This project's overarching objective is to elucidate how very young children come to internalize rules, values, and standards of behavior. Thus, the focus is on the early development of conscience, which is seen as an increasingly complex system that encompasses moral emotions, behavioral self-regulation, moral understanding, and the moral self. Conscience develops in the process of an intricate interplay between children's early temperamental characteristics and their relationships with the caregivers. The 5-year longitudinal study of 100 children and both of their parents, followed from 7 to 52 months, has 5 goals. (1) To examine the role of a close, positive, mutually responsive orientation evolving in some parent-child dyads for the early development of children's conscience, (2) To examine the role of children's temperament in the development of conscience, alone and in the interplay with early relationships, (3) To explore parent-child discourse about the child's past behavior as an important context for moral socialization, (4) To understand how parents' personality may influence the development of children's conscience, and (5) To explore early conscience development in the context of the network of integrated early family relationships. This research brings together literatures on emotions, temperament, relationships, socialization, parent-child discourse, autobiographical memory, and ecology of the family. It employs behavioral observations in diverse naturalistic contexts, multiple standard laboratory paradigms, parents' ratings, and parents' and children's self-reports. Measures are aggregated at multiple levels to produce robust constructs. The analyses elucidate causal mechanisms responsible for links among the constructs (mediation) and multiple causal pathways (moderation) using structural equations modeling. The promise of this research is both conceptual and practical. It will articulate and refine a comprehensive theoretical model of early conscience, a central construct in socialization theories. Conscience that serves as an effective internal guide of conduct is a critical component of mental health, and disturbances of conscience mark antisocial developmental trajectories. By elucidating adaptive and maladaptive early developmental pathways, this work will enhance the understanding of the nature of early developmental risks, and it will inform effective interventions that may help offset those risks.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)
Type
Research Project (R01)
Project #
5R01MH063096-03
Application #
6655004
Study Section
Special Emphasis Panel (ZRG1-RPHB-1 (01))
Program Officer
Oliveri, Mary Ellen
Project Start
2001-09-01
Project End
2006-08-31
Budget Start
2003-09-01
Budget End
2004-08-31
Support Year
3
Fiscal Year
2003
Total Cost
$294,000
Indirect Cost
Name
University of Iowa
Department
Psychology
Type
Schools of Arts and Sciences
DUNS #
062761671
City
Iowa City
State
IA
Country
United States
Zip Code
52242
Goffin, Kathryn C; Boldt, Lea J; Kochanska, Grazyna (2018) A Secure Base from which to Cooperate: Security, Child and Parent Willing Stance, and Adaptive and Maladaptive Outcomes in two Longitudinal Studies. J Abnorm Child Psychol 46:1061-1075
Goffin, Kathryn C; Boldt, Lea J; Kim, Sanghag et al. (2018) A Unique Path to Callous-Unemotional Traits for Children who are Temperamentally Fearless and Unconcerned about Transgressions: a Longitudinal Study of Typically Developing Children from age 2 to 12. J Abnorm Child Psychol 46:769-780
Jonas, Katherine; Kochanska, Grazyna (2018) An Imbalance of Approach and Effortful Control Predicts Externalizing Problems: Support for Extending the Dual-Systems Model into Early Childhood. J Abnorm Child Psychol 46:1573-1583
Kim, Sanghag; Kochanska, Grazyna (2017) Relational antecedents and social implications of the emotion of empathy: Evidence from three studies. Emotion 17:981-992
Boldt, Lea J; Kochanska, Grazyna; Jonas, Katherine (2017) Infant Attachment Moderates Paths From Early Negativity to Preadolescent Outcomes for Children and Parents. Child Dev 88:584-596
Dindo, Lilian; Brock, Rebecca L; Aksan, Nazan et al. (2017) Attachment and Effortful Control in Toddlerhood Predict Academic Achievement Over a Decade Later. Psychol Sci 28:1786-1795
Brock, Rebecca L; Kochanska, Grazyna; Boldt, Lea J (2017) Interplay between children's biobehavioral plasticity and interparental relationship in the origins of internalizing problems. J Fam Psychol 31:1040-1050
Kochanska, Grazyna; Brock, Rebecca L; Boldt, Lea J (2017) A cascade from disregard for rules of conduct at preschool age to parental power assertion at early school age to antisocial behavior in early preadolescence: Interplay with the child's skin conductance level. Dev Psychopathol 29:875-885
Brock, Rebecca L; Kochanska, Grazyna (2016) Toward a developmentally informed approach to parenting interventions: Seeking hidden effects. Dev Psychopathol 28:583-93
Nordling, Jamie Koenig; Boldt, Lea J; O'Bleness, Jessica et al. (2016) Effortful control mediates relations between children's attachment security and their regard for rules of conduct. Soc Dev 25:268-284

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