Showing papers by "Marc H. Bornstein published in 2019"

Parenting Stress Undermines Mother-Child Brain-to-Brain Synchrony: A Hyperscanning Study.

Abstract: Synchrony refers to the coordinated interplay of behavioural and physiological signals that reflect the bi-directional attunement of one partner to the other’s psychophysiological, cognitive, emotional, and behavioral state. In mother-child relationships, a synchronous pattern of interaction indicates parental sensitivity. Parenting stress has been shown to undermine mother-child behavioural synchrony. However, it has yet to be discerned whether parenting stress affects brain-to-brain synchrony during everyday joint activities. Here, we show that greater parenting stress is associated with less brain-to-brain synchrony in the medial left cluster of the prefrontal cortex when mother and child engage in a typical dyadic task of watching animation videos together. This brain region overlaps with the inferior frontal gyrus, the frontal eye field, and the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, which are implicated in inference of mental states and social cognition. Our result demonstrates the adverse effect of parenting stress on mother-child attunement that is evident at a brain-to-brain level. Mother-child brain-to-brain asynchrony may underlie the robust association between parenting stress and poor dyadic co-regulation. We anticipate our study to form the foundation for future investigations into mechanisms by which parenting stress impairs the mother-child relationship.

Environmental harshness and unpredictability, life history, and social and academic behavior of adolescents in nine countries

Abstract: Safety is essential for life. To survive, humans and other animals have developed sets of psychological and physiological adaptations known as life history (LH) tradeoff strategies in response to various safety constraints. Evolutionarily selected LH strategies in turn regulate development and behavior to optimize survival under prevailing safety conditions. The present study tested LH hypotheses concerning safety based on a 6-year longitudinal sample of 1,245 adolescents and their parents from 9 countries. The results revealed that, invariant across countries, environmental harshness, and unpredictability (lack of safety) was negatively associated with slow LH behavioral profile, measured 2 years later, and slow LH behavioral profile was negatively and positively associated with externalizing behavior and academic performance, respectively, as measured an additional 2 years later. These results support the evolutionary conception that human development responds to environmental safety cues through LH regulation of social and learning behaviors. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

Parenting Science and Practice

Abstract: K. Boller, R. Bradley, N. Cabrera, H. Raikes, B. Pan, J. Shears, L. Roggman, The Early Head Start Father Studies: Design, Data Collection, and Summary of Father Presence in the Lives of Infants and Toddlers J.A. Summers, K. Boller, R.F. Schiffman, H.H. Raikes, The Meaning of "Good Fatherhood": Low-Income Fathers' Social Constructions of Their Roles J.D. Shannon, C.S. Tamis-LeMonda, N.J. Cabrera, Fathering in Infancy: Mutuality and Stability Between 8 and 16 Months C.A. Vogel, R.H. Bradley, H. Raikes, K. Boller, J.K. Shears, Relations Between Father Connectedness and Child Outcomes R.M. Ryan, A. Martin, J. Brooks-Gunn, Is One Good Parent Good Enough? Patterns of Mother and Father Parenting and Child Cognitive Outcomes at 24 and 36 Months H. Raikes, J. Bellotti, Two Studies of Father Involvement in Early Head Start Programs. A National Survey and a Demonstration Program Evaluation H.E. Fitzgerald, L.M. McKelvey, R.F. Schiffman, M. Montanez, Exposure of Low-income Families and Their Children to Neighborhood Violence and Paternal Antisocial Behavior R.H. Bradley, J.K. Shears, L.A. Roggman, C.S. Tamis-LeMonda, Lessons Learned From Early Head Start for Fatherhood Research and Program Development.

Strangers, Friends, and Lovers Show Different Physiological Synchrony in Different Emotional States.

Abstract: The mere copresence of another person synchronizes physiological signals, but no study has systematically investigated the effects of the type of emotional state and the type of relationship in eliciting dyadic physiological synchrony. In this study, we investigated the synchrony of pairs of strangers, companions, and romantic partners while watching a series of video clips designed to elicit different emotions. Maximal cross-correlation of heart rate variability (HRV) was used to quantify dyadic synchrony. The findings suggest that an existing social relationship might reduce the predisposition to conform one’s autonomic responses to a friend or romantic partner during social situations that do not require direct interaction.

