Conduct problems in childhood increase risk for school failure, adolescent substance use, and criminality in adulthood. Little is known, however, about the early antecedents of childhood conduct problems in prenatal through late toddler stages. To address this research gap, this project examines family influences on the development of self-regulation, specifically executive functions and behavioral self-control, in early childhood. The key broader impacts of this research include new knowledge about mechanisms that increase risk for conduct problems and insights into ways to prevent these problems from developing into poor lifetime outcomes.
In this study, the researchers will follow a sample of 400 expectant mothers and their partners over three years and collect a variety of data on physiology, behavior in structured interactions, and executive function and emotion regulation. A major innovation of the project is its focus on the role of stress and stress hormones in the development of both parents and children. The researchers are interested in ways in which high levels of stress hormones in the expectant mother influence the child prenatally through effects on nervous system development and also on mother-child, mother-father, and father-child interaction in infancy through toddlerhood. A second innovation of this project is a focus on fathers and the ways in which fathers may decrease or increase risk associated with maternal factors. A third area of innovation concerns the international nature of the sample, which will include 200 expectant mother-father pairs in the United Kingdom and 100 each in the United States and the Netherlands. This aspect of the proejct will allow the researchers to conduct cross-country analyses and assess the generalizability of the findings and perhaps suggest how cultural factors impact development.
