Maternal Executive Functioning, Emotional Availability and Psychological Distress During Toddlerhood: A FinnBrain Birth Cohort Study

Executive functioning (EF) is one of the building blocks in parental caregiving behavior, and contextual variables have been reported to moderate the link between EF and caregiving behavior. Although psychological distress due to various factors is prevalent during early parenthood and is negatively associated with adult EF, it is not known whether psychological distress influences the maternal EF/caregiving link. This study explored the association between maternal EF and caregiving behavior (more specifically, Emotional Availability/EA), and whether single and cumulative maternal psychological distress domains moderated the EF/EA association in a general population sample of 137 Finnish birth cohort mothers with 2.5-year-old children. EF was measured with a composite of five computerized Cogstate tasks, EA with the Emotional Availability Scales, and three psychological distress domains with self-report questionnaires (depression: EPDS, anxiety: SCL-90, insomnia: AIS). Better EF was significantly associated with more positive, sensitive caregiving, but this association was no longer significant when controlling for education level. Neither individual nor cumulative distress domains moderated the EF/EA association significantly, although the observed moderation effects were in the expected direction. These findings suggest that EF should be recognized alongside socioemotional factors as variables that are associated with parental caregiving behavior during toddlerhood. Furthermore, if the non-significant moderation results are replicated, they indicate that mothers in community samples are not at great risk for psychological distress that would compromise their capacity to utilize their EF while caring for their child. Further studies are needed to confirm these findings, as well as to examine these associations among fathers and in samples that have higher levels of chronic stressors. Studies with more diverse samples in terms of distress levels and EF performance would provide further insight into early childhood parenting and its risk factors.

EFEKTIVITAS LAMAN SAHABAT KELUARGA TERHADAP TINGKAT PENGETAHUAN IBU MENGENAI PENGASUHAN ANAK USIA 13-24 BULAN

Children are the next generation that every family dreams of. Besides, every family also hopes that their children can grow and develop optimally so that they can realize the expectations of their parents. This study aims to obtain an overview of the effectiveness of Laman Sahabat Keluarga on the level of knowledge of maternal care in children aged 13-24 months. This research was conducted in Cibatok Village, Bogor Regency. This research method uses the pre-experimental method with the alternative the one-group pretest-posttest design. The population in this study were mothers who have children aged 13-24 months old in Cibatok 2 Village, Bogor Regency. The total population is 114 people. Based on the results of the hypothesis, the results show that there is a significant difference in the knowledge of mothers about the care of children aged 13-24 months before and after using Laman Sahabat Keluarga. There are significant differences in maternal knowledge indicating changes and increases in maternal knowledge over a certain period. The concept of health education contained on the web page can also be a learning medium for individuals, groups, and communities so that from not knowing to know, from being unable to overcome health problems to be able. Therefore, Laman Sahabat Keluarga is very important in increasing Mother's knowledge of parenting with periodic effectiveness testing. The implication of the results of this study on the mother's knowledge is that the more and broader the mother's knowledge, the better her level of knowledge. Keywords: childhood, parenting, technology, website Abstrak Anak merupakan generasi penerus yang didambakan setiap keluarga. Selain itu setiap keluarga juga mengharapkan anaknya dapat tumbuh dan berkembang secara optimal sehingga dapat mewujudkan harapan orang tua. Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk memperoleh gambaran tentang efektivitas Laman Sahabat Keluarga terhadap tingkat pengetahuan pengasuhan ibu pada anak usia 13-24 bulan. Penelitian ini dilaksanakan di Desa Cibatok, Kabupaten Bogor. Metode penelitian ini menggunakan metode pre-experimental dengan alternatif the one group pretest-posttest design. Populasi pada penelitian ini adalah ibu yang memiliki anak usia 13-24 bulan di Desa Cibatok 2, Kabupaten Bogor. Adapun jumlah populasinya sebanyak 114 orang. Berdasarkan hasil hipotesis diperoleh hasil yang menunjukan bahwa terdapat perbedaan yang signifikan pengetahuan ibu tentang pengasuhan anak usia 13-24 bulan sebelum dan sesudah menggunakan Laman Sahabat Keluarga. Terdapat perbedaan pengetahuan ibu yang signifikan menunjukkan perubahan dan peningkatan pengetahuan ibu dalam kurun waktu tertentu. Konsep pendidikan kesehatan yang terdapat dalam laman web juga dapat menjadi sebuah media belajar bagi individu, kelompok, dan masyarakat sehingga dari tidak tahu menjadi tahu, dari tidak mampu mengatasi masalah kesehatan menjadi mampu. Oleh karena itu, Laman Sahabat Keluarga sangat berperan dalam meningkatkan pengetahuan Ibu mengenai pengasuhan dengan pengujian efektivitas secara berkala. Implikasi hasil penelitian ini pada pengetahuan Ibu adalah semakin banyak dan luas pengetahuan yang ibu miliki maka semakin baik tingkat pengetahuannya.

Convergent and Discriminant Validity of Retrospective Assessments of the Quality of Childhood Parenting: Prospective Evidence From Infancy to Age 26 Years

Retrospective self-report assessments of adults’ childhood experiences with their parents are widely employed in psychological science, but such assessments are rarely validated against actual parenting experiences measured during childhood. Here, we leveraged prospectively acquired data characterizing mother–child and father–child relationship quality using observations, parent reports, and child reports covering infancy through adolescence. At age 26 years, approximately 800 participants completed a retrospective measure of maternal and paternal emotional availability during childhood. Retrospective reports of childhood emotional availability demonstrated weak convergence with composites reflecting prospectively acquired observations ( R2s = .01–.05) and parent reports ( R2s = .02–.05) of parenting quality. Retrospective parental availability was more strongly associated with prospective assessments of child-reported parenting quality ( R2s = .24–.25). However, potential sources of bias (i.e., depressive symptoms and family closeness and cohesiveness at age 26 years) accounted for more variance in retrospective reports (39%–40%) than did prospective measures (26%), suggesting caution when using retrospective reports of childhood caregiving quality as a proxy for prospective data.

Infant temperament, early-childhood parenting, and early-adolescent development: Testing alternative models of Parenting × Temperament interaction

Here we evaluate whether infant difficult temperament (6 months) functions as a vulnerability or more general plasticity factor when investigating effects of early-childhood parenting (8–42 months) on both positive and negative early-adolescent socioemotional development (age 8–11 years). Using data from the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC, N = 14,541) and a re-parameterized model-testing approach to distinguish alternative person × environment conceptual models, results indicated that temperament × parenting interacted in predicting externalizing (i.e., hyperactivity, conduct problems), but not other behavior (i.e., emotional symptoms, peer problems), in a (weak) differential susceptibility manner. While more and less supportive parenting predicted, respectively, fewer and more behavior problems, it did so more strongly for children who were more difficult as infants.