There are many difficulties associated with problematic social-emotional skills in childhood. These range from poor academic performance (Brinbaum, et al., 2003; Delany-Black et al., 2002; Wallach, 1994), school suspension (Lippincott-Williams & Wilkins, 2004), school drop-out (Farmer & Farmer 1999; Gagnon, Craig, Trombley, Zhou, & Vitaro, 1995), aggression (Cicchetti & Toth, 1995), and poor peer relations (Izard et al., 2001; Schultz, Izard, & Ackerman, 2000; Schultz, Izard, Ackerman, & Youngstrom, 2001). Preschool programming provides an early opportunity to build social-emotional skills and avoid some of these adverse outcomes. The question for many school districts is how to design a preschool program format that is both consistent with best practice and fits within a feasibility framework. The goal of this research study was to provide information that could be used by school districts to guide preschool program development. The study looked at the differential outcomes on dependent measures of social-emotional functioning for children aged 3 to 5-years who participated in an 8-month preschool program (n=74). The children were in 2 treatment groups (i.e., those receiving a classroom-based social skills intervention and those receiving the classroom intervention plus a home-based intervention) and a non-treatment control group. The groups also differed in group membership. The treatment group children met a criterion such as having a diagnosis or low socio-economic status. The control group consisted of children who met these same criteria, but also had members who were invited by teachers or attended based on parent request. Therefore, the control group was more heterogeneous than either treatment group. The implications of this study for school districts developing a model for preschool programming are discussed. In addition, the limitations of this study as well as potential directions for future research are reviewed.

archives@tulane.edu / Working with traumatized individuals can result in the development of secondary traumatic stress (STS) symptoms, which can lead to significant emotional and occupational impairment (e.g., Figley, 1995; Lee et al., 2015). Although STS has been investigated across many helping professions, few studies have considered its effects among educators. The primary goal of the current study was to determine whether teacher secondary traumatic stress (STS) influences student socio-emotional functioning through its effects on teacher-student relationships. A second goal was to examine predictors associated with the development of STS symptomology in teachers. This study was conducted with 150 educators and 610 students across six urban, public, charter schools in the Gulf South. Multi-level structural equation modeling (ML-SEM) was used to examine the impact of STS symptoms on two important dimensions of teacher-student relationships (sensitivity and quality) and the subsequent implications for student socio-emotional outcomes. The model also examined predictors of teacher STS symptom severity including teacher adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and use of cognitive reappraisal (CR) as an emotion regulation strategy. Findings indicated that STS was associated with increased student socio-emotional difficulties. Contrary to study hypotheses, teacher STS was not associated with teacher-reported relationship quality nor was it associated with observations of teacher sensitivity. When predictors of STS were examined, teachers’ use of cognitive reappraisal (CR) was negatively associated with STS and teacher ACEs were positively associated with STS. The current findings highlight the importance of continued efforts to identify the prevalence and impact of STS among teachers as well as the associated outcomes for students. Additionally, by helping to identify risk and protective factors associated with STS symptoms in teachers, the current findings can inform efforts to prepare, train, and support educators as they work to foster students’ socio-emotional development in concert with academics. / 1 / Kathryn Simon

This study examined the influence of contextual risk factors and parental depression on the social-emotional functioning of very young children. Ninety-four young children were recruited as part of a larger ongoing research project recruiting caregivers and children from Early Head Start programs in South Florida. Children ranged in age from 12 to 36 months and included 65 girls and 29 boys. There were 94 caregivers in the current study: 91 mothers, 2 fathers, and 1 foster mother. Caregivers were diverse in terms of age, ranging from 19 to 42 years of age (M = 27.31, SD = 5.75), ethnicity (84% African- or Caribbean-American, 14.9% Hispanic/Latino, and 1.1% Mixed/Other), and in number of years of school completed, ranging from 1 to 16 years (M = 12.02, SD = 1.91). The current study employed a cumulative risk factor perspective in examining the social-emotional functioning of infants and toddlers. Specifically, the current study tested both a threshold model and a linear model of cumulative risk. Study measures included a background questionnaire, a measure of parental depression, a measure of parenting stress, a measure of child exposure to violence, and a measure of traumatic life events in a child?s life. Further analyses examined ethnicity as a moderator of the relationship between cumulative risk and difficulties with social-emotional functioning. Results showed a significant linear relationship between cumulative risk and social-emotional functioning. However, ethnicity did not moderate this relationship. When individual risk factors were examined post hoc, parental depression, stressful parent-child interactions, having a child with special needs, and community violence were shown to significantly predict difficulties with social-emotional functioning among very young children. These data have important implications for prevention and intervention efforts.

