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Cumulative risk models provide a convenient, parsimonious way to identify outcomes associated with multiple, highly correlated risk factors. In this paper, we explored linkages between a cumulative sociodemographic risk index, which included rurality status, and aspects of temperamental difficulty in an early school age sample of 53 school-aged children from Southcentral Appalachia. Cumulative risk was significantly predictive of temperamental difficulty, as defined by high negative affectivity and low effortful control, but post-hoc analyses revealed this association to be driven primarily by two of the eight risk indicators: rural status and income-to-needs risk. Although rurality status was highly correlated with income-to-needs risk, rurality predicted negative affectivity over and above income-to-needs risk and income-to-needs risk predicted effortful control over and above rurality status. Future models of cumulative risk may benefit from including rurality status as a risk indicator, despite high collinearity with income-to-needs risk.

Numerous studies show that a low level of response to the intoxicating effects of alcohol is considered a risk factor for future alcoholism. However, assessing this sensitivity usually requires administering a controlled dose of alcohol, which has a number of inherent problems. Early observations in our lab suggest that the response to anesthetics that show cross tolerance with alcohol, like ketamine, are blunted in nonhuman primates at risk for high alcohol intake, and may be a viable measure of future alcohol consumption. This study was designed to test potential predictors of future alcohol consumption using the change in ketamine across repeated exposures (i.e., tolerance). In addition, potential mediating factors of alcohol consumption, including early temperament and behavior, were assessed. Subjects were 16 three-year-old, alcohol naïve rhesus macaque males raised by their biological mothers. Ketamine Exposure-Each subject was exposed to three 10.0 mg/kg intramuscular doses of ketamine. The time from injection to recovery from anesthetic was recorded for each dose, to be used as a measure of subject's sensitivity and developed tolerance. Alcohol Intake Assessment-Two weeks after the final ketamine dose, subjects were allowed ad libitum access to a palatable 8.4% alcohol solution for two-hours a day, five days a week, for six weeks. During the Two-Choice phase of testing, subjects were simultaneously given ad libitum access to the 8.4% alcohol solution and to a sweetened solution for two-hours a day, five days a week, for four weeks. Solution consumption was recorded daily and averaged across the weeks for each phase of alcohol testing. Temperament and Behavior-As infants, all subjects participated in a bio-behavioral assessment (BBA), when they were between 90 and 120 days of age. Data collected during the BBA on subjects' temperament (Vigilance, Gentleness, Confidence, and Nervousness) and Behavior (Activity and Emotionality) were used in analyses. Results showed a relationship between the tolerance developed between ketamine doses and average alcohol consumption during the Alcohol-Only phase (r = 0.61, R2 = 0.372, F (1,14) = 8.300, p = 0.012). Average alcohol consumption during the Alcohol-Only phase was also related to ratings of Confidence (r = 0.499, R2=0.249, F(1,14)=4.647, p = 0.049), Activity (Day 1: r = 0.503, R2 = 0.253, F(1,14) = 4.732, p = 0.047; Day 2: r = 0.455, R2 = 0.207, F(1,14) = 3.652, p = 0.077), and Emotionality (r = 0.466, R2 = 0.217, F(1,14) = 3.885, p=0.069). The results of this study suggest that change in ketamine recovery time and early life temperament and behaviors may be measures of future risk for alcohol abuse disorders. This data is limited by the small sample size and future study is necessary to further tease out the relationships between these variables and alcohol consumption.

According to differential susceptibility theory (DST), some children may be more sensitive to both positive and negative features of the environment. However, research has generated a list of widely disparate temperamental traits that may reflect differential susceptibility to the environment. In addition, findings have implicated these temperament × environment interactions in predicting a wide variety of child outcomes. This study uses a novel evolutionary model of temperament to examine whether differential susceptibility operates in a domain-general or domain-specific manner. Using a racially and socioeconomically diverse sample of 243 preschoolers and their parents (56% female; 48% African American), we examined the interactions between maternal and paternal parenting quality and two evolutionary informed temperament profiles (i.e., Hawks and Doves) in predicting changes in teacher-reported conduct problems and depressive symptoms from preschool to first grade. Results suggest that differential susceptibility operates in a domain-specific fashion. Specifically, the "Hawk" temperament was differentially susceptible to maternal parenting in predicting externalizing problems. In contrast, the "Dove" temperament was susceptible to both paternal and maternal parenting quality in predicting changes in depressive symptoms. Findings provide support for an integrative framework that synthesizes DST with an evolutionary, function-based approach to temperament.

