Differential components of reactivity and attentional control predicting externalizing behavior

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.appdev.2014.02.002Get rights and content

Highlights

  • We examine specific, unique interplays of individual factors.

  • Low sadness and high anger reactivity directly predict externalizing behavior.

  • Low attention focusing directly predicts externalizing behavior.

  • Anger reactivity and attention shifting interact to predict externalizing behavior.

Abstract

The present study examined the contribution of early reactivity and regulation on externalizing behavior in preadolescence. Moreover, subcomponents of attentional control (i.e., attention shifting and attention focusing) and negative reactivity (i.e., sadness and anger) were examined individually to test whether a specific combination of factors uniquely contributed to the outcome. A subset of data were utilized from the ongoing, longitudinal RIGHT Track project (N = 404), in which parents reported on individual factors at age 4 and teachers reported on externalizing behavior at age 10. A hierarchical linear regression analysis revealed a significant interaction between anger reactivity and attention shifting when controlling for early externalizing behavior, where children with high levels of anger and low levels of attention shifting experienced the greatest increase in externalizing behavior over time. An increased focus on specificity is needed in research on the interplay between reactivity and regulation in the prediction of externalizing behavior.

Section snippets

Recruitment and attrition

The current study utilized data from three cohorts of children who are part of an ongoing longitudinal study of social and emotional development. The goal for recruitment was to obtain a sample of children who were at risk for developing future externalizing behavior problems, and who were representative of the surrounding community in terms of race and socioeconomic status (SES). All cohorts were recruited through child day care centers, the County Health Department, and the local Women,

Results

The data were first imputed to account for missing values using the missing value analysis (MVA) technique in SPSS version 20. Little's (Little & Rubin, 2002) missing completely at random (MCAR) yielded a Chi-square = 2425.12 (p = 0.91; df = 2520), indicating that the data were not systematically missing. An expectation-maximization (EM) algorithm was then used to generate values to fill in all the missing data. Preliminary analyses were conducted, and the scales were normally distributed based upon

Discussion

The current study sought to clarify the role of reactivity and regulation on externalizing behavior by examining specific individual factors and establishing the presence of a unique interactive effect between attention shifting and anger reactivity. We investigated the interplay between cognitive and affective processes based upon the developmental psychopathology perspective, which highlights how converging processes initiate maladaptive pathways (Sroufe, 2009). More specifically, Eisenberg

Acknowledgments

Support for this project was provided by a grant from the National Institutes of Mental Health (58144) awarded to Dr. Susan D. Calkins, Dr. Susan P. Keane, Dr. Marion O'Brien, and Dr. Lilly Shanahan. Thank you to the Right Track families for participating in our project.

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