Sleep appears to play a critical role in regulating daytime functioning in children. However, few child-focused studies have used objective measures of sleep and examined its role in emotional functioning, memory, and attention. This dissertation consisted of 2 studies. Study 1 examined children’s typical sleep and how it correlates with daytime functioning in 32 typically developing children (14 boys, 18 girls), 8 to 12 years of age (M=9.8 y, SD=1.4). Participants wore actigraphs (recording devices that provide information about sleep and activity) for 1 week and then completed tasks to measure emotional functioning, memory, and attention. On average, children slept less than 9 h per night, which is approximately 1 h less than the recommended duration for this age. Older children had shorter sleep durations, higher sleep efficiency, and later sleep onset times. Correlational analyses revealed that within this group of typically developing children, small variations in sleep were associated with statistically significant effects on daytime functioning. Specifically, shorter sleep duration was associated with increased negative affective response, and lower sleep efficiency was associated with poorer performance on a divided attention task. Study 2 involved experimental manipulation of sleep duration in the same sample of children. Following a week of typical sleep, each child was randomly assigned to go to bed 1 h earlier for 4 nights (Extended condition) or 1 h hour later for 4 nights (Restricted condition) relative to their typical bedtime. Each child then completed the opposite condition. Following each condition, emotional functioning, memory, and attention were assessed using objective and subjective measures. The sleep manipulation was effective: the children slept significantly longer in the Extended (M=9.3 h, SD=0.6) versus Restricted (M=8.1 h, SD=0.7) condition, and children were significantly sleepier in the Restricted condition according to parent, child, and research assistant report. Positive affective response, emotion regulation, memory, and aspects of attention were worse in the Restricted, compared to Extended condition. These studies provide evidence that modest variations in sleep can have substantial effects on daytime functioning in children. Clinical implications are discussed, including the importance of identifying sleep problems and promoting healthy sleep habits in children.

Depressive symptoms and sleep are both strongly associated with deficits in emotional functioning (Durmer & Dinges, 2005; van der Helm & Walker, 2010). Although sleep and depression are tightly intertwined, understanding their independent and conjoint impact on emotional functioning is imperative. Given the limitations of previous designs, the primary goal of this study was to examine the separate impact of poor sleep quality and depressive symptoms on emotion regulation. In order to accomplish this goal, we preselected groups on the basis of their sleep and depression profiles: individuals with mainly sleep problems (N = 30), individuals with mainly depressive symptoms (N = 10), individuals who scored highly on both problems (N = 37), as well as individuals who are low on both problems (N = 33). Main predictions were that sleep would be uniquely associated with poor trait and laboratory emotion regulation. Results were contrary to hypotheses in that we found main effects of depression on all self-reported measures of emotion regulation and a main effect of sleep on rumination alone. Sleep and depression both predicted affective consequences of laboratory emotion regulation but in the opposite of the expected direction: greater severity scores predicted more benefit from instructed emotion regulation strategy use in the laboratory. Further discussion centers on the complexity of sleep problems and future directions for a greater understanding of sleep within emotion regulation.

