Cognitive Control Moderates Associations Between Domains of Temperamental Reactivity and Preschoolers' Social Behaviors. Dev Psychobiol 2024 Nov;66(7):e22545
Date
09/05/2024Pubmed ID
39236225Pubmed Central ID
PMC11466368DOI
10.1002/dev.22545Scopus ID
2-s2.0-85203126388 (requires institutional sign-in at Scopus site)Abstract
Temperamental characteristics and emerging cognitive control are meaningful predictors of children's development of adaptive and maladaptive social behaviors during the preschool period. However, knowledge of the interplay of these pathways, when examined concurrently to highlight their individual contributions, is limited. Using a cross-sectional sample of 3-year-old children, we examined parent-reported discrete traits of negative (anger, fear, sadness, and shyness) and positive (low- and high-intensity pleasure) temperamental reactivity as predictors of children's prosociality and physical aggression. Further, we tested whether the effects of discrete temperament were moderated by cognitive control, as indexed by the N2 event-related potential, during a go/no-go task. Analyses focus on a subsample of children with an observable N2 (n = 66). When controlling for other relative temperament traits, several significant main effects emerged. Moreover, at low cognitive control (smaller N2), fear was negatively associated with aggression, whereas at high cognitive control, sadness was positively associated with aggression. Heightened anger was linked to reduced prosocial behavior when cognitive control was low but linked to greater prosocial behavior when cognitive control was high. The results highlight that discrete temperament traits predict individual differences in child outcomes but that associations depend on concurrent levels of cognitive control.
Author List
Mistry-Patel S, Nyman-Mallis T, Dollar JM, Gagne JR, Brooker RJAuthor
Tristin Nyman-Mallis PhD Assistant Professor in the Neurology department at Medical College of WisconsinMESH terms used to index this publication - Major topics in bold
AggressionAnger
Child Behavior
Child Development
Child, Preschool
Cognition
Cross-Sectional Studies
Evoked Potentials
Executive Function
Fear
Female
Humans
Male
Shyness
Social Behavior
Temperament
