Parenting differentially influences the development of boys' and girls' inhibitory control

Abstract

Effortful control (EC) has important implications for children's development. While both child sex and parenting are related to child EC, and while a literature shows early sex differences in children's responses to care, interactions between care and child sex in predicting EC are not well understood. We therefore examined associations between child sex and early caregiving as predictors of children's development of a specific aspect of EC, inhibitory control (IC). A community sample of 406 three-year-old children and their caregivers completed behavioural tasks and observational measures of parenting and IC, and children were re-assessed for IC at age 5. Results showed that early care influenced change in IC over time, although caregiving was a more important influence on boys' IC than girls; specifically, differences in boys' and girls' IC at age 5 were modest when parenting was positive. The implications of a better understanding of sex differences in associations between parenting and the development of IC in early childhood are discussed. Statement of contribution What is already known on this subject? While sex differences in reactivity to early care in the development of externalizing symptoms have been explored, very little is known about such differences in children's early-emerging effortful control. What does this study add? Using a longitudinal design and independent, laboratory methods of assessing study constructs, we provide new information showing that early care appears to differentially influence boys' development of inhibitory control, a key aspect of effortful control, in early childhood.

Does maternal warmth moderate longitudinal associations between infant attention control and children's inhibitory control?

“…Parenting behaviours such as sensitivity and cognitive stimulation shape early development by facilitating healthy cognitive and regulatory development (Cabrera et al, 2011;Mills-Koonce et al, 2010). Moreover, research has demonstrated support for the association between high-quality maternal-child interactions and child executive functions, such as IC (Bernier et al, 2010), especially parental sensitivity in the toddler years (Amicarelli, Kotelnikova, Smith, Kryski, & Hayden, 2018;Kochanska, Murray, & Harlan, 2000).…”

Relações entre Parentalidade e Funções Executivas: Uma Revisão Sistemática

“…Em relação à categoria "construtos gerais de parentalidade", os fatores latentes de qualidade parental (Meuwissen & Englund, 2016;Rolan et al, 2018;Sulik et al, 2015) e parentalidade positiva (Amicarelli et al, 2018;Blair et al, 2011;Smith et al, 2013) estiveram associados com uma melhor habilidade executiva, enquanto os componentes de parentalidade negativa apresentaram relações inversas ao desempenho das FEs em todos os estudos (Blair et al, 2011;Devine et al, 2016;Hughes & Devine, 2017;Smith et al, 2013). Quanto à categoria "práticas de cuidado e afetividade parental", a sensibilidade se mostrou associada positivamente às FEs em parte dos estudos (Blair et al, 2014;Gueron-Sela et al, 2017;Holochwost et al, 2018;Kok et al, 2014;Lucassen et al, 2015;Spruijt et al, 2018); porém, Cheng et al (2018), em uma amostra de crianças chinesas de seis a 38 meses, Para a variável hostilidade, Lam et al (2018) observaram relações negativas com as FEs, tanto para hostilidade materna, quanto paterna.…”

Relations between catechol‐O‐methyltransferase Val158Met genotype and inhibitory control development in childhood

“…Notably, Met/Met boys in positive parenting environments had higher levels of parent‐reported IC (Sulik et al, ). Future research should explore what environmental influences, such as parenting or early adversity, interact with COMT genotype to predict unexplained variance in trajectories of IC development (Amicarelli, Kotelnikova, Smith, Kryski, & Hayden, ; Moilanen, Shaw, Dishion, Gardner, & Wilson, ). Similarly, initial work has also demonstrated a link between COMT , IC, and internalizing psychopathology (Sulik et al, ), in line with other work linking temperament, IC development, and anxiety specifically (Troller‐Renfree et al, ).…”