The role of temperament and parenting on anxiety problems among toddlers: Moderating role of parenting and mediating role of attachment.

Anxiety problems are seen as early as 1-2 years of age. Among others, parenting and child temperament are considered as the most important factors affecting anxiety in early childhood. In the current study, the unique roles of parenting (maternal overprotectiveness and warmth) and temperament (behavioral inhibition and negative emotionality), parenting-temperament interactions, and mediating role of ambivalent attachment between behavioral inhibition and anxiety were investigated. One-hundred mother-child (18-36-month-old) dyads participated in this study. Children's anxiety and temperament were measured through mother-reported scales, attachment was measured by observation via home visits, and parenting dimensions were measured via both mother-reported scales and observation. The results revealed that behavioral inhibition and overprotectiveness were positively associated with toddlers' anxiety, whereas there were no significant direct associations of negative emotionality and warmth with anxiety. However, the interaction between behavioral inhibition and warmth predicted toddler's anxiety; that is, if behaviorally inhibited children had mothers who were low on warmth, those children were more likely to exhibit anxiety symptoms compared to children with low behavioral inhibition, whereas anxiety levels did not change for children of warm mothers. Ambivalent attachment mediated the relationship between behavioral inhibition and anxiety. The nature of parent-child interactions is discussed based on toddlerhood anxiety.

Los problemas de ansiedad ya se ven a la temprana edad de 1-2 años. Entre otros, se considera la crianza y el temperamento del niño como los más importantes factores que afectan la ansiedad en la temprana niñez. En el presente estudio se investigaron los roles distintivos de crianza (la sobreprotección y calidez maternas) y temperamento (inhibición de conducta y emocionalidad negativa), las interacciones crianza-temperamento y el rol mediador de la afectividad ambivalente entre inhibición de conducta y ansiedad. Cien díadas madre-niño (18-36 meses de edad) participaron en este estudio. Se midió la ansiedad y el temperamento de los niños por medio de escalas que las madres reportaron, se midió la afectividad por medio de observaciones en visitas a casa, y las dimensiones de crianza se midieron por medio tanto de escalas que las madres reportaron como la observación. Los resultados revelaron que la inhibición de conducta y la sobreprotección se asociaban positivamente con la ansiedad de los pequeños niños, mientras que no se dieron significativas asociaciones directas de la emocionalidad negativa y la calidez con la ansiedad. Sin embargo, la interacción entre la inhibición de conducta y la calidez predijeron la ansiedad de los niños pequeñitos; es decir, si los niños inhibidos en cuanto a conducta tenían madres que estaban a nivel bajo en cuanto a calidez, esos niños estaban más propensos a exhibir síntomas de ansiedad comparados con niños con bajos niveles de inhibición de conducta, mientras que los niveles de ansiedad no cambiaron para niños con madres de cálida acogida. La afectividad ambivalente medió la relación entre la inhibición de conducta y la ansiedad. Se discute la naturaleza de las interacciones progenitor-niño con base en la ansiedad en la primera infancia.

On voit des problèmes d'anxiété aussi tôt qu'à 1-2 ans d'âge. Entre plein d'autres facteurs, le parentage et le tempérament de l'enfant sont estimés être les facteurs les plus importants qui affectent l'anxiété dans la petite enfance. Dans cette étude les rôles uniques du parentage (surprotection maternelle et chaleur maternelle) et le tempérament (inhibition comportementale et émotivité négative), les interactions parentage-tempérament, le rôle médiateur de l'attachement ambivalent entre l'inhibition comportementale et l'anxiété ont fait l'objet des recherches. Cent dyades mère-enfant (18-36 mois d'âge) ont participé à cette étude. L'anxiété et le tempérament des enfants ont été mesurés au travers d'échelles rapportées par la mère et l'attachement a été mesuré par observation au travers de visites à domicile. Les dimensions parentales ont été mesurées au travers d'à la fois les échelles rapportées par la mère et l'observation. Les résultats ont révélé que l'inhibition comportementale et la surprotection sont liées de manière positive à l'anxiété du petit enfant, alors qu'il n'y a pas de lien direct avec l'anxiété pour l'émotivité négative et la chaleur. Cependant l'interaction entre l'inhibition comportementale et la chaleur a prédit l'anxiété du petit enfant. En fait, si les enfants inhibés du point de vue comportemental avaient des mères n'étant pas chaleureuses, ces enfants avaient plus tendance à faire preuve de symptômes d'anxiété que les enfants avec une inhibition comportementale plus basse, alors que les niveaux d'anxiété n'ont pas changé pour les enfants avec des mères chaleureuses. L'attachement ambivalent a médiatisé la relation entre l'inhibition comportementale et l'anxiété. La nature des interactions parent-enfant est discutée basée sur l'anxiété du petit enfant.

Pre-linguistic Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule adapted for older individuals with severe to profound mental retardation: a pilot study.

The Autism Diagnostic Observational Schedule (ADOS) is a semi-structured observational scale developed to assess social interaction, communication and play in individuals who are suspected to have autism. Since the ADOS is not suitable to be used with severely or profoundly mentally retarded adolescents and adults with very limited language skills, materials and some of the tasks of the PL-ADOS and the original ADOS (the former versions of the current ADOS) were adapted. Results indicated that almost all of the overall ratings showed good reliability and discriminative diagnostic validity. Furthermore, the combination of codings into an overall algorithm score on social/communicative behavior resulted in a sensitivity of .82 and a specificity of .85 when using a cut-off score of 15.

Personal resources, coping self-efficacy, and quake exposure as predictors of psychological distress following the 1999 earthquake in Turkey.

This study examined the predictive power of personal resources (i.e., self-esteem, optimism, and perceived control), severity of earthquake experience (i.e., material and human loss and perceived threat), and coping self-efficacy (CSE) on general distress, intrusion, and avoidance symptoms among the survivors of the 1999 Marmara earthquake in Turkey. Specifically, we expected that CSE would mediate the links between personal resources, severity of earthquake experience, and distress. Survivors (N = 336) filled out various measures of earthquake exposure, personal resources, CSE, and distress. Results of the path analyses indicated that personal resources, earthquake experiences, CSE, and gender have direct effects on intrusion and general distress. Personal resources had also an indirect effect on general distress mediated by CSE. Findings were discussed considering the implications for conservation of resources model and social cognitive theory as well as for interventions following natural disasters.

Brief report: autism in individuals with Down syndrome.

As an off-shoot of a study examining the reliability and validity of an adapted version of the Pre-Linguistic Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule (A-PL-ADOS), 13 individuals with Down syndrome with IQs ranging between 24 and 48 were administered the Autism Diagnostic Interview-Revised (ADI-R) and the A-PL-ADOS, which are well-validated interview and observational diagnostic measures. Three out of 13 met lifetime criteria on the ADI-R, but none of these three showed behavior that met the criterion for autism on the A-PL-ADOS (although two nearly did so). However, two individuals did meet the A-PL-ADOS criterion and showed behavior that fell only just short of meeting lifetime criteria on the ADI-R. Altogether, 5 individuals with Down syndrome may be considered to show an autism spectrum disorder. Of the remaining 8, some showed a few autistic features, and some showed none. The findings raise both methodological and conceptual issues.