Stability of child temperament: Multiple moderation by child and mother characteristics

Abstract: This 3-wave longitudinal study focuses on stability of child temperament from 3 to 6 years and considers child age, gender, birth order, and term status as well as mother age, education, anxiety, and depression as moderators of stability. Mothers of approximately 10,000 children participating in the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children rated child temperament. Stability coefficients for child temperament scales were medium to large, and stability was generally robust across moderators except child gender and birth order and mother age and education, which had small moderating effects on reports of stability of child temperament. Statement of contribution What is already known on this subject? Some is known about the stability of temperament in infancy in small samples, but much less is known about the stability of temperament in early childhood or its moderation. What does this study add? This study uses a large sample (˜10,000) to trace the stability of temperament from 3 to 6 years in three waves and considers child age, gender, birth order, and term status as well as mother age, education, anxiety, and depression as moderators of stability.

Fostering optimal development and averting detrimental development: Prescriptions, proscriptions, and specificity

Abstract: Understanding relationships and contexts as “drivers” of development requires a fuller explication of the ecological contextual relational developmental systems framework along with the specificity principle of development. This commentary undertakes to meet that requirement.

Long-Term Effects of Parenting and Adolescent Self-Competence for the Development of Optimism and Neuroticism

Abstract: Optimism and neuroticism have strong public health significance; however, their developmental precursors have rarely been identified. This study examined adolescents’ self-competence and their parents’ parenting practices as developmental origins of optimism and neuroticism in a moderated mediation model. Data were collected when European American adolescents (N = 290, 47% girls) were 14, 18, and 23 years old. Multiple-group path analyses with the nested data revealed that 14-year psychological control and lax behavioral control of both parents predicted lower levels of 18-year adolescence self-competence, which in turn predicted decreased 23-year optimism and increased neuroticism. However, the positive effects of warmth on 18-year optimism were stronger in the context of high maternal and paternal authoritativeness, and the positive effects of warmth on adolescent self-competence was attenuated by maternal authoritarianism. This study identified nuanced effects of parenting on adolescents’ competence and personality, which point to important intervention targets to promote positive youth development.

Are Cry Studies Replicable? An Analysis of Participants, Procedures, and Methods Adopted and Reported in Studies of Infant Cries

Abstract: Infant cry is evolutionarily, psychologically, and clinically significant. Over the last half century, several researchers and clinicians have investigated acoustical properties of infant cry for medical purposes. However, this literature suffers a lack of standardization in conducting and reporting cry-based studies. In this work, methodologies and procedures employed to analyze infant cry are reviewed and best practices for reporting studies are provided. First, available literatures on vocal and audio acoustic analysis are examined to identify critical aspects of participant information, data collection, methods, and data analysis. Then, 180 peer-reviewed research articles have been assessed to certify the presence of critical information. Results show a general lack of critical description. Researchers in the field of infant cry need to develop a consensual standard set of criteria to report experimental studies to ensure the validity of their methods and results.

Effects of Baby Schema and Mere Exposure on Explicit and Implicit Face Processing.

Abstract: In an increasingly multicultural society, the way people perceive individuals from the same vs different ethnic groups greatly affects their own and societal well-being. Two psychological effects that influence these perceptions are the Mere-Exposure Effect (MRE), wherein familiarity with certain objects or persons suffices for people to develop a preference for them, and the Baby Schema (BS), a set of specific facial features that evokes caregiving behaviors and an affective orientation in adults. In the present study, we aimed to investigate whether these two effects play a role in implicit physiological responses to babies vs. adults faces belonging to participants in-group vs. out-group. In study 1, the pupillary diameter of 62 Caucasian participants (M = 31; F = 31) who observed adult and infant faces of different ethnic groups (Caucasian, Chinese) was measured. In study 2, brain waves of 38 Caucasian participants (M = 19; F = 19), who observed the same set of faces, were recorded using EEG. In both studies, adults explicit preferences (i.e., attitudes) toward faces were assessed using questionnaires. In Study 1, females showed greater attention to infant than adult faces (BS effect) in both pupils, regardless of the ethnic group of the face. By contrast, males attended to infant more than adult faces for out-group faces only (BS effect). In Study 2, greater left posterior-parietal alpha activation toward out-group compared to in-group adult faces was found in males (MRE). Participants with a low BS effect toward in-group baby faces exhibited greater left posterior alpha activation to out-group than in-group baby faces (MRE). These findings reveal how different levels of sensitivity to in-group infants may moderate perceptions of both in-group and out-group baby faces. Questionnaire measures on attitudes showed that males and females preferred in-group to out-group adult faces (MRE). Participants in Study 2 also reported a greater preference for infants than adults faces (BS effect). These findings explicate the roles of gender and the Baby Schema effect in moderating implicit processing of in-group and out-group faces, despite their lack in moderating explicit reports. Contradictory findings at the implicit (physiological) and explicit (self-report) levels suggest that differential processing of faces may occur at a non-conscious level.

