Parent and Child Factors Associated with Preschool Age Children’s Cognitive Self-Regulation (2008)

Undergraduates: Nicole Ginn, none none none

Faculty Advisor: Martha Cox
Department: Psychology & Neuroscience

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This study used 160 mother-child dyads from the Durham Child Health & Development Study to examine the role of parent and child factors on children’s development of cognitive self-regulation. Predictors included child temperament during the first year of life and maternal sensitivity and quality of instruction during the second year of life. The outcome variable was executive functioning difficulties at 30 months. Building upon previous research suggesting that parent-child interactions may significantly influence children’s development of self-regulatory abilities, this study sought to examine the effects of the interactions of child temperament, maternal quality of instruction and sensitivity on later executive functioning difficulties in preschool aged children. Consistent with previous research we found that low levels of maternal quality of instruction were predictive of later executive functioning difficulties in 30 month old children. No significant interactions were found between maternal sensitivity and quality of instruction, although there was a significant interaction between quality of instruction and child temperament. Specifically difficult child temperament was only associated with increased executive functioning difficulties when maternal quality of instruction was low. There was no evidence for a three-way interaction between maternal quality of instruction, sensitivity, and child temperament.