Prenatal Environment, Caregiver Interaction, and Temperament

Prenatal Environment

Describes the interaction between the person and environment, in which both good and bad things affect the developing fetus

What is a teratogen?

A harmful environmental agent (i.e., opioids, alcohol, prenatal stress)

True or False: There are studies that suggest externalizing problems and a diagnosis of conduct disorder during childhood have been shown to be associated with prenatal stress, independent of postnatal maternal or genetic factors

True

What are the implications seen in children with FAS?

• Smaller corpus callosum (bundle of nerve fibers that connect the hemispheres of the brain)

• Lack of socialization with others, may act out towards others → frustration to teachers → isolation

• Much easier to intervene early on than later

What is the Importance of Caregiver Interaction?

• They give rise to expectations about self and other.

• Later personality, self-reliance, and success in relationships are affected by early attachments

• Disruptions in attachment contribute to child psychopathology

• Severe neglect = more brain damage

Why do the early years of life matter?

Early experiences affect the architecture of the maturing brain. The quality of that architecture establishes either a sturdy or a fragile foundation for the development and behavior that follows

True or False: Neurobiology supports that intervening early on is easier than trying to fix issues later.

True

What happens when the caregivers respond to a child’s behaviors?

Neural connections are formed and strengthened; serve and return interactions shape brain architecture

What happens when the caregiver’s responses are unreliable or absent?

• Subsequent physical, mental, and emotional health may be impaired

• The body’s stress response is activated, flooding the developing brain with potentially harmful stress hormones

How does early exposure to stress affect behavior?

Leads to emotion regulation difficulties and future psychopathology

How does persistent stress change brain architecture?

• There are underdeveloped neural connections in areas of the brain most important for successful learning & emotion regulation.

• Volumetric differences in the amygdala, hippocampus, and PFC

What is emotion regulation?

Ability to control emotions especially when they change

Why is healthy development of the hippocampus and prefrontal cortex important?

• Assimilation of new memories into pre-existing networks of knowledge

• Are involved in learning, memory, emotion regulation, attention, and behavioral control

• Chronic stress can lead to altered systems that make children over-reactive to cues of threat and less capable of adaptive coping

What is economic deprivation and its effects?

The measurable lack of material resources, income, or access to basic needs

• Increases the chances that a child is less likely to earn a HS diploma, is at risk for low SES, and less likely to be working as a young adult

• Children with income below the PL scored lower on measures of prefrontal functioning compared to children from middle-income homes

What skills does Executive Function include?

• Working memory

• Inhibitory control

• Cognitive flexibility (including selective attention)

• Planning

What is a real life example of working memory?

• Remembering the steps to complete a puzzle or legos

• Remembering the instructions to a game or problem

What is a real-life example of inhibitory control?

• Waiting patiently for your turn during a game

• Being in an argument and knowing what words to say

What is a real-life example of cognitive flexibility/selective attention?

• Focusing on the task in front of you while ignoring distractions

• Switching between activities

What is a real-life example of planning?

• Organizing a sequence of steps to build a Lego set

• Making a to-do list for the day

What are Executive Functioning Assessments?

Standardized tasks and behavioral assessments → depending on the child’s age and developmental level

Includes the Go/No-Go task and Day-Night Stroop task

What is the Go/No-Go Task?

Children respond to a certain stimulus (e.g., a green light) by pressing a button but inhibit their response to another (e.g., a red light)

What is the Day-Night Stroop task?

Measuring the children’s inhibitory control and cognitive flexibility by seeing their ability to say “night” when shown a sun and “day” when shown a moon

• It forces the brain to suppress a dominant, automatic response in favor of an opposing rule (inhibitory control)

When do we see a noticeable discrepancy in children’s cumulative vocabulary across all SES’s?

Around 24 months (this is when children have a vocab acquisition spurt)

What is the Relationship between Psychopathology and Adversity?

As adversity increases, risk for psychopathology increases.

