No abstract

This meta-analysis of maternal sensitivity and infant/toddler attachment security includes 41 studies with 2243 dyads. Its purpose is to explore the impact of time between assessments of maternal sensitivity and attachment security on the strength of association between these two constructs. We also examined the interrelationships between this moderator variable and other moderators identified in the literature, such as age and risk status of the sample. We found an overall effect size of r = .27 linking sensitivity to security. However, time between assessment of sensitivity and attachment security moderates this effect size, such that: (1) effect sizes decrease dramatically as one moves from concurrent to nonconcurrent assessments, and (2) temporally distant assessments are a sufficient condition for small effect size; that is, if the time between assessments is large, then a relatively small effect size linking sensitivity and attachment is certain. We also found that time between sensitivity and attachment assessments may account for earlier findings indicating that effect sizes linking sensitivity to security differ according to age of child and sample risk status. Findings are discussed in terms of internal working models and environmental stability.

The use of spoken and written language is a fundamental human capacity. Individual differences in reading- and language-related skills are influenced by genetic variation, with twin-based heritability estimates of 30 to 80% depending on the trait. The genetic architecture is complex, heterogeneous, and multifactorial, but investigations of contributions of single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) were thus far underpowered. We present a multicohort genome-wide association study (GWAS) of five traits assessed individually using psychometric measures (word reading, nonword reading, spelling, phoneme awareness, and nonword repetition) in samples of 13,633 to 33,959 participants aged 5 to 26 y. We identified genome-wide significant association with word reading (rs11208009, P = 1.098 × 10 −8 ) at a locus that has not been associated with intelligence or educational attainment. All five reading-/language-related traits showed robust SNP heritability, accounting for 13 to 26% of trait variability. Genomic structural equation modeling revealed a shared genetic factor explaining most of the variation in word/nonword reading, spelling, and phoneme awareness, which only partially overlapped with genetic variation contributing to nonword repetition, intelligence, and educational attainment. A multivariate GWAS of word/nonword reading, spelling, and phoneme awareness maximized power for follow-up investigation. Genetic correlation analysis with neuroimaging traits identified an association with the surface area of the banks of the left superior temporal sulcus, a brain region linked to the processing of spoken and written language. Heritability was enriched for genomic elements regulating gene expression in the fetal brain and in chromosomal regions that are depleted of Neanderthal variants. Together, these results provide avenues for deciphering the biological underpinnings of uniquely human traits.

Attentional–inhibitory control and social–behavioral regulation are two outcome domains commonly impaired after childhood closed head injury (CHI). We compared neuropsychological tests of attentional–inhibitory control (vigilance, selective attention, response modulation) and social discourse and intentionality (inferencing, figurative language, and speech acts) with parent ratings of attention and behavioral regulation in relation to four injury- related variables: age at CHI, time since CHI, CHI injury severity, and frontal lobe injury moderated by CHI severity. Participants were 105 school-aged children in the chronic stage of CHI, divided into mild, moderate, and severe injury severity groups, and further subdivided according to frontal lobe injury. Outcome indices were imperfectly correlated in the group as a whole, although several relations between neurocognitive tests and parent ratings were observed within CHI subgroups. Different domains of cognitive function had different predictors. For attentional–inhibitory control, age at injury and time since injury were most predictive of outcome; for social discourse, predictors were injury severity and frontal lobe injury moderated by injury severity. Variability in cognitive outcome after childhood CHI is not random, but appears related to age, time, and biological features of the injury. (JINS, 2001, 7, 683–692.)

Children who developed hypothalamic obesity had a significant, rapid BMI increase over the first 6 months, followed by stabilization, with no regression of BMI SDS.