External environment and internal state in relation to life-history behavioural profiles of adolescents in nine countries

Abstract: The external environment has traditionally been considered as the primary driver of animal life history (LH). Recent research suggests that animals' internal state is also involved, especially in f...

The Developmental Origins and Future Implications of Dispositional Optimism in the Transition to Adulthood.

Abstract: Despite the robust link between dispositional optimism and well-being across the lifespan, the developmental origins of dispositional optimism are unknown. Understanding the pathways that lead to g...

Household income predicts trajectories of child internalizing and externalizing behavior in high-, middle-, and low-income countries:

Abstract: This study examined longitudinal links between household income and parents' education and children's trajectories of internalizing and externalizing behaviors from age 8 to 10 reported by mothers, fathers, and children. Longitudinal data from 1,190 families in 11 cultural groups in eight countries (Colombia, Italy, Jordan, Kenya, Philippines, Sweden, Thailand, and United States) were included. Multigroup structural equation models revealed that household income, but not maternal or paternal education, was related to trajectories of mother-, father-, and child-reported internalizing and externalizing problems in each of the 11 cultural groups. Our findings highlight that in low-, middle-, and high-income countries, socioeconomic risk is related to children's internalizing and externalizing problems, extending the international focus beyond children's physical health to their emotional and behavioral development.

The Influences of Drug Abuse on Mother-Infant Interaction Through the Lens of the Biopsychosocial Model of Health and Illness: A Review.

Abstract: Women who abuse illicit drugs often engage in atypical parenting behaviors that interfere with the natural development of mother-infant interaction and attachment. Maternal caregiving deficits leave pronounced adverse consequences in the wake of drug abuse relapse, which often occurs and in early infancy. These are times when the child requires optimal parental care. The contemporary literature documents long-term implications of illicit drug-abuse in parenting on infants. However, factors that drive and sustain the influence of drug abuse on parent-infant outcomes remain elusive. This review adopts a biopsychosocial approach to synthesizing the existing state of knowledge on this issue. Mother-infant interaction is a dynamic socio-relational process that occurs at multiple levels of organization. As such, a biopsychosocial perspective enables us to uncover: (i) roles of specific physiological mechanisms and biological characteristics of atypical parenting in mothers who abuse drugs, (ii) the influence of drugs on maternal psychological state (i.e., beliefs regarding parenting practices, emotional regulation), and (iii) social relationships (i.e., relationships with spouse and other drug abusers) and contextual cues (i.e., triggers) that moderate non-optimal maternal caregiving. A comprehensive review of these key domains provides a nuanced understanding of how these several sources interdependently shape atypical parent-infant interaction amongst drug abusing mothers. Systematic elucidation of major factors underlying drug-abused maternal behaviors facilitates the development of targeted and more effective interventions.

The Architecture of the Child Mind: g, Fs, and the Hierarchical Model of Intelligence

Abstract: What exactly does it mean to be intelligent? Does intelligence manifest itself in one way or in different ways in children? Do children fit any preconceived notions of intelligence? Some theories assert a general (g) factor for intelligence that is universal and enters all mental abilities; other theories state that there are many separate domains or faculties (Fs) of intelligence; and still others argue that the g and Fs of intelligence coexist in a hierarchical relation. The Architecture of the Child Mind: g, Fs, and the Hierarchical Model of Intelligence argues for the third option in young children. Through state-of-the-art methodologies in an intensive research program conducted with 4-year-old children, Bornstein and Putnick show that the structure of intelligence in the preschool child is best construed as a hierarchically organized combination of a General Intelligence factor (g) and multiple domain-specific faculties (Fs). The Architecture of the Child Mind offers a review of the history of intelligence theories and testing, and a comprehensive and original research effort on the nature and structure of intelligence in young children before they enter school. Its focus on intelligence will appeal to cognitive, developmental, and social psychologists as well as researchers and scholars in education, particularly those specializing in early childhood education.

