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H Hill Goldsmith

Publications and source records attributed to H Hill Goldsmith.

12 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2006

Environmental influences on family similarity in afternoon cortisol levels: twin and parent-offspring designs.

Modest genetic effects on morning, but not late-day, cortisol levels have been established. Environmental demands may influence basal cortisol levels later in the day. Thus, we anticipated that individuals in the same family would have similar afternoon cortisol levels to the extent that they share aspects of their environment. We examined afternoon basal cortisol levels measured across 3 consecutive days in mothers and fathers and in multiple offspring in two separate large and longitudinal studies. Study I involved 321 families with singletons while study II involved 233 families with twins. Modest family similarity was apparent for afternoon basal cortisol levels in both studies. Spouses' cortisol levels were also correlated. Data from study II demonstrated that family resemblance in afternoon cortisol was accounted for by underlying shared environmental factors, but not underlying genetic factors. Shared environment accounted for 62% of the variation in twin afternoon basal cortisol levels and 14% of the variation in parent afternoon basal cortisol levels. We used pooled data from the two studies to examine whether parental depression, socioeconomic status (SES), and offspring sex and age impacted cortisol levels. Female offspring had higher cortisol levels than males, and cortisol decreased with age until about 9 years of age, after which cortisol increased with age. Family similarity persisted after accounting for parental depression, SES, time of day, and offspring sex and age, which suggests that the shared family environment influences parent and offspring stress hormone levels throughout the childhood years.

Adult↗
PubMed2006

Exploring risk factors for the emergence of children's mental health problems.

CONTEXT: Exploratory studies that generate testable models of how risk factors for childhood mental health problems work together over time are critical for developing effective prevention and treatment strategies. OBJECTIVE: To build models addressing the following 2 questions: (1) How early can we identify children at risk for mental health problems in third grade? (2) How do the risk factors work together over time? DESIGN AND PARTICIPANTS: We assessed a Wisconsin community sample 8 times, beginning during pregnancy. Three hundred seventy-nine families completed multi-informant reports (mothers, teachers, and children) of children's mental health symptoms in third grade. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Symptom severity and directionality (externalizing vs internalizing). RESULTS: The hypothesis was generated that family socioeconomic status (SES) defined different pathways to symptom severity. In low/middle SES families, children were at risk if their mothers were distressed during the infancy period, which was then associated with more generalized maternal and child distress and dysregulation during the preschool period. In high SES families, the picture was more complex, beginning with parental histories of depression and family psychopathology