ECPN Student Poster Contestant: Pathways to Inhibitory Control in Childhood: Longitudinal Prediction from Attentional Control and Maternal Warmth

Introduction. Attention control, such as shifting attention away from the source of frustration, plays an important role in the development of inhibitory control (IC) in children, yet there are few longitudinal studies of this association in early childhood. We explored the degree to which maternal warmth moderated the link between attention control during infancy and IC during childhood, while including a measure of genetic risk. Associations were examined within a prospective adoption design with children adopted at birth, enabling the separation of heritable and environmental influences on children’s IC.

Methods. The sample included families participating in the Early Growth and Development study, which is a prospective study of children adopted at birth and reared by non-biological parents (n = 361). Infant attention at 9 months was coded by measuring number of seconds of eye gaze in the immediate environment during periods of frustration, with longer eye gaze away from the distressing object considered to be more advantageous compared to greater eye gaze at the task object. Adoptive mother warmth to child was collected at child age 27 months using partner-report of her warmth on the Iowa family interaction rating warmth scale. To measure child IC, children completed the day/night card sort task when they were six years old and percent correct was coded. Covariates included genetic influences on IC (birth parent IC measured using the Stroop Color and Word Test and coded for percent correct on the inhibition trials), child sex, child age, and infant temperament.

Results. Multiple regression analyses indicated that greater attention control in infancy predicted greater IC at age six (b = .42, p < .05), controlling for birth parent IC, infant temperament, child sex, and child age. Adoptive mother warmth exhibited a main (b = .02, p < .05) and moderated effect (b = -.14, p < .05); infants whose rearing environments were characterized by maternal warmth were protected from the effects of low attention control in infancy, whereas infants with less attention control and with mothers expressing less warmth and had the lowest IC functioning at age 6.

Discussion. Findings suggest that maternal warmth can serve a protective factor from low attention control during infancy for the development of children’s IC. Furthermore, for infants reared with mothers who exhibit less warmth, weak attention control during infancy is a risk factor for deficits in IC at age 6 and warrants further research to understand the antecedents of low attention control and ways to improve infant attention control.