Who are Pollyanna Preschoolers? Developing a

“benign attribution bias”

Dr Kevin Runions

School Of Psychology

Edith Cowan University[k.runions@ecu.edu.au]

•Although normative processes have been the focus of attention in many aspects of developmental psychology, social developmental research has focused a lot of energy on studying antisocial, aggressive and disruptive developmental pathways

•Much less focus on prosocial development

•Can research on prosocial development give us clues on how to reduce antisocial development?

Research Traditions: Antisocial Vs. Prosocial Development

Prosocial Development

“Behaviours that are positively responsive to others’ needs and welfare…that are helpful and affiliative responses to others…such as assisting, sharing, being kind and considerate, comforting, cooperating, protecting someone from harm, rescuing someone from danger, and feeling empathy and sympathy”

Radke-Yarrow & Zahn-Waxler, 1986, p. 208

Research has focused on psychological emotion processes related to prosocial development, but little connection to children’s social information processes

Crick and Dodge (1994) Social Information Processing Model

Kenneth Dodge’s Social Information Processing Model (Crick & Dodge, 1994)

5. Select or enact those responses?

3. Clarify the goals that are important to them?

4. Generate or plan responses?

2. Represent or interpret this information?

How do aggressive versus non-aggressive children

1. Encode information?“Hostile attribution bias”

•The current study set out to study family antecedents of social information processes measured in preschool and Year 1 involved in antisocial behaviour in Year 1

•But it may have unveiled something more interesting about prosocial development

The Current Study

•U.S. NICHD Study of Early Child Care

•1364 recruited

•10 communities

•followed from birth to Grade 1 (1, 6, 15, 24, 36 & 54 months, and again in Year 1)

•Selective attrition

•N = 896

Participants

•4 forced-choice Qs

• “Pretend that you are playing catch with a ball. A boy named Tim throws the ball and it hits you in the back. What do you think happened?”

Preschool Hostile Attributions of Intent (HAI)

•M = 1.65 (SD = 1.34) α = .65

•1. Did Tim hit you in the back by accident?

•2. Did Tim want to hit you in the back?

•Maternal Education (Years)

•Family Income (1 – 36 mo.)

•Maternal Authoritarian Attitudes (1 mo.)

•Maternal Negative Control (6 – 36 mo.)

•Maternal Depression (1 – 36 mo.)

Measures: SES and Maternal Predictors

•Child Temperament -- 6 mo. Infancy Temperament Questionnaire, Carey and McDevitt (1978). Factor Analyzed:

•Behavioural Inhibition (distress at novel situations e.g., “pleasant in unfamiliar place” and “rejects new babysitter” )

•Behavioural Activation (surgency toward rewarding activities (e.g., “active during diapering/dressing”, “reacts strongly to foods”)

•Child Cognitive Functioning (36 mo.) alpha = .77.

•Bracken Scale of Basic Concepts’ (School Readiness subscale)

•Reynell Language Scales (verbal comp and expressive language).

Measures: Child Antecedent Predictors

Distribution of Preschool HAI (n = 896)

Total Hostile Attributions of Intent

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

0 1 2 3 4

%

Distribution of Preschool HAI by Gender

Total Hostile Attributions of Intent

0

20

40

60

80

100

120

140

160

0 1 2 3 4

Boys

GirlsN

χ2 = 8.3, p < .10

89193196178254N =

Total Hostile Attributions at 54m

43210

95

% C

I m

ea

ns in

co

me

-to

-ne

ed

s 1

- 5

4m

4.6

4.4

4.2

4.0

3.8

3.6

3.4

3.2

3.0

2.8

Total Preschool HAI

Low

High

Family Income

Preschool HAI: Bivariate Relations with Family Income (1 – 36 mo.)

Always “Accidental”

0 1 2 3 4

for Dichotomized DV (0 vs. 1-4)

t (894)= 2.27, p < .05

89193196178254N =

Total Hostile Attributions at 54m

43210

95

% C

I M

oth

er's

Ed

uca

tio

n

15.5

15.0

14.5

14.0

13.5

0Total Preschool HAI

1 2 3 4Low

High

Maternal Education

Preschool HAI: Bivariate Relation with Maternal Education

Always Accidental

0 1 2 3 4

t (894)= 3.96, p < .001

85191194174252N =

Total Hostile Attributions at 54m

43210

95

% C

I m

ate

rna

l d

ep

ressio

n (

mo

1 -

36

)

12

11

10

9

8

7

Preschool HAI: Bivariate Relations with Maternal Depression (1 – 36 mo.)

0 1 2 3 4 Total Preschool HAI

Low

High

Mate

rnal

Dep

ressio

n

0 1 2 3 4

t (894)= -1.27, n.s.

85191194174252N =

Total Hostile Attributions at 54m

43210

95

% C

I T

rad

itio

na

l Id

ea

s f

or

rais

ing

kid

s64

62

60

58

56

54

52

Preschool HAI: Bivariate Relations with Maternal Authoritarian Attitudes

0 1 2 3 4 Total Preschool HAI

Low

High

Authoritarian Attitudes Always

Accidental

t (894)= -3.91, p < .001

85191194174252N =

Total Hostile Attributions at 54m

43210

95

% C

I n

eg

mo

m (

m6

-36

; in

trsv +

ne

g r

grd

)7.2

7.0

6.8

6.6

6.4

6.2

6.0

Preschool HAI: Bivariate Relations with Maternal Negative Control (6 – 36 mo.)

