Marc
H. Bornstein, Ph.D., Principal Investigator
Maurice Haynes, Ph.D., Staff
Scientist
Erin Hunter, Research
Psychologist
Kathleen Painter, Research
Psychologist
Joan Suwalsky, Research
Psychologist
Charlene Hendricks, Ph.D., Senior
Research Assistant
Chun-Shin Hahn, Ph.D., Research
Fellow
Nanmathi Manian, Ph.D., Research
Fellow
Martha Arterberry, Ph.D., Postdoctoral
Fellow
Linda Cote, Ph.D., Postdoctoral
Fellow
Motti Gini, Ph.D., Postdoctoral
Fellow
Amy Miller, Ph.D.,
Postdoctoral Fellow
Aisha Asby, Predoctoral Fellow
Emily Beatty,
Predoctoral Fellow
Randy Chang, Predoctoral
Fellow
Wai Chow, Predoctoral
Fellow
Asha Goldweber, Predoctoral
Fellow
Katherine Hill, Predoctoral
Fellow
Erin Lasher, Predoctoral
Fellow
Yoon Lee, Predoctoral
Fellow
Kathryn Murphy, Predoctoral
Fellow
Aaron Rakow, Predoctoral
Fellow
Elizabeth Reitz, Predoctoral
Fellow
Temekia Toney, Predoctoral
Fellow
Kathleen Dwyer, Guest
Researcher
Bame Nsamenang, Guest Researcher
Rosa Miro, Guest Researcher
Josse Steenberge, Guest Researcher
Shirley Wyver, Guest Researcher
For More Information
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The
Child and Family Research Section (CFRS) investigates dispositional, experiential,
and environmental factors that contribute to physical, mental, emotional,
and social development in human beings during the early years of life. Laboratory
and home-based studies employ a variety of approaches, including psychophysiological
recordings, experimental techniques, behavioral observations, standardized
assessments, rating scales, interviews, and demographic records. The overall
goals of research in the CFRS are to describe, analyze, and assess the capabilities
and proclivities of developing children, including their genetic characteristics,
physiological functioning, perceptual and cognitive abilities, emotional,
social, and interactional styles, as well as the nature and consequences
for children and parents of family development and children's exposure to
and interactions with the inanimate environment. Research topics concern
the origins, status, and development of multiple psychological constructs,
structures, and functions across the early years of life; effects of child
cognitive and social characteristics and activities on parents; and the
meaning for children's development of variations in parenting and in the
family across different sociodemographic and cultural groups. Project designs
underway in the CFRS are longitudinal, cross-sectional, and cross-cultural.
Sociodemographic comparisons under investigation include family socioeconomic
status, maternal age and employment status, and child parity and daycare
experience. Study sites include Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Cameroon,
England, France, Israel, Italy, Japan, and Kenya as well as the United States;
studies pursue cross-cultural as well as intracultural comparisons of human
development. During the past year, significant progress was made in several
areas of investigation. Findings in three areas are highlighted below, one
from the CFRS domestic study design, one from the cultural comparisons ,
and one from behavioral pediatrics.
Language Acquisition in Childhood
Bornstein, Hahn, Haynes, Painter
The acquisition of language constitutes one of the most remarkable and
complex achievements of early childhood. As part of its domestic longitudinal
work , the CFRS undertook several studies to examine parameters of childrens
language acquisition and the centrality of maternal responsiveness in
the process. One study compared naturalistic samples of three features
of language in two-year-olds (total utterances, word roots, and mean length
of utterance [MLU]) in the home in three contrasting situations: the child
observed playing by her/himself with mother nearby, the child and mother
observed in direct play interaction, and the child and mother unobserved
at a time the mother judged would provide a sample of the childs
optimal language. Children produced more utterances and word
roots and expressed themselves in longer MLU when in interaction than
when playing alone, but childrens utterances, word roots,
and MLU were greatest in the optimal language production situation.
