"Do as I say!" : parenting and the biology of child self-regulation

Abstract

The

development of self-regulation is one of the major challenges of a child’s

healthy development. In the current thesis, the contribution and interplay of

parental and biological factors in the development of self-regulation in preschoolers are studied in a large population-based cohort, the Generation R Study. We found that attachment insecurity in infancy was related to higher levels of toddler active resistance during Clean-Up. Maternal negative discipline was related to lower levels of committed compliance in toddlers, and the association between maternal positive discipline and child committed compliance was moderated by the child’s COMT rs4680 genotype, indicating that the association was stronger in children with the Met/Met variant than for children with other COMT genotypes. Maternal family-related stress during pregnancy predicted lower levels of toddler committed compliance through lower levels of maternal positive discipline. Maternal sensitivity was associated with lower levels of executive function problems and lower levels of internalizing problems in preschool age. In children with a relatively short corpus callosum in infancy, higher levels of maternal positive discipline predicted lower levels of inhibition problems. Our studies demonstrate the role of various aspects of positive parenting and mother-child relationship quality in preschool children’s regulation of emotions and behavior.