0 1 2 3 4 Total Preschool HAI

Low

High

Negative Control Always

Accidental

t (894)= -3.35, p = .001

89193196178254N =

Total Hostile Attributions at 54m

43210

95

% C

I B

IS (

f1)

mc

.1

0.0

-.1

-.2

Preschool HAI: Bivariate Relations with Infant Behavioral Inhibition (6 mo. Mat Report)

0 1 2 3 4 Total Preschool HAI

Low

High

Infant Inhibition

t (894)= -.33, n.s.

89193196178254N =

Total Hostile Attributions at 54m

43210

95

% C

I B

AS

(f3

) m

c.3

.2

.1

-.0

-.1

-.2

-.3

Preschool HAI: Bivariate Relations with Infant Behavioural Activation (6mo. mat report)

0 1 2 3 4 Total Preschool HAI

Low

High

Infant Surgency

t (894)= -2.02, p < .05

85191194174252N =

Total Hostile Attributions at 54m

43210

95

% C

I ch

ild

iq

36

m (

reyn

ell &

bra

cke

n)

.4

.3

.2

.1

0.0

-.1

-.2

-.3

-.4

Preschool HAI: Bivariate Relations with Child Cognitive Functioning at 36 Months

0 1 2 3 4 Total Preschool HAI

Low

High

Cognitive Scores at 36 months

Always Accidental

t (894)= 4.82, p < .001

Children who report only benign intentions or accidental causes, even if

actions harmful to the child

Pollyanna Preschoolers?“Hold on! Those aren’t preschoolers!”

• 8 Qs: Social and Physical “harm”

Measures: Year 1 Social Information Processing

• “Pretend that you see some kids playing on the playground. You would really like to play with them, so you go over and ask one of them, a kid named Susan, if you can play. Susan says no.”

• Why do you think? M = 4.65 (SD = 2.05) α = .65

• What would you do? Count of “retaliate” code Range 0 - 8, M = .54 (SD = 1.29)

Relationship of Preschool and Year One HAI

Preschool HAI

Low

High

Year One HAI Pollyanna

Preschoolers

0 1 2 3 4

F (1, 894)= 14.85, p < .001

Relationship of Preschool and Year One Aggressive Response Planning

Pollyanna Preschoolers85191194174252N =

Total Hostile Attributions at 54m

43210

95

% C

I A

gg

ressiv

e s

ocia

l re

sp

on

se

s G

r1

1.0

.9

.8

.7

.6

.5

.4

.3

.2

0 1 2 3 4 Preschool HAI

Low

High

Year One ARG

F (1, 894)= 2.24, n.s.

85191194174252N =

Total Hostile Attributions at 54m

43210

95

% C

I T

RF

EX

T g

r 1

(lg

10

)

.8

.7

.6

.5

.4

.3

Relationship of Preschool HAI and Year One Teacher Reported Externalizing Outcomes

High

Low

Pollyanna Preschoolers 0 1 2 3 4

Preschool HAI

Ext

erna

lizin

g

F (1, 894)= 23.83, p < .001

85191194174252N =

Total Hostile Attributions at 54m

43210

95

% C

I C

BC

L E

XT

gr

1 (

sq

rt)

3.2

3.0

2.8

2.6

2.4

2.2

2.0

Relationship of Preschool HAI and Year One Mother Reported Externalizing Outcomes

0 1 2 3 4 Preschool HAI

Low

High

Exte

rnalizi

ng

0 1 2 3 4

Pollyanna Preschoolers

F (1, 894)= 18.34, p < .001

85191194174252N =

Total Hostile Attributions at 54m

43210

95

% C

I C

BC

L I

NT

gr

1 (

sq

rt)

2.3

2.2

2.1

2.0

1.9

1.8

1.7

1.6

Relationship of Preschool HAI and Year One Mother Reported Internalizing Outcomes

0 1 2 3 4 Preschool HAI

Low

High

Inte

rnalizi

ng

0 1 2 3 4

F (1, 894)= .69, n.s.

85191194174252N =

Total Hostile Attributions at 54m

43210

95

% C

I T

RF

in

tern

alizin

g g

r1 (

sq

rt) 2.4

2.2

2.0

1.8

1.6

1.4

1.2

Relationship of Preschool HAI and Year One Teacher Reported Internalizing Outcomes

High

Low

Pollyanna Preschoolers

0 1 2 3 4 Preschool HAI

Inte

rnal

izin

g

F (1, 894)= 8.95, p < .01

• Some hostile attributions of intent: common response at both preschool and school age

• Pollyanna Preschoolers show fewer hostile attributions and fewer externalizing behaviours in early childhood; mixed results re. internalizing

• “Pollyanna” Preschool “bias” toward benign interpretations of social misfortune

Conclusions: Early attributions of intention

•High IQ?

•Emotional IQ?

•Precocious Empathy?

Understanding Pollyanna Preschoolers

•Sheltered?

•Naïve?

•Future victims?

•Optimist Bias?

•Rose-coloured glasses?

Dan Keating

Jenny Jenkins

Katreena Scott

Daniel Shaw

Michel Ferrari

Keith Stanovich

Janet Astington

Thank You