Empathy and executive functions (EFs) are multimodal constructs that enable individuals to cope with their environment. Both abilities develop throughout childhood and are known to contribute to social behavior and academic performance in young adolescents. Notably, mentalizing and EF activate shared frontotemporal brain areas, which in previous…

While factors influencing maternal emotional availability (EA) have been well investigated, little is known about the development of child EA. The present longitudinal study investigated the role of frontal brain asymmetry in young children with regard to child EA (child responsiveness and involvement) in mother-child interaction in a sample of 28…

Pubertal development is a nonlinear process progressing from prepubescent beginnings through biological, physical, and psychological changes to full sexual maturity. To tether theoretical concepts of puberty with sophisticated longitudinal, analytical models capable of articulating pubertal development more accurately, we used nonlinear…

Self-regulation, or the ability to control one's actions and responses, is essential for healthy development across varied contexts. Self-regulation comes in several forms, including emotional, behavioral, and cognitive. The present study sought to examine whether individual differences in one form of self-regulation was related to children's…

This longitudinal study examined individual differences and correlates of focused attention when toddlers were approximately 18 months old (T1; n = 256) and a year later (T2; n = 230). Toddlers' attention and negative emotionality were reported by mothers and non-parental caregivers and rated globally by observers. Toddlers' focused attention also…

Assessments of temperament, emotion, cognition, and language acquisition were obtained for 200 pairs of 14-month-old twins. Comparisons between the assessment correlations for identical and fraternal twins indicated an influence of genetics on inhibition, activity, temperament, empathy, negative emotion, spatial memory, categorization skills, and…

A 13-month study of preschoolers' conversations with friends examined development of understanding of mind and emotion and mental-state talk. Findings indicated significant and related improvements in theory-of-mind task performance and affective perspective-taking. There were qualitative and quantitative changes in mental-state references in…

Highlights three longitudinal studies examining the hypothesis that attachment security during infancy influences individual differences and adult representations of attachment. Notes that attachment security was significantly stable in two studies, with discontinuity in all three studies related to negative life events and circumstances.…

Assessed attachment security in 60 white middle-class infants at 12 months and conducted Adult Attachment Interview 20 years later. Found that 72 percent of infants received same attachment classification in early adulthood. Forty-four percent of infants whose mothers reported negative life events changed attachment classifications by adulthood,…

Examined anger regulation/display in family interaction when children were age 6 and child antisocial behavior longitudinally to age 7. Found that parents' ability to modulate their emotions/negative behavior and children's ability to down-regulate anger related to increased child anger latency. Hazard for child anger increased as parents'…

Investigates the relationship between early interactional patterns and later cognitive performance in 29 infant-mother pairs. Results indicate that cognitive milestones are relatively uniform in the first two years of life. Socio-emotional development showed a variety of profiles. (RJC)

Examined the relation between three-year-olds' conversations about feeling states and their ability to recognize emotions at six years. Differences in discourse about feelings were correlated with later ability to recognize emotions. Associations were independent of children's verbal ability and the frequency of talk in the families. (BC)

Examines new studies of family-level dynamics that explain individual variability in early socioemotional development. Shows that family processes help explain unique variance in conceptually related measures of child development. Reviews studies showing prospective links between family processes during infancy and behavior at age 4, and…

We examined individual differences in developmental trajectories of emotion situation knowledge (ESK), at three time points throughout elementary school in a sample of children from economically disadvantaged families. Results showed that ESK and the subscales of joy, fear, anger, shame and interest exhibited positive growth from the first to the…

Investigated potential differences between nonreferred children with and without callous-unemotional (CU) traits. Found that children with conduct problems, irrespective of CU trait presence, tended to have significant problems in emotional and behavioral regulation. CU traits, irrespective of conduct problem presence, related to a lack of…