Girls used more word roots and spoke in longer MLU than boys. Despite
mean level differences, children maintained their rank orders across the
three situations in use of word roots and in MLU. These findings have
implications for understanding childrens language and the degree
to which this type of sampling represents child language. Three longitudinal
studies assessed stability of language performance cumulatively from one
to seven years. Data were drawn from maternal questionnaires, maternal
interviews, experimenter assessments, and teacher reports. Language performance
at each age and stability across age in girls and boys were assessed separately
and together. Across age, including the important transition from preschool
to school, across multiple tests at each age, and across multiple reporters,
children showed moderate to strong stability of individual differences;
stability did not differ between girls and boys. In the second through
fifth years but not before or after, girls consistently outperformed boys
in lexical knowledge and use. Further investigations revealed that mothers
varied substantially in the quality and quantity of language they provided
to their children. When both language amount and verbal responsive-ness
were considered, however, verbal responsiveness was found to contribute
uniquely to childrens emerging language. Children with verbally
responsive mothers achieved the vocabulary spurt and combined words into
simple sentences sooner in development than did children with less verbally
responsive mothers. These predictive associations between responsiveness
and the timing of childrens language milestone were more robust
at 13 than at nine months. The best fitting model of language acquisition
was one that included both childrens and mothers contributions:
That is, a child who produced first words sooner in development, coupled
with a verbally responsive mother, was at a strong advantage for precocious
achievement of key language milestones.
Family and Child Acculturation in Modern America
Bornstein, Cote, Suwalsky
We examined the process of acculturation similarities and differences
in mothers and infants activities and interactions among Japanese
American and South American dyads. Few relations between maternal acculturation
level or individualism/collectivism and maternal parenting or infant behaviors
emerged in either group. However, group differences were found in mothers
and infants behaviors, indicating that culture-of-origin continues
to influence parenting behavior in acculturating groups. Further analysis
revealed few relations among mothers behaviors, except those that
reflect the common collectivist orientation of the two cultural groups.
Few relations among infants behaviors emerged, suggesting independence
and plasticity in infant behavioral organization. Relations between mothers
and infants behaviors pointed to universal characteristics in mother-infant
interactions. Continuity, stability, and difference in cultural cogni-tions
(acculturation, individualism, collectivism) and parenting cognitions
(attributions, self-perceptions, and knowledge) were then evaluated. South
American mothers were more collectivist than Japanese American mothers.
Cultural group and attribution differences emerged for mothers attributions
in successful situations, whereas child age and attribution differences
emerged for attributions in unsuccessful situations. Japanese American
mothers feelings of competence increased over time. South American
mothers reported a higher degree of satisfaction with the parenting role
than Japanese American mothers. Mothers cultural cognitions and
parenting cognitions were largely stable, although more so for Japanese
American than South American mothers. Finally, patterns of covariation
and coherence among mothers cultural and parenting cognitions were
assessed. Few relations between cultural and parenting cognitions emerged,
and those that did were limited primarily to South American mothers with
infants at five months and Japanese American mothers with toddlers at
20 months. Coherence among cultural cognitions was found for South American
mothers with a child at 20 months. Coherence among mothers attributions
and among their perceptions of their own parenting was found for both
Japanese American and South American mothers with children at both five
and 20 months. Relations across types of parenting cognitions were also
found (i.e., self-perceptions were related to both attributions and knowledge
of parenting), but for the most part these domains of parenting cognitions
appeared to be relatively independent.
Another analysis explored the influence of acculturation on multiple parenting
beliefs in two cultural comparisons: Japanese, Japanese American, and
European American mothers; and Argentine, South American, and European
American mothers. Several attributions for successful parenting increased
linearly with acculturation in both cultural comparisons; other attributions
for unsuccessful parenting increased in a quadratic fashion in the South
American comparison. Some linear and some quadratic trends were found
for mothers parenting self-perceptions in the Japanese comparison;
fewer trends were found in the South American comparison. Linear trends
emerged for mothers knowledge of childrearing and child development
in both cultural comparisons. Fewer linear relations between acculturation
and parenting beliefs emerged at the individual than at the group level.
Nutrition and Development in Early Childhood
Bornstein
To evaluate the effects of dietary intake of the long-chain polyunsaturated
fatty acids, arachidonic acid (AA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), on
multiple indices of infant growth and development, a double-masked, randomized,
parallel trial was conducted with term infants fed formulas with or without
AA+DHA for one year. Reference groups of breastfed infants weaned to formulas
with and without AA+DHA were also studied. The main study outcomes were
AA and DHA levels in plasma and red blood cells and multiple measures
of infant development at multiple ages from birth to 14 months: growth,
visual acuity, information processing, general development, language,
and temperament. AA and DHA levels in plasma and red cells were higher
in AA+DHA supplemented groups than in the control formula group and comparable
to those in reference groups. No developmental test results distinguished
these groups. Expected differences in family demographics associated with
breastfeeding were found, but no advantages to breastfeeding on any of
the developmental outcome were demonstrated. The findings do not support
adding AA+DHA to formulas containing 10 percent energy as linoleic acid
and 1 percent energy as _-linolenic acid to enhance growth, visual acuity,
information processing, general development, language, or temperament
in healthy, term infants in the first year following birth.
