Adversity is linked with decreased parent-child behavioral and neural synchrony

Parent-child synchrony-parent-child interaction patterns characterized by contingent social responding, mutual responsivity, and co-regulation-has been robustly associated with adaptive child outcomes. Synchrony has been investigated in both behavioral and biological frameworks. While it has been demonstrated that adversity can influence behavioral parent-child synchrony, the neural mechanisms by which this disruption occurs are understudied. The current study examined the association between adversity, parent-child behavioral synchrony, and parent-child neural synchrony across lateral prefrontal cortical regions using functional near-infrared spectroscopy hyperscanning during a parent-child interaction task that included a mild stress induction followed by a recovery period. Participants included 115 children (ages 4-5) and their primary caregivers. Parent-child behavioral synchrony was quantified as the amount time the dyad was synchronous (e.g., reciprocal communication, coordinated behaviors) during the interaction task. Parent-child neural synchrony was examined as the hemodynamic concordance between parent and child lateral PFC activation. Adversity was examined across two, empirically-derived domains: sociodemographic risk (e.g., family income) and familial risk (e.g., household chaos). Adversity, across domains, was associated with decreased parent-child behavioral synchrony across task conditions. Sociodemographic risk was associated with decreased parent-child neural synchrony in the context of experimentally-induced stress. These findings link adversity to decreased parent-child behavioral and neural synchrony

Child Sleep and Socioeconomic Context in the Development of Cognitive Abilities in Early Childhood

Despite a robust literature examining the association between sleep problems and cognitive abilities in childhood, little is known about this association in toddlerhood, a period of rapid cognitive development. The present study examined the association between various sleep problems, using actigraphy, and performance on a standardized test of cognitive abilities, longitudinally across three ages (30, 36, and 42 months) in a large sample of toddlers (N = 493). Results revealed a between-subject effect in which the children who had more delayed sleep schedules on average also showed poorer cognitive abilities on average but did not support a within-subjects effect. Results also showed that delayed sleep explains part of the association between family socioeconomic context and child cognitive abilities

A longitudinal, within-person investigation of the association between the P3 ERP component and externalizing behavior problems in young children

Background: Externalizing problems, including aggression and conduct problems, are thought to involve impaired attentional capacities. Previous research suggests that the P3 event-related potential (ERP) component is an index of attentional processing, and diminished P3 amplitudes to infrequent stimuli have been shown to be associated with externalizing problems and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). However, the vast majority of this prior work has been cross-sectional and has not examined young children. The present study is the first investigation of whether within-individual changes in P3 amplitude predict changes in externalizing problems, providing a stronger test of developmental process. Method: Participants included a community sample of children (N = 153) followed longitudinally at 30, 36, and 42 months of age. Children completed an oddball task while ERP data were recorded. Parents rated their children\u27s aggression and ADHD symptoms. Results: Children\u27s within-individual changes in the P3 amplitude predicted concomitant within-child changes in their aggression such that smaller P3 amplitudes (relative to a child\u27s own mean) were associated with more aggression symptoms. However, changes in P3 amplitudes were not significantly associated with ADHD symptoms. Conclusions: Findings suggest that the P3 may play a role in development of aggression, but do not support the notion that the P3 plays a role in development of early ADHD symptoms

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Reduced neural responses to vocal fear: a potential biomarker for callous-uncaring traits in early childhood

Callous-unemotional (CU) traits are characterized by a lack of guilt and empathy, and low responsiveness to distress and fear in others. Children with CU traits are at-risk for engaging in early and persistent conduct problems. Individuals showing CU traits have been shown to have reduced neural responses to others' distress (e.g., fear). However, the neural components of distress responses in children with CU traits have not been investigated in early childhood. In the current study, we examined neural responses that underlie the processing of emotionally valenced vocal stimuli using the event-related potential technique in a group of preschoolers

Supplementary Appendix S1 from The neural correlates of temperamental inhibitory control in toddlers

