Maria A. Gartstein - US grants

The proposed project will continue needed psychometric work with the Infant Behavior Questionnaire-Revised (IBQ-R). It will also include development of laboratory measures, consistent with the new scales, and initiation of cross-cultural research using this instrument. The original IBQ has been one of the most frequently used measures of infant temperament since its introduction. The revised instrument was developed in order to provide the means for evaluating additional temperament variables, that have become important in light of ongoing research (High and Low Intensity Pleasure, Falling Reactivity, Perpetual Sensitivity, Cuddliness, Sadness, Approach). The proposed project will provide researchers with descriptive statistics for reference/comparison, including information for an urban and diverse sample of parents with infants between 3 and 12 months of age. A laboratory study will be conducted in order to pilot tasks assessing the same temperament dimensions as the new scales of the IBQ-R. A demonstration of convergence between the IBQ-R and laboratory measures would provide convincing evidence for the validity of the revised instrument, and minimize concerns regarding what has been described as a potential bias associated with parent-report. A longitudinal evaluation of the original sample, recruited in the initial development of the IBQ-R, will allow an assessment of predictive validity for this instrument. In addition, cross cultural work with the IBQ-R will also be initiated as a part of this project. This proposed project includes an evaluation of temperament in several samples of infants, allowing for a unique examination of Russian-American parents, and group of parents in Russia, and comparisons will be made in order to discern patterns of differences and similarities, taking into account the degree of acculturation for the Russian-American parents. This study will lay the groundwork for the utilization of the IBQ-R, especially the new scales, provide researchers with parallel laboratory assessments, and assess cross-cultural differences in parental report of temperament.

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The proposed project represents a short-term longitudinal study, aimed at evaluating the developmental trajectories of child temperament and parent-child interactions in infancy. Growth curves reflecting the patterns of change in temperament characteristics and aspects of the parent-infant interactions will be examined because of considerable evidence suggesting especially rapid development for these in the first year of life. Reciprocal influences between temperament characteristics and parent-child interaction dynamics will also be addressed. The longitudinal evaluation of temperament proposed in this study will rely on recently developed assessment tools (Infant Behavior Questionnaire-Revised; Gartstein & Rothbart, in press, and a parallel Temperament Laboratory Assessment; Gonzales, Gartstein, Carranza, & Rothbart, 2002), allowing for a multi-method, fine-grained analysis of psychobiologically defined temperament attributes. Parent-child interaction factors (reciprocity, responsivity, sensitivity) will be examined through observations that will be analyzed to produce micro behavioral codes (e.g., parents' and infants' vocalizations, attention toward each other, parents' attempts to stimulate/arouse, etc.; Belsky, Taylor, & Rovine, 1984; Isabella, & Belsky, 1991). The contributions of interactions between temperament characteristics and parent-child interaction factors to child security of attachment, at 12 months of age, will be examined. A number of studies have addressed temperament in infancy, as well as parent-infant interaction dynamics, however, a detailed evaluation of both domains, their reciprocal influences and interactions, has not been undertaken. Thus, the proposed study will add to the understanding of these relationships, and the contributions of temperament and parent-child interaction antecedents of attachment security, described as an important marker in social emotional development. A group of infants and parents (N=200) will be recruited when the infants are 4 months of age, and followed until 12 months of age, participating in 5 evaluations. Temperament and parent child interactions will be evaluated through out the first year of life, with attachment security assessed at 12 months of age.

This project is about self-regulation, critical to wide ranging developmental outcomes across the lifespan. We know little about the origins and initial development of these skills during the first two years of life. It is during infancy, however, that behavioral and neurophysiological underpinnings of emotion reactivity, the precursor of regulation, are manifested. Moreover, sex differences in these foundational mechanisms have not been examined, despite considerable evidence of more advanced early regulation for girls. This research provides an intensive behavioral and brain activity examination of emotion reactivity, making connections with emerging self-regulation. Our study is the first to examine: (1) development of brain activity linked with fear/approach and related information processing biases across infancy, relying on emotion-eliciting tasks; (2) sex differences in brain activity changes across infancy, correspondence between behavioral and brain activity change patterns, and the extent to which these predict self-regulation around the 2nd birthday. Identified connections between reactivity and regulation will inform existing developmental theories and results will be disseminated to parents and early childhood educators, maximizing support for emerging child self-regulation.

Starting in infancy, regulation is supported by attentional capacity and becomes essential to functioning across most areas of life. Despite this importance, the origins of self-regulation are still poorly understood, especially with respect to the emotional underpinnings. Emotional reactivity ?comes online? first, creating a foundation for subsequent development of regulatory capacity. Thus, growth in the principal domains of reactivity (fear and approach) in infancy, and links between these developmental changes and emerging self-regulation, require further study. We will answer lingering questions regarding how fearfulness and approach orientation on the behavioral and brain activity level are interrelated, and the extent to which these characteristics set the stage for self-regulation. We will leverage electroencephalography (EEG) recordings and multiple evaluations across the first two years of life to discern how changes in fear and approach contribute to the development of attention-based self-regulation, and how these processes may differ for boys and girls. As a result, parents and educators can be instructed regarding developmental periods during which effective negotiation of extreme changes in child approach or avoidance are particularly important from the standpoint of promoting regulation.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.