Some of our recent findings include:

Liu, C.,  Zheng, Y., Ganiban, J.M., & Saudino, K.J. (2022). Genetic and Environmental Influences on Temperament Development across the Preschool Period. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry.

Across ages 3, 4 and 5, there is a general pattern of children showing modest increases in the temperament dimensions of surgency, negative affect and effortful control. That is, preschoolers tend to become more outgoing, display more negative emotions, and are less impulsive and better able to control their attention as they get older. However, although this is the general pattern of development, not all children show the same pattern of change. Our use of twins allows us to understand the factors that explain differences in developmental patterns of temperament. We have found that change in surgency was fully explained by environmental factors specific to each twin, while growth in negative affect was mainly explained by genetic factors. Growth in effortful control was due to both genetic and nonshared environmental factors.

 

Perlstein, S., Waller, R., Wagner, N. J., & Saudino, K. J. (2022). Low social affiliation predicts increases in callous-unemotional behaviors in early childhood. The Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry.

Fearlessness and low social affiliation observed in the lab at age 3 contributed to the development of callous-unemotional behaviors at age 5. Harsh parenting can exacerbate the risky fearlessness pathway, but not the social affiliative pathway. These findings suggest that preventative interventions aimed at reducing risk for callous unemotional behaviors and persistent aggression and antisocial behavior would benefit from targeting socioaffiliative processes and providing parents with strategies and training to manage and scaffold rule-compliant behavior when children show low fearful arousal.

 

Koenig, A., Arunachalam, S., Saudino, K.J.  (2020). Lexical processing of nouns and verbs at 36 months of age predicts concurrent and later vocabulary and school readiness. Journal of Cognition and Development.

Children’s lexical processing speed (i.e., the speed at which words are recognized) in late infancy has been linked to concurrent and later language abilities. In the current study, we extended this finding to preschoolers aged 36 months. Children participated in a lexical processing task in which they viewed two static images on noun trials (e.g., an ear of corn and a hat), or two dynamic video clips on verb trials (e.g., a woman stretching and the same woman clapping), and heard an auditory prompt labeling one of them (e.g., “Where is she stretching?”). Children were also assessed on standardized measures of language and school readiness. The results indicated that lexical processing speed (i.e., how long they required to look to the labeled image or scene) was associated with measures of concurrent receptive vocabulary, as well as receptive vocabulary and school readiness two years later.

 

Gagne, J.R., Ashershon, P. & Saudino, K.J. (2020). A Twin Study of Inhibitory Control at Age Two and ADHD Behavior Problems at Age Three. Behavior Genetics.

Low levels of childhood inhibitory control (IC) are associated with externalizing behavior problems and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), but there is little research on this topic in early childhood, when IC first emerges. The present twin study extends previous findings of genetic covariance between parent-rated and laboratory-assessed IC and ADHD at age 2 by examining longitudinal links between IC at age two and ADHD behavior problems at age three. There were significant phenotypic associations between both parent and laboratory IC assessments at age two and later ADHD behavioral problems. As compared to lab-ratings of IC at age 1, parent-rated IC at age 2 was more strongly associated with ADHD at age 3. Longitudinal genetic analyses showed that association between IC at age 2 and ADHD behavior problems at age 3 were explained by genetic influences common to both behaviors. However, once ADHD at age 2 was considered, IC at age 2 did not significantly contribute to ADHD at age 3.  Thus, early temperamental IC is not a unique genetic risk factor for later ADHD.

 

Flom, M., White, D., Ganiban, J. M., & Saudino, K. J. (2020). Longitudinal Links Between Callous-Unemotional Behaviors and Parenting in Early Childhood: A Genetically-Informed Design. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.

The present study is the first to examine potential reciprocal effects between parenting and callous-unemotional behaviors (CU) in a community sample of toddler twins at ages 2 and 3 years. Use of a twin sample allowed us to distinguish child-based genetic effects from environmentally-driven effects, which is necessary before translating this research to interventions. CU and negative/harsh parenting were significantly correlated at both ages. Cross-lagged analyses revealed a unidirectional effect with child CU at age 2 predicting negative parenting at age 3. These child-driven effects on later parenting were primarily genetically mediated, though there were modest nonshared environmental contributions. The unidirectional relation between callous-unemotional behaviors at age 2 and negative parenting at age 3 emphasizes the need for more research examining child-driven effects on the parent-child relationship and reminds us that parenting does not occur in a vacuum.

 

Wagner, N. J., Waller, R., Flom, M., Ronford, S., Fenstermacher, S. & Saudino, K. J. (2020). Less imitation of arbitrary actions is a specific developmental precursor to callous-unemotional traits in early childhood. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry.

Callous unemotional (CU) behaviors in early childhood are associated with higher risk for later diagnoses of childhood disruptive behavior disorders and antisocial behavior. Emerging research implicates impairments in affiliative processes in the etiology of CU traits. We tested whether the imitation of intentional actions with no functional significance –a behavior that supports the acquisition of social conventions and affiliative bonds, is a specific developmental precursor to CU traits in early childhood. Data came from a longitudinal twin study of 628 children with observations of arbitrary (i.e., nonfunctional actions) and instrumental (i.e., functional actions) imitation and parent reports of CU traits and oppositional defiant (ODD) behaviors at ages 2 and 3. Lower arbitrary imitation at age 2, but not instrumental imitation, was related to increases in CU traits from ages 2 to 3. These findings establish early social and affiliative processes in the etiology of CU traits, highlighting that novel personalized treatment and intervention strategies for CU traits may benefit from targeting these processes to help reduce CU traits and risk for persistent conduct problems in children.

 

A complete list of publications from the BUTP is also available.