TY - JOUR
T1 - Sustained attention in infancy
T2 - A foundation for the development of multiple aspects of self-regulation for children in poverty
AU - Brandes-Aitken, Annie
AU - Braren, Stephen
AU - Swingler, Margaret
AU - Voegtline, Kristin
AU - Blair, Clancy
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2019 Elsevier Inc.
PY - 2019/8
Y1 - 2019/8
N2 - There are many avenues by which early life poverty relates to the development of school readiness. Few studies, however, have examined the extent to which sustained attention, a central component of self-regulation in infancy, mediates relations between poverty-related risk and cognitive and emotional self-regulation at school entry. To investigate longitudinal relations among poverty-related risk, sustained attention in infancy, and self-regulation prior to school entry, we analyzed data from the Family Life Project, a large prospective longitudinal sample (N = 1292)of children and their primary caregivers in predominantly low-income and nonurban communities. We used structural equation modeling to assess the extent to which a latent variable of infant sustained attention, measured in a naturalistic setting, mediated the associations between cumulative poverty-related risk and three domains of self-regulation. We constructed a latent variable of infant sustained attention composed of a measure of global sustained attention and a task-based sustained attention measure at 7 and 15 months of age. Results indicated that infant sustained attention was negatively associated with poverty-related risk and positively associated with a direct assessment of executive function abilities and teacher-reported effortful control and emotion regulation in pre-kindergarten. Mediation analysis indicated that the association between poverty-related risk and each self-regulation outcome was partially mediated by infant attention. These results provide support for a developmental model of self-regulation whereby attentional abilities in infancy act as a mechanism linking the effects of early-life socioeconomic adversity with multiple aspects of self-regulation in early childhood.
AB - There are many avenues by which early life poverty relates to the development of school readiness. Few studies, however, have examined the extent to which sustained attention, a central component of self-regulation in infancy, mediates relations between poverty-related risk and cognitive and emotional self-regulation at school entry. To investigate longitudinal relations among poverty-related risk, sustained attention in infancy, and self-regulation prior to school entry, we analyzed data from the Family Life Project, a large prospective longitudinal sample (N = 1292)of children and their primary caregivers in predominantly low-income and nonurban communities. We used structural equation modeling to assess the extent to which a latent variable of infant sustained attention, measured in a naturalistic setting, mediated the associations between cumulative poverty-related risk and three domains of self-regulation. We constructed a latent variable of infant sustained attention composed of a measure of global sustained attention and a task-based sustained attention measure at 7 and 15 months of age. Results indicated that infant sustained attention was negatively associated with poverty-related risk and positively associated with a direct assessment of executive function abilities and teacher-reported effortful control and emotion regulation in pre-kindergarten. Mediation analysis indicated that the association between poverty-related risk and each self-regulation outcome was partially mediated by infant attention. These results provide support for a developmental model of self-regulation whereby attentional abilities in infancy act as a mechanism linking the effects of early-life socioeconomic adversity with multiple aspects of self-regulation in early childhood.
KW - Attention
KW - Emotion Regulation
KW - Executive function
KW - Infancy
KW - Poverty
KW - Self-regulation
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85064747861&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85064747861&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.jecp.2019.04.006
DO - 10.1016/j.jecp.2019.04.006
M3 - Article
C2 - 31039447
AN - SCOPUS:85064747861
SN - 0022-0965
VL - 184
SP - 192
EP - 209
JO - Journal of experimental child psychology
JF - Journal of experimental child psychology
ER -