Mothers' susceptibility to the effects of learned helplessness as a function of the perception of her own infants' temperament and exposure to varying degrees of control over infant crying was explored. Seventysix mothers were classified as having a difficult or easy infant based upon ratings of their infant on the Infant Characteristics Questionnaire. Using an adaptation of the learned helplessness paradigm, a relatively equal number of mothers from each group were exposed to an escape, inescape, or control pretreatment condition and subsequently tested on a solvable shuttle box task. Mothers of easy infants who were pretreated with inescapable crying demonstrated more failures and trials to criterion than mothers of easy infants in the escape and control conditions. In contrast, mothers of difficult infants did not demonstrate performance differences across the 3 pretreatment conditions. Mothers of difficult infants performed significantly better on the shuttle box task than mothers of easy infants following exposure to uncontrollable crying. Mothers of difficult and easy infants did not differ on measures of depression, perceptions of control over adult-child interactions, and potential for child abuse. Mothers did not respond more rapidly to the cries produced by unfamiliar difficult or easy infants. Findings suggest mothers of difficult infants may initially be less adept at terminating infant crying, but are more resilient to these failure experiences. Indeed, mothers of difficult infants responded more effectively following exposure to uncontrollable infant cry sounds. Results are discussed in terms of the importance of mothers' perceptions of their different caregiving experiences in mediating their responsivity to salient infant cues. / Ph. D.

Temperamental self-regulation is typically associated with adaptive outcomes, but considerably less is known about the correlates of rudimentary self-regulation—regulatory capacity—in infancy. Some theoretical frameworks also suggest that low and high levels of inhibitory control—one component of temperamental self-regulation—may be related to negative outcomes, and further that this may depend on individual differences in shyness. In this dissertation, I examined the functional correlates of infants’ regulatory capacity moderated by physiological regulation (Chapter 2), the negative consequences of low and high levels of inhibitory control on preschoolers’ social and psychological outcomes (Chapter 3), and the social (Chapter 4) and contextual (Chapter 5) factors modifying the impact of inhibitory control on shy children’s interpersonal outcomes. In Chapter 2, I found that infants’ regulatory capacity was only negatively related to behavior problems when infants displayed high levels of physiological regulation during an emotionally salient stressor. In Chapter 3, I found that very low and high levels of inhibitory control were related to the highest levels of avoidant social behavior and internalizing and externalizing problems in preschoolers. In Chapter 4, I found that preschoolers’ shyness was only negatively associated with their own observed approach behavior when their own inhibitory control was high (actor effects), and this pattern of results differed when examining the partner’s observed behavior (partner effects). In Chapter 5, I found that shyness was negatively associated with social support seeking when preschoolers displayed high levels of inhibitory control in an unfamiliar context, and this pattern of results differed in a familiar context. These studies challenge the longstanding belief that self-regulatory processes are adaptive for all children all the time, and suggest that developmental, temperamental, and contextual factors may influence whether self-regulation acts as a resiliency or risk factor. / Dissertation / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) / Self-regulation refers to children’s ability to control their behavior and attention to achieve goals and is an important part of personality. Although self-regulation is typically associated with positive outcomes during the preschool period, less is known about the consequences of self-regulation during infancy, and some research has suggested that low and high self-regulation may have negative consequences for children. In this dissertation, I examined whether physiological regulation during infancy influenced the relation between self-regulation and behavior problems, and then I examined whether low and high levels of self-regulation are associated with children’s problematic social and psychological outcomes and whether these relations depend on children’s shyness and their social partner’s characteristics. Together, this work challenges the belief that self-regulation is always protective for all children all the time and suggests that personality and contextual factors may determine whether self-regulation acts as a protective or a risk factor.

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