Buss, K.A., Brooker, R.J., & Leuty, M. (2008). Girls most of the time, boys some of the time: Gender differences in toddlers' use of maternal proximity and comfort seeking. Infancy, 13, 1-29.
How children experience, express, and regulate distress has important implications for adjustment. Factors influencing individual differences in these aspects of affective behavior include temperament, context of situation, and parents to name a few. Gender differences in the expression of affective behaviors have also been implicated in past research. However, differences are not always found especially before preschool ages. The current study examined the presence of gender differences and moderating influences of gender on the expression of distress and mother-oriented behaviors (e.g., comfort seeking and proximity to mother) in 24-month-old toddlers during a series of situations designed to elicit either fear or frustration. Girls were more likely to seek contact from mother and stay in closer proximity to her compared to boys even after controlling for distress. However, the association between distress and contact seeking/proximity was significant for boys but not for girls. The discussion focuses on implications for biological and socialization effects of sex-typed behavior and consequences for adjustment.
Fortunato, Christine K., Dribin, Amy E., Granger, Doug A, & Buss, Kristin A. (2008). Salivary Alpha-amylase in Toddlers: Differential Relations to Affective Behavior. Developmental Psychobiology.
This study applies a non-invasive and multi-system measurement approach (using salivary analytes) to examine associations between the psychobiology of the stress response and affective behavior in toddlers. Eighty-seven two-year-olds (48 females) participated in laboratory tasks designed to elicit emotions and behavior ranging from pleasure/approach to fear/withdrawal. Saliva samples were collected pre-task and immediately post-task, and assayed for markers of sympathetic nervous system (alpha-amylase or sAA) and hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis (cortisol) activity. Individual differences in sAA were positively associated with approach behavior and positive affect; whereas, cortisol was positively associated with negative affect and withdrawal behavior. The findings suggest that individual differences in sAA may covary specifically with positive affect and approach behaviors or the predominant emotional state across a series of tasks. The results are discussed with respect to advancing biosocial models of the concomitants and correlates of young children's affective behaviors.
Buss, K. A., & Goldsmith, H. H. (2007). Biobehavioral approaches to early socioemotional development. In C. A. Brownell & C. B. Kopp (Eds.), Transitions in Early Socioemotional Development: The Toddler Years . New York: Guilford.
(From the chapter) In this chapter, we discuss early affective development, specifically focusing on negative emotions. The review of the literature focuses primarily on infants, toddlers, and preschoolage children to highlight the transitions across toddlerhood; however, we include studies of older children, adolescents, and young adults to address specific points and identify gaps in our knowledge of these processes in toddlerhood. We begin our review with behavior genetic evidence, primarily from twin studies, and include new data from two twin samples. We also review literature linking hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenocortical (HPA) axis activity with negative emotions and present new data from a sample of 24-month-olds. Finally we discuss research on autonomic and central nervous system influences on negative emotionality.
Keil, E.J., & Buss, K.A. (2006). Maternal accuracy in predicting toddlers' behaviors and associations with toddlers' fearful temperment. Child Development, 77, 355-370.
Past research provides associations between maternal parenting behaviors and characteristics such as depression and toddlers' fearful temperament. Less is known about how maternal cognitive characteristics and normal personality relate to fearful temperament. This study examined associations among the maternal cognitive characteristic of accuracy, maternal personality, toddler gender, context, and 24-month-old toddlers' fearful temperament. Mothers were more accurate in predicting their daughters' emotional reactions in fear-eliciting contexts. High maternal approach personality was related to increased maternal accuracy for boys. High maternal approach personality, in conjunction with lower accuracy, however, was associated with higher levels of toddlers' fearful temperament. Results suggest implications for the current understanding of toddlers' fearful temperament.
Buss, K.A., & Kiel, E.J. (2004). Comparison of sadness, anger and fear facial expressions when toddlers look at their mother. Child Development, 75, 1761-1773.
Research suggests that sadness expressions may be more beneficial to children than other emotions when eliciting support from caregivers. It is unclear, however, when children develop the ability to regulate their displays of distress. The current study addressed this question. Distress facial expressions (e.g., fear, anger, and sadness) were examined in 24-month-old toddlers throughout 4 episodes as well as specifically during looks to their mothers. Consistent with hypotheses and the literature, toddlers expressed sadness more frequently and with more intensity than target emotions only during looks to their mothers. These findings indicate that toddlers as young as 24 months of age are using particular emotional displays to elicit support from the social environment.
Buss, K.A., Goldsmith, H.H., & Davidson, R.J. (2005). Cardiac reactivity is associated with changes in negative emotions in
24–month olds. Developmental Psychobiology, 46, 118-132.
Despite the call for multilevel observation of negative affect, including multiple physiological systems, too little empirical research has been conducted in infants and young children, and physiology-affect associations are not consistently reported. We examined changes in heart rate, respiratory sinus arrhythmia, and preejection period in 24-month-olds across four increasingly challenging, emotion-eliciting tasks. We predicted that changes in cardiac reactivity would be systematically related to changes in negative affect. Results largely support the predictions with one important exception. With increasing distress across the tasks, HR increased and RSA decreased. However, no significant changes in PEP were observed. HR was associated with negative affect during all tasks, and changes in HR were related to changes in negative affect. PEP and negative affect were associated, but only marginally so. Within-subject analyses confirmed the predicted associations. Finally, the associations between physiology and negative affect were different for boys and girls. We discuss these results in the context of implications for future research on cardiac-affect associations in young children.
Buss, K.A., Davidson, R.J., Kalin, N.H., & Goldsmith, H.H. (2004). Context specific freezing and associated physiological reactivity as a dysregulated fear response. Developmental Psychology, 40, 583-594.
The putative association between fear-related behaviors and peripheral sympathetic and neuroendocrine reactivity has not been replicated consistently. This inconsistency was addressed in a reexamination of the characterization of children with extreme fearful reactions by focusing on the match between distress behaviors and the eliciting context. Eighty 24-month-old children were observed in 4 mildly threatening contexts, and the relations among different measures of fear-related behaviors, reactive and basal cortisol levels, and baseline cardiac measures of heart rate, respiratory sinus arrhythmia, and preejection period (PEP) were examined. The hypothesis that only behaviors under the less threatening context would be associated with higher cortisol and sympathetic cardiac activity was confirmed; only task-specific freezing behavior predicted higher reactive and basal cortisol levels and resting PEP measured 1 week later. Implications for the conceptualization of dysregulated fear behaviors in the classification of extremely fearful children are discussed.
Buss, K.A., Malmstadt-Schumacher, J., Dolski, I., Kalin, N.A., Goldsmith, H.H., & Davidson, R.J. (2003). Right frontal brain activity, cortisol, and withdraw behavior in 6-month old infants. Behavioral Neuroscience, 117, 11-20.
Although several studies have examines anterior asymmetric brain electrical activity and cortisol in infants, children, and adults, the direct association between asymmetry and cortisol has not systematically been reported. In nonhuman primates, greater relative right anterior activation has been associated with higher cortisol levels. The current study examines the relation between frontal electroencephalographic (EEG) asymmetry and cortisol (basal and reactive) and withdrawal-related behaviors (fear and sadness) in 6-month-old infants. As predicted, the authors found that higher basal and reactive cortisol levels were associated with extreme right EEG asymmetry. EEG during the withdrawal-negative affect task was associated with fear and sadness behaviors. Results are interpreted in the context of the previous primate work, and some putative mechanisms are discussed.