Method

Presleep arousal and sleep in early childhood

Research suggests that arousal during the transition to sleep—presleep arousal—is associated with sleep disturbances. Although a robust literature has examined the role of presleep arousal in conferring risk for sleep disturbances in adults, substantially less research has examined the developmental origins of presleep arousal in early childhood. The authors examined presleep arousal using parent report and psychophysiological measures in a sample of preschoolers to explore the association between different measures of presleep arousal, and to examine how nightly presleep arousal is associated with sleep. Participants included 29 children assessed at 54 months of age. Presleep arousal was measured using parent reports of child arousal each night at bedtime and using a wearable device that took minute-by-minute recordings of heart rate, peripheral skin temperature, and electrodermal activity each night during the child’s bedtime routine. This yielded a dataset with 4,550 min of ambulatory recordings across an average of 3.52 nights per child (SD = 1.84 nights per child; range = 1–8 nights). Sleep was estimated using actigraphy. Findings demonstrated an association between parent-reported and psychophysiological arousal, including heart rate, peripheral skin temperature, and skin conductance responses during the child’s bedtime routine. Both the parent report and psychophysiological measures of presleep arousal showed some associations with poorer sleep, with the most robust associations occurring between presleep arousal and sleep onset latency. Behavioral and biological measures of hyperarousal at bedtime are associated with poorer sleep in young children. Findings provide early evidence of the utility of wearable devices for assessing individual differences in presleep arousal in early childhood

Sustained attention across toddlerhood: The roles of language and sleep

The present study examined individual differences in the development of sustained attention across toddlerhood, as well as how these individual differences related to the development of language and sleep. Toddlers (N = 314; 54% male) were assessed at 30, 36, and 42 months using multiple measures of attention, a standardized language assessment, and actigraphic measures of sleep. Toddlers were 80% White. Family socioeconomic status (SES) was calculated using the Hollingshead Four Factor Index and ranged from 13 to 66 (M = 47.59, SD = 14.13). Aims were (a) to examine associations between measures of attention across situations, informants, and time; (b) to consider the independent and interactive effects of language and sleep on attention; and (c) to test potential bidirectional associations between sleep and attention. Findings showed attention measures were stable across time but were only weakly linked with each other at 42 months. Attention was consistently linked with language. More variable sleep and longer naps were associated with less growth in sustained attention across time. Nighttime sleep duration interacted with language in that sleep duration was positively associated with attention scores among toddlers with less advanced language, even when SES was controlled. The findings describe an understudied aspect of how sustained attention develops, involving the main effect of consistent sleep schedules and the interaction effect of amount of sleep and child language development. These findings are relevant to understanding early childhood risk for developing attention problems and to exploring a potential prevention target in family sleep practices. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved

Sleep across early childhood: Implications for internalizing and externalizing problems, socioemotional skills, and cognitive and academic abilities in preschool

© 2020 Association for Child and Adolescent Mental Health Background: Sleep is thought to be important for behavioral and cognitive development. However, much of the prior research on sleep\u27s role in behavioral/cognitive development has relied upon self-report measures and cross-sectional designs. Methods: The current study examined how early childhood sleep, measured actigraphically, was developmentally associated with child functioning at 54 months. Emphasis was on functioning at preschool, a crucial setting for the emergence of psychopathology. Participants included 119 children assessed longitudinally at 30, 36, 42, and 54 months. We examined correlations between child sleep and adjustment across three domains: behavioral adjustment (i.e., internalizing and externalizing problems), socioemotional skills, and academic/cognitive abilities. We further probed consistent associations with growth curve modeling. Results: Internalizing problems were associated with sleep variability, and cognitive and academic abilities were associated with sleep timing. Growth curve analysis suggested that children with more variable sleep at 30 months had higher teacher-reported internalizing problems in preschool and that children with later sleep timing at 30 months had poorer cognitive and academic skills at 54 months. However, changes in sleep from 30 to 54 months were not associated with any of the domains of adjustment. Conclusions: Findings indicate that objectively measured sleep variability and late sleep timing in toddlerhood are associated with higher levels of internalizing problems and poorer academic/cognitive abilities in preschool