Relationships Between Maternal Autonomy Support and Children’s Developing Self-Directed Executive Functions

Kaylyn Van DeusenPsychology – Spring 2017 – Professor Munakata

Introduction• Early on, children struggle to behave in self-directed ways,

and frequently rely on reminders from adults to achieve goals (Munakata, Snyder, & Chatham, 2012)

• Executive Functions (EFs) are important for achieving goals• EFs predict life outcomes (e.g. academics, health, and wealth;

Moffit et al., 2011)• Prior investigations focus on cues and reminders from adults

instead of self-directed tasks• Less is known about how kids begin to engage EFs in self-

directed ways

• But, no studies have investigated how parental support for child autonomy relates to their developing self-directed EF

Methods• Examined relationships between maternal behaviors and developing

self-directed EF in a subset of the Colorado Longitudinal Twin Sample (N=97)

• Maternal autonomy support was measured in a mother-twin co-construction task at age 5 • Raters coded interactions using NICHD Maternal-Child Interaction

Rating Scale (Cohen’s Kappas= .77-.79)• Constructs of Interest:• Maternal Intrusiveness• Maternal Detachment• Secondary Measures (Positive Regard, Stimulation of

Cognitive Development, and Sensitivity)

Primary Results• Maternal intrusiveness or autonomy support are not related to

children’s verbal fluency switching performance (r = .08; p = 0.45)• In exploratory secondary analyses, maternal parenting behaviors

are not related to children’s performance on verbal fluency (ps > .3)

Discussion• No relationship between observed age-5 intrusiveness and children’s

VF switching at age-7 before or after controlling for age-4 switching ability

• May suggest parenting behaviors and children’s developing self-directed EF are not related

• Limitations:• A lack of task direction may not have been optimal to determine

autonomy supportive parenting• Unplanned variation in experimenter instructions may have

impacted dyadic behavior and reduced our ability to see systematic differences across dyads

ReferencesBernier, A., Carlson, S. M., & Whipple, N. (2010). From External Regulation to Self-Regulation: Early Parenting

Precursors of Young Children’s Executive Functioning. Child Development, 81(1), 326–339. https://doi.org/10.1111/j. 1467-8624.2009.01397.x

Ispa, J. M., Fine, M. A., Halgunseth, L. C., Harper, S., Robinson, J., Boyce, L., … Brady-Smith, C. (2004). Maternal Intrusiveness, Maternal Warmth and Mother–Toddler Relationship Outcomes: Variations Across Low-Income Ethnic and Acculturation Groups. Child Development, 75(6), 1613–1631. https://doi.org/10.1111/j 1467-8624.2004.00806.x

Munakata, Y., Snyder, H. R., & Chatham, C. H. (2012). Developing Cognitive Control Three Key Transitions. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 21(2), 71–77. https://doi.org/10.1177/0963721412436807

Moffitt, T. E., Arseneault, L., Belsky, D., Dickson, N., Hancox, R. J., Harrington, H., ... & Sears, M. R. (2011). A gradient of childhood self-control predicts health, wealth, and public safety. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 108(7), 2693-2698.

AcknowledgmentsThanks to Yuko Munakata, Jane Barker, and the

Cognitive Development Center

Hypotheses

• Does maternal intrusiveness at age 5 predict children’s self-directed EF at age 7, controlling for earlier self-directed behavior?

• Children with more autonomy supportive mothers will have better EF in self-directed contexts at age 7 controlling for EF at age 4

• Children with more controlling mothers will have worse EF in self-directed contexts

Preliminary Analyses• Early VF switching predicts later VF switching ability

(r = .35; p < 0.001)• NICHD ratings of maternal behaviors demonstrate predicted

relationships between constructs• For example, Maternal Intrusiveness is inversely related to Maternal

Sensitivity (r = -.40; p < .001)

• Parents may play an important role in how children develop EFs • Intrusive mothers control content and

pace of play, which undermines child motivation (Ispa et al., 2004)

• Autonomy-Supportive mothers support children to achieve goals independently by providing space for the child’s choices (Bernier et al., 2010)

• Children’s self-directed EF is indexed by switching performance in semantic verbal fluency (VF)• Children are given time to produce exemplars of

a categorical prompt (e.g. “Animals”) • Children who produce many words show a

spontaneous clustering and switching strategy