Psychophysiological Bases of Mental and Emotional Functioning in Childhood
Bornstein, Haynes
In a prospective longitudinal study, vagal tone and heart period were
measured twice, at two months and at five years, in both children and
their mothers to evaluate and compare the development of the vagal system
and its regulatory capacity at rest and during an environmental task.
Child baseline vagal tone and heart period were discontinuous; mother
baseline vagal tone was discontinuous, but heart period was continuous.
The group mean baseline-to-task change in vagal tone and heart period
were continuous in both children and mothers. Children reached adult levels
of baseline vagal tone by five years, and children and their mothers did
not differ in the baseline-to-task change in vagal tone or heart period.
Baseline vagal tone tended to be stable, but baseline heart period and
the baseline-to-task change in vagal tone and heart period were unstable
in children; both were stable in mothers. The baseline-to-task change
in vagal tone showed consistent child-mother concordance. A second study
investigated the role of cardiac vagal tone in information processing
(habituation) in infants. Nucleus ambiguous vagal tone (Vna)
was used to index cardiac vagal tone. Physiological self-regulation was
operationalized as the change in Vna from
a baseline period of measurement to habituation. Decreases in Vna consistently
related to habituation efficiency, operationalized as accumulated looking
time (ALT), in all infants twice at two months and twice at five months;
however, this relation was accounted for by infants who met a habituation
criterion on each task. Among habituators, shorter lookers also had greater
Vna suppression during habituation. Within-age
and between-age suppression of vagal tone predicted ALT, but ALT did not
predict suppression of vagal tone. Physiological self-regulation provided
by the vagal system appears to play a role in information processing in
infancy as indexed by habituation.
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PUBLICATIONS
- Ademek-Griggs R, Voight M, Bornstein MH. Parenting in later adulthood.
In: Balter L, ed. Parenthood in America: an encyclopedia, vol. 2. New
York: ABC-CLIO Press, 2000;453-455.
- Arterberry
ME, Bornstein MH. Three-month-old infants' categorization of animals
and vehicles based on static and dynamic attributes. J Exp Child Psychol
2001;80:333-346.
- Arterberry
ME, Yonas A. Perception of three-dimensional shape specified by
optic flow by 8-week-old infants. Percept Psychophysiol 2000; 62:550-556.
- Auestad
N, Halter R, Hall RT, Blatter M, Bogle ML, Burks W, Erikson JR, Fitzgerald
KM, Dobson V, Innis SM, Singer LT, Montalto MB, Jacobs JR, Qiu W, Bornstein
MH. Growth and development in term infants fed long-chain polyunsaturated
fatty acids: a double-masked, randomized, parallel, prospective, multivariate
study. Pediatrics 2001;108:372-381.
- Bornstein MH. Arnold Lucius Gesell. Soc Ped Child Youth Med , in
press.
- Bornstein MH. Cultural influences on parenting. In: Balter L, ed.
Parenthood in America: an encyclopedia, vol. 1. New York: ABC-CLIO Press,
2000;152-154.
- Bornstein MH. Division of labor. In: Balter L, ed. Parenthood in America:
an encyclopedia, vol. 1. New York: ABC-CLIO Press, 2000;335-337.
- Bornstein MH. Infancy: Emotions and temperament. In: Kazdin AE, ed.
The encyclopedia of psychology. New York: Oxford, 2000;278-284.
- Bornstein MH. Mother-infant interaction and acculturation II: Behavioral
coherence and correspondence in Japanese American and South American
families. Int J Behav Dev, in press.
- Bornstein MH. Observation and experimentation with infants in the
first year of life. In: Venuti P, ed. Behavior observation: experimental
research and clinical application. Rome:Carocci Editore 2001;17-21.