• Kids at the highest level of exposure being 4x as likely to develop a disorder by adulthood

• It is a classic dose-response relationship

Which of the following is mostly attributed to our biology rather than our environment?

Temperament

What is Temperament?

A child’s innate organized style of behavior that shapes the child’s approach to their environment. It includes:

• positive affect and approach

• fearful or inhibited

• negative affect or irritability

What are the 9 Key Temperament Traits?

1. Activity level

2. Rhythmicity (regularity, seeing if there are patterns)

3. Approach/Withdrawal

4. Adaptability

5. Intensity of reaction

6. Threshold of responsiveness (how much does it take?)

7. Quality of mood

8. Distractibility

9. Attention span & persistence

What are the Temperament Types?

• Easy → Cheerful, regular routines, adapts easily

• Difficult → Irregular, intense emotions, slow to adapt

• Slow-to-Warm-Up → Low activity, cautious, adapts gradually

What did Thomas & Chess find out about temperament?

Inborn traits influence how children interact with their environment, which in turn shapes their social, emotional, and behavioral development over time

What is “Goodness of Fit”?

A concept that states that development is most positive when there is a match between the child’s temperament and the expectations and demands of their environment (i.e., parents, school)

What was the findings of Jerome Kagan’s studies and what are the implications?

Conducted longitudinal studies following infants to later childhood and found that for the most part, the level of fearfulness that children had were consistent with what they had as infants.

• Early temperament can predict later personality, although it is not fixed

• Environment & goodness of fit play a crucial role in shaping development

What were some issues with early temperament research?

It was an oversimplication of the types, and many children showed mixed traits that didn’t fit neatly into one category

What were some of the major points of Mary Rothbart’s Model?

The model focused on biological bases of temperament and its role in self-regulation. It also emphasized individual differences in reactivity and effortful control from infancy onward

What are the three broad temperament dimensions and their connection to the big five traits?

• Surgency/Extraversion → High extraversion

• Negative Affectivity → Neuroticism

• Effortful Control → Conscientiousness and some agreeableness

What is surgency/extraversion?

High activity, impulsivity, and enjoyment of high-intensity activities

What is negative affectivity?

The tendency toward fear, frustration, discomfort, and sadness

What is effortful control?

The ability to focus attention, inhibit impulses, and regulate emotions

What does having a high BI mean?

Being extremely shy and fearful of novel situations; having a potential risk factor for later anxiety

What is the pathway from early temperamental fearfulness to later anxiety?

There is not a correlation since most behaviorally inhibited children do not develop anxiety disorders (rather there are other factors called moderators)

Once children have developed an anxiety disorder, early temperamental fearfulness predicts a more persistent course of anxiety

What is relation of maternal stimuli and amygdala activity?

• In the absence of maternal stimuli, children exhibited immature amygdala-prefrontal connectivity

• In the presence of maternal stimuli, children’s connectivity was more mature, resembling adolescents’ connectivity

What did the study with nurturing rats demonstrate?

Rats that receive nurturing behavior have enhanced synaptic connections, reduced stress response, and improved learning & memory

What was the behavioral findings of the Morris Water Maze Test for rats in enriched environments?

• Short escape latencies/delays

• Greater time spent in target quadrant

What was the behavioral findings of the step-down avoidance test

This was a test that involved avoiding a painful shock

• Fewer errors

• Longer delays before stepping down

What were the findings of Positive Emotionality compared to negative emotionality?

Positive emotionality (smiling, laughing, approach behavior) has a lower heritability than traits like negative emotionality. Environmental factors played a larger role in shaping positive emotionality

What is emotion regulation?

Enhancing, maintaining, or inhibiting emotional arousal for a specific purpose or goal. It is a core part of temperament, that is actually more shaped by environment (nurture)

What is the results of studies of people with personality disorders and facial emotion recognition?

• People with personality disorders had a hypersensitivity to threat and a negative bias in social situations and interpersonal appraisals

• They also had a hyposensitivity to positive social cues that signal a willingness to affiliate