Childhood maltreatment is an experience that is likely to have lasting effects on individuals' emotional and behavioral functioning throughout their lifetimes. In particular, childhood maltreatment often is implicated in the etiology of numerous unfavorable psychological outcomes. Other research also suggested that there is a relationship between child maltreatment and the style of attachment that individuals exhibit post-abuse. Lastly, an association exists between individuals' attachment styles and their emotional and behavioral functioning. Despite substantial documentation of these relationships, few studies examine childhood maltreatment, attachment, and emotional and behavioral functioning collectively. As a result, this study examined the relationships among childhood maltreatment, attachment relationships, and later emotional and behavioral functioning, including eating behaviors. In addition, this study examined the role that attachment serves in the relationship between child maltreatment and later functioning. One hundred participants completed five questionnaires assessing experiences of childhood maltreatment, attachment relationships, emotional and behavioral functioning, and eating behaviors. Results of this study indicated that those individuals who report childhood maltreatment are more likely to report unfavorable emotional and behavioral functioning, whereas those who report childhood maltreatment but who exhibit a secure attachment style to either a parent or a peer are less likely to exhibit unfavorable emotional and behavioral functioning. Further, both the experience of childhood maltreatment and attachment were significant predictors of individuals' emotional and behavioral functioning. Finally, attachment contributed unique significant variance to the relationship between childhood maltreatment and emotional and behavioral functioning, particularly participants' internalizing and total problems.; Such findings suggested that secure attachment may serve as a protective factor against problematic emotional and behavioral symptoms as children reach emerging adulthood, even when individuals have had childhood maltreatment experiences earlier in their lives. The importance of studying the relationships among these variables is discussed.

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Based on existing theories of personality and socio-emotional functioning (e.g. Clark, 2005; Lynch, Hempel & Clark, in press) a new model is proposed and tested. The model hypothesises that (i) temperament (reward and threat sensitivity) and childhood invalidation predict problems with interpersonal functioning, (ii) this effect is mediated by self-regulatory capacity; where self-regulatory capacity comprises self-control (ranging from emotional over-control to emotional under-control) and flexible control and (iii) self-regulatory capacity itself has a quadratic relationship with interpersonal functioning. A UK community sample (n= 512) completed a self-report survey, measuring each of the aforementioned latent variables. Structural equation modelling (SEM) was used to determine the goodness-of-fit of this and variations of this model. SEM identified that a non-mediation model provided the best fit (χ²=49.403, p< 0.001; CFI=0.98; RMSEA=0.056). Good-fit was obtained for a model including flexible control as a partial mediator (χ²=269.06, p< 0.001; CFI=0.956; RMSEA=0.081) and adequate-fit for a model including over-control as a partial mediator (χ²= 91.744, p < 0.001, CFI=0.932; RMSEA= 0.096). Correlation analyses suggested that over-control and under-control correlated positively with interpersonal problems. Results from SEM provided promising initial evidence for the mediating role of self-regulatory capacity, particularly for the flexible control component. Correlation analyses provided support for the non-linear relationship between self-regulatory capacity and interpersonal functioning, whereby extreme over-control or extreme under-control is associated with interpersonal problems. Findings have implications for identifying mechanisms of change for therapeutic approaches to emotion dysregulation and for understanding the over-controlled population, which has previously been overlooked.

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Mental health disorders are rising in children and being referred to as an epidemic. Numerous studies have shown micronutrient deficiencies and poor diet quality are suspected of playing a contributory role in the escalation of certain disorders. However, there is no research in young children focusing specifically on social emotional disorders and possible links to nutrition. Conventional treatment for social emotional disorders in children typically involves medication. Parents are increasingly turning to complementary and alternative medicine to treat their children with a method that is individualized and holistic. The biopsychosocial model provided the theoretical framework for this correlational study that investigated the association between nutrient intake and social emotional functioning. Multiple regression analyses were conducted to determine if diet/health indicators were significant predictors of any of the subscale scores on the Behavior Assessment System for Children - Second Edition (BASC-2), Parent Rating Scale -Preschool social emotional variables. Intake of food categories was measured by the amount reported by a sample of 119 parents over a three-day period. Higher levels of processed food consumption significantly predicted higher scores of atypicality. Additionally, reporting a family history of mental illness was associated with lower levels of hyperactivity and depression. The relationships between the other diet quality/health indicators and social emotional functioning in children were non-significant. The results of this study offer an alternative or supplemental treatment modality to psychotropic drugs. With the increasing health and economic burden of mental health disorders in children, the investigation of risk factors such as nutrient intake, is an essential and pressing research initiative.