- Bornstein MH. Parenting competence. In: Balter L, ed. Parenthood in
America: an encyclopedia, vol. 2. New York: ABC-CLIO Press, 2000;448-450.
- Bornstein MH. Refocussing on parenthood. In: Westman J, ed. Parenthood
in America: undervalued, underpaid, under siege. Madison, WI: U Wisconsin
Press, in press.
- Bornstein MH. Social and didactic parenting behaviors and beliefs
among Japanese American and South American families. Infancy 2000;1:363-374.
- Bornstein MH. Some questions for a science of culture and parenting
(.... but certainly not all). Int Soc Study Behav Develop News 2001;1:1-4.
- Bornstein L, Bornstein MH. Naming children. In: Balter L, ed. Parenthood
in America: an encyclopedia, vol. 1. New York: ABC-CLIO Press, 2000;389-391.
- Bornstein
MH, Cote LR, Venuti P. Parenting beliefs and behaviors in northern
and southern groups of Italian mothers of young infants. J Fam Psychol
2001;15:663-675.
- Bornstein MH, Cote LR. Mother-infant interaction and acculturation
I: Behavioral comparisons in Japanese American and South American families.
Int J Behav Dev, in press.
- Bornstein MH, Hahn C, Haynes O, Rossi G, Tamis-LeMonda C. New research
methods in developmental studies: applications and illustrations. In:
Teti D, ed. Handbook of research methods in developmental psychology.
New York: Blackwell Publishers, in press.
- Bornstein MH, Koester L. Odesel Hanus Papousek. Psychologie Dnes 2000;7:6-7.
- Bornstein MH, Tamis-LeMonda CS. Mother-infant interaction. In: Bremner
G, Fogel A, eds. Handbook of infancy. London: Blackwell, in press.
- Collins
WA, Maccoby EE, Steinberg L, Hetherington EM, Bornstein MH. Toward
nature with nurture. Am Psychol 2001;56:171-173.
- Cote L, Bornstein MH. Acculturation. In: Balter L, ed. Parenthood
in America: an encyclopedia, vol. 1. New York: ABC-CLIO Press, 2000;11-14.
- Cote LR, Bornstein M. Mother-infant interaction and acculturation
II: Behavioral coherence and correspondence in Japanese American and
South American families. Int J Behav Dev, in press.
- Cote LR. Foster parents. In: Balter L, ed. Parenthood in America:
an encyclopedia, vol. 1. New York: ABC-CLIO Press, 2000;246-247.
- Lampard J, Voight M, Bornstein MH. Urban and rural parenting. In:
Balter L, ed. Parenthood in America: an encyclopedia, vol. 2. New York:
ABC-CLIIO Press, 2000;442-444.
- Park
J, Banaji M. Mood and heuristics: the influence of happy and sad
states on sensitivity and bias in stereotyping. J Person Soc Psychol
2000;78:1005-1023.
- Salkind S, Bornstein MH. Deafness and parenting. In: Balter L, ed.
Parenthood in America: an encyclopedia, vol. 1. New York: ABC-CLIO Press,
2000;157-158.
- Suizzo M. Death of a parent. In: Balter L, ed. Parenthood in America:
an encyclopedia, vol. 1. New York: ABC-CLIO Press, 2000;161-163.
- Suizzo M. Single parents. In: Balter L, ed. Parenthood in America:
an encyclopedia, vol. 1. New York: ABC-CLIO Press, 2000;570-571.
- Suizzo
MA. The social-emotional and cultural contexts of cognitive development
neo-Piagetian perspectives. Child Dev 2000;71:846-849.
- Suwalsky J, Bornstein MH. Adoptive family. In: Balter L, ed. Parenthood
in America: an encyclopedia, vol. 1. New York: ABC-CLIO Press, 2000;20-22.
- Tamis-LeMonda
CS, Bornstein MH, Baumwell L. Maternal responsiveness and childrens
achievement of language milestones. Child Develop 2001;72:748-767.
- Tamis-LeMonda CS, Bornstein MH. Language acquisition. In: Balter L,
ed. Parenthood in America: an encyclopedia, vol. 1. New York: ABC-CLIO
Press, 2000;342-346.
- Tamis-LeMonda CS, Bornstein MH. Parent-child communication. In: Balter
L, ed. Parenthood in America: an encyclopedia, vol. 1. New York: ABC-CLIO
Press, 2000;132-135.
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