observed during free time in similar day camps the following summer. The 11 autistic children and adolescents produced fewer initiations than did the 20 other children and were less likely to smile or coordinate several behaviors with eye contact during an initiation. Autistic subjects were consistently more likely not to receive a response to their initiation than the other groups, although there was no identifiable relationship between the quality of the initiation and the likelihood of it receiving a response.