Social competence during kindergarten has been linked to adaptive teacher-child and peer relationships. The quality of parents’ interaction with their children during the toddler years may promote better social development placing children on a trajectory towards social competence. Quite possibly, children vary in how responsive they are to parenting efforts. This study evaluated the extent to which positive parenting predicted change in social competence from child age 3 to 4 among 137 parent-child dyads. Observational measures of positive parenting and fearful temperament were analyzed when children were 3-years of age. Teacher reports of social competence in the classroom were collected during children’s 4-year old assessment. Positive parenting was positively associated with children’s level of social competence. No evidence emerged of fearful temperament as a moderator for the association between positive parenting and social competence. Regardless of children’s temperament, all children benefit from positive parenting during early childhood.

Children who are more fearful and inhibited during early childhood are at greater risk for social problems (e.g., loneliness, social isolation) and clinically significant internalizing disorders during adolescence and adulthood (e.g., Rubin, Chen, McDougall, Bowker, & McKinnon, 1995; Williams et al., 2009). While the impact of fearful temperament on adjustment indices are regularly the focus of study, less well understood are biological and social processes that may affect the development of fearful temperament. The present study considered the role of the 5-HTTLPR polymorphism and parenting on change in fearful and inhibited temperamental characteristics during early childhood. The s/s genotype was expected to be associated with elevated and sustained levels of fearful temperament. Moreover, supportive parenting was expected to be associated with less fearful temperament while more harsh parenting would be associated with more fearful temperamental characteristics, especially for children with the s/s 5-HTTLPR genotype. Study hypotheses were tested using 165 families (i.e., biological mothers and fathers, 3-5 year old children) who participated in the Family Transitions Project (FTP: R. D. Conger & K. J. Conger, 2002). Children were genotyped using cheek swabs. Parents reported on children’s temperamental characteristics at ages 3, 4, and 5. Independent observations of mothers and fathers completing a puzzle with their 3 and 4 year old children were used to measure parenting. Results were partially supportive of predictions. Parenting interacted with the 5-HTTLPR genotype to predict trajectories of shyness and soothability dimensions of fearful temperament, but the pattern of findings varied for mothers and fathers. Results are discussed in terms of differential susceptibility and the conceptualization of risk and resilience.

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Fearful temperament represents one of the robust predictors of the development of child and adolescent anxiety. Not all children with fearful temperament unvaryingly develop anxiety, however. Diverse processes resulting from the interplay among attention, cognitive control, and motivational system drive the trajectories toward more adaptive or maladaptive directions. In this study, I examined various factors that underlie the association between fearful temperament at age 9 and adolescent anxiety symptoms including attention biases, different components of effortful control, and frontal EEG asymmetry. 78 children participated in this study. Results indicate that fearful temperament at age 9 significantly predicted adolescent anxiety symptoms. This association, however, was moderated by children's effortful control and frontal EEG asymmetry at age 9. Specifically, fear at 9 years predicted adolescent anxiety only when children had low attentional control, low inhibitory control, low activation control, and exhibited greater right activation from baseline to task. The associations between AB and fearful temperament as well as anxiety were not significant. The association between fear at 9 years and sustained AB during adolescence, however, was moderated by children's attentional control, inhibitory control, and frontal EEG asymmetry at age 9. Specifically, fear predicted attention biases away from threat when children had high attentional control, high inhibitory control, and showed greater left activation. The findings will be discussed in terms of the roles of attention biases in the development of anxiety and how different components of effortful control and frontal EEG asymmetry contribute to the resilience process. / Doctor of Philosophy / Anxiety disorders represent one of the most commonly occurring mental health problems in childhood and adolescence. Children who tend to show wariness and distress to negative stimuli are more likely to have anxiety. Not all children with fearful temperament develop anxiety, however. Certain individual characteristics can protect fearful children from having anxiety symptoms. In this study, I examined the roles of attentional biases toward threat (AB), different components of self-regulation (EC), and the asymmetrical frontal brain activation (FA) in changing the relation between fearful temperament and anxiety. 78 children participated in this study. Results indicated that adolescents were at higher risk for anxiety if they showed high fearful temperament at age 9. However, the risk could be attenuated if children were better able to control their attention and behaviors, and exhibited greater left activation from resting to a mildly stressful situation at age 9. In addition, fearful children were better able to direct attention away from threat during adolescence if they were better able to control their attention and behaviors, and exhibited greater left activation from resting to a mildly stressful situation at age 9. The findings provide suggestions for early identification and intervention of children who are more vulnerable to anxiety during adolescence.