Brain Processes in Mothers and Nulliparous Women in Response to Cry in Different Situational Contexts: A Default Mode Network Study

Abstract: Objective: In everyday life, parents must respond to and interact with children while in different situational contexts. How situational contexts influence parents’ responses has not been systemati...

Mother-infant Interactions With Firstborns and Secondborns: A Within-Family Study of European Americans

Abstract: Given the large numbers of families with more than one child, understanding similarities and differences in siblings’ behaviors and in parents’ interactions with their sibling infants is an important goal for advancing more representative developmental science. This study employed a within-family design to examine mean-level consistency and individual-order agreement in 5-month-old sibling behaviors and maternal parenting practices with their firstborns and secondborns (ns = 61 mothers and 122 infants). Each infant was seen independently with mother. Firstborn infants were more social with their mothers and engaged in more exploration with objects than secondborn infants; firstborn and secondborn infants’ behaviors were correlated for smiling, distress communication, and efficiency of exploration. Mothers engaged in more physical encouragement, social exchange, didactic interaction, material provisioning, and language with their firstborns than with their secondborns. Notably, only maternal nurturing (e.g., feeding, holding) did not differ in mean level when mothers were with their two infants. However, mean differences in mothers’ social exchange and material provisioning with their two children attenuated to nonsignificance when controlling for differences in siblings’ behaviors. Individual-order agreement of mothers’ behaviors with firstborn and secondborn infants (across an average of almost 3 years) was only moderate. These findings suggest that mother–firstborn interactions may differ from mother–secondborn interactions. Future research should move beyond studying mother–firstborn dyads to understand broader family and developmental processes.

Chaos, Danger, and Maternal Parenting in Families : Links with Adolescent Adjustment in Low- and Middle-Income Countries

Abstract: The current longitudinal study is the first comparative investigation across low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) to test the hypothesis that harsher and less affectionate maternal parenting (child age 14 years, on average) statistically mediates the prediction from prior household chaos and neighborhood danger (at 13 years) to subsequent adolescent maladjustment (externalizing, internalizing, and school performance problems at 15 years). The sample included 511 urban families in six LMICs: China, Colombia, Jordan, Kenya, the Philippines, and Thailand. Multigroup structural equation modeling showed consistent associations between chaos, danger, affectionate and harsh parenting, and adolescent adjustment problems. There was some support for the hypothesis, with nearly all countries showing a modest indirect effect of maternal hostility (but not affection) for adolescent externalizing, internalizing, and scholastic problems. Results provide further evidence that chaotic home and dangerous neighborhood environments increase risk for adolescent maladjustment in LMIC contexts, via harsher maternal parenting.

Complex problem solving: Profiles and developmental paths revealed via latent transition analysis.

Abstract: Complexity is one of the major demands of adolescents' future life as adults. To investigate adolescents' competence development in applying problem-solving strategies in complex environments, we conducted a 2-wave longitudinal study in a sample of Finnish adolescents (11-17 years old; N = 1,959 at Time 1 and N = 1,690 at Time 2, 3 years later). In this study, we aimed to: (a) determine the optimal number of strategy use profiles while solving complex problems, (b) determine the number of meaningful developmental paths for each profile, and (c) test the impact of reasoning abilities and learning-related motivational beliefs on the probability that an adolescent with a given strategy use profile will take a given developmental path. Using latent transition analysis, we found 4 meaningful strategy use profiles: Proficient Explorers, Rapid Learners, Emerging Explorers, and Low-Performing Explorers. Forty-three percent of the participants were classified as having the same strategy use profile in Time 1 and Time 2. The strategy use of 34% was assessed as having improved between Time 1 and Time 2, while that of 21% was assessed as having declined between Time 1 and Time 2. Verbal reasoning ability and learning-related motivational beliefs predicted whether the developmental path of Emerging Explorers' was more likely to remain stable, improve, or decline over time. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

Continuity, Stability, and Concordance of Socioemotional Functioning in Mothers and their Sibling Children.

Abstract: This within-family longitudinal study accomplishes a novel multivariate assessment of socioemotional parenting cognitions and practices in mothers and their sibling children's socioemotional behaviors. Mothers participated with their 20-month-old firstborns and again, an average of 3 years later, with their 20-month-old secondborns (55 families, 165 participants). Continuity and stability in maternal cognitions and practices between the two times, and similarities, differences, and correspondences in siblings' behaviors, are assessed and compared. Maternal socioemotional parenting cognitions were continuous in mean level and stable in individual differences across siblings; maternal socioemotional practices were continuous in mean level but unstable in individual differences. Firstborns were more sociable and emotionally available to mothers than secondborns; first- and secondborns' socioemotional behaviors were largely unrelated. This study contributes to understanding socioemotional domains of parenting and child development, birth order effects, and the shared and nonshared contexts of siblings' environments within the family.

Language and Play in Parent–Child Interactions

Abstract: This chapter reviews parents’ role in children’s early language development and the features of child-directed speech that promote language learning. It provides to parenting in play and examines how parent–child play interactions support children’s exploratory, nonsymbolic, and symbolic play skills through children’s second year of life, and review evidence for cross-domain associations between parent–child play and children’s language development. The chapter focuses on specifically on object play, which provides children with opportunities to engage in joint attention with parents, learn language, and use their imaginations in pretense. It examines how cultural contexts shape parent–child language and play interactions and end with pedagogical implications and future research directions. The chatper describes these features of parent language input and how parents developmentally scaffold word learning in children by modifying their speech to accommodate children’s changing skills.

Comparative and Individual Perspectives on Mother–Infant Interactions with People and Objects among South Koreans, Korean Americans, and European Americans

Abstract: Comparative and individual acculturation of mother and infant person-directed and object-directed behaviors and interactions were investigated among 183 South Korean, Korean American, and European American mothers and their 5½-month-old infants. We analyzed and compared mean levels in mothers' and infants' person- and object-directed behaviors and partner responsiveness and initiation of these behaviors in dyads in the three cultural groups. Among Korean American dyads, we also analyzed individual-level variation in the acculturation of these behaviors and interactions. This study reveals how contrasting South Korean and European American cultural values are embedded and manifested in early mother-infant interactions and how cultural values from South Korean origin and European American destination cultures are interwoven in Korean American mother-infant interactions.

Children's Academic, Artistic, and Athletic Competencies: Successes Are in the Eye of the Beholder.

Abstract: A significant challenge to fully understanding children’s academic and other competencies is dependency of the determination on the method of study, including notably who makes the assessment. This study examined similarities and differences in child, mother, father, and teacher reports of children’s competencies across multiple domains of math, reading, music, and sports from two separate perspectives of rater agreement, mean level and order association. Two hundred and sixty-seven European American families were recruited from the mid-Atlantic region of the United States, and children, mothers and fathers, and teachers completed a commonly used rating measure of children’s competencies when the children were 10 years of age. Results showed (1) high levels of order agreement (perhaps reflecting the observable nature of children’s competencies), (2) some systematic mean level differences across raters, and (3) little inter-domain agreement (except among teachers, which may reflect teachers’ unique perspectives on children’s competencies). The educational, developmental, and methodological implications of the findings are discussed in the context of children’s school performance. Who makes the determination of children’s several different competencies matters.

Parenting and Infant Cry

Abstract: This Special Issue collects five empirical studies from around the world that use diverse methodological approaches and focus at different levels to investigate how behavioral, hormonal, prenatal a...

Inaudible components of the human infant cry influence haemodynamic responses in the breast region of mothers

Abstract: Distress vocalizations are fundamental for survival, and both sonic and ultrasonic components of such vocalizations are preserved phylogenetically among many mammals. On this basis, we hypothesized that ultrasonic inaudible components of the acoustic signal might play a heretofore hidden role in humans as well. By investigating the human distress vocalization (infant cry), here we show that, similar to other species, the human infant cry contains ultrasonic components that modulate haemodynamic responses in mothers, without the mother being consciously aware of those modulations. In two studies, we measured the haemodynamic activity in the breasts of mothers while they were exposed to the ultrasonic components of infant cries. Although mothers were not aware of ultrasounds, the presence of the ultrasounds in combination with the audible components increased oxygenated haemoglobin concentration in the mothers’ breast region. This modulation was observed only when the body surface was exposed to the ultrasonic components. These findings provide the first evidence indicating that the ultrasonic components of the acoustic signal play a role in human mother–infant interaction.