Parenting skills, such as Autonomy Support (AS), have been proposed as a potential mechanism explaining the intergenerational contiguity of Executive Function (EF). However, few studies have... Show moreParenting skills, such as Autonomy Support (AS), have been proposed as a potential mechanism explaining the intergenerational contiguity of Executive Function (EF). However, few studies have focused on mothers and fathers among non-Western families. The current study investigated the role of maternal and paternal AS in the relation between parental EF and infant EF at 14 months of age among 123 Dutch and 63 Chinese first-time mothers and fathers and their infants. Multiple-group structural equation models were built for mothers and fathers separately with country as a grouping variable. Results showed that parental AS did not mediate the relation between parent EF and infant EF at 14 months. Mean-level differences were found in parental AS, maternal EF, and infant inhibition across countries, while no country differences were found in the relation between parent EF, AS and infant EF. Our findings suggested that individual differences in early EF may not be stable enough to be reliably predicted from parental factors across the Netherlands and China. Show less
Most still‐face paradigm (SFP) studies have been done in Western families with infant–mother dyads. The present study investigated the SFP pattern in 123 Dutch and 63 Chinese 4‐month‐old infants... Show moreMost still‐face paradigm (SFP) studies have been done in Western families with infant–mother dyads. The present study investigated the SFP pattern in 123 Dutch and 63 Chinese 4‐month‐old infants with mothers and fathers. The classic SFP effect was found for positive affect and gaze in both countries. For negative affect, Chinese infants showed a different SFP pattern than Dutch infants. With fathers, in-fants displayed a less pronounced SFP pattern for positive affect and an increase from the still face to the reunion for negative affect. Only a minority of infants showed the ex-pected SFP pattern across episodes. Our findings support that infant emotion expression is influenced by parent gen-der and cultural context. An interesting avenue for further study is the exploration of the origins of within‐ and be-tween‐gender and culture differences in affective communi-cation between parents and infants. Show less
