Suor Jennifer H, Sturge-Apple Melissa L, Davies Patrick T, Cicchetti Dante
Department of Clinical and Social Sciences, University of Rochester, Rochester, NY, USA.
Institute of Child Development, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, USA.
J Child Psychol Psychiatry. 2017 Aug;58(8):902-909. doi: 10.1111/jcpp.12718. Epub 2017 Mar 22.
Harsh environments are known to predict deficits in children's cognitive abilities. Life history theory approaches challenge this interpretation, proposing stressed children's cognition becomes specialized to solve problems in fitness-enhancing ways. The goal of this study was to examine associations between early environmental harshness and children's problem-solving outcomes across tasks varying in ecological relevance. In addition, we utilize an evolutionary model of temperament toward further specifying whether hawk temperament traits moderate these associations.
Two hundred and one mother-child dyads participated in a prospective multimethod study when children were 2 and 4 years old. At age 2, environmental harshness was assessed via maternal report of earned income and observations of maternal disengagement during a parent-child interaction task. Children's hawk temperament traits were assessed from a series of unfamiliar episodes. At age 4, children's reward-oriented and visual problem-solving were measured.
Path analyses revealed early environmental harshness and children's hawk temperament traits predicted worse visual problem-solving. Results showed a significant two-way interaction between children's hawk temperament traits and environmental harshness on reward-oriented problem-solving. Simple slope analyses revealed the effect of environmental harshness on reward-oriented problem-solving was specific to children with higher levels of hawk traits.
Results suggest early experiences of environmental harshness and child hawk temperament traits shape children's trajectories of problem-solving in an environment-fitting manner.
恶劣环境被认为会导致儿童认知能力缺陷。生命史理论方法对这一解释提出了挑战，认为处于压力下的儿童的认知会专门以增强适应性的方式来解决问题。本研究的目的是考察早期环境恶劣程度与儿童在生态相关性不同的任务中的问题解决结果之间的关联。此外，我们利用一种气质进化模型来进一步明确鹰派气质特征是否会调节这些关联。
201对母子参与了一项前瞻性多方法研究，研究对象为2岁和4岁的儿童。在儿童2岁时，通过母亲报告的家庭收入以及在亲子互动任务中对母亲疏离程度的观察来评估环境恶劣程度。从一系列不熟悉的情境中评估儿童的鹰派气质特征。在儿童4岁时，测量他们的奖励导向型和视觉问题解决能力。
路径分析显示，早期环境恶劣程度和儿童的鹰派气质特征预示着较差的视觉问题解决能力。结果表明，儿童的鹰派气质特征与环境恶劣程度在奖励导向型问题解决方面存在显著的双向交互作用。简单斜率分析显示，环境恶劣程度对奖励导向型问题解决的影响特定于具有较高鹰派特征水平的儿童。
结果表明，早期环境恶劣经历和儿童鹰派气质特征以一种与环境相适应的方式塑造儿童的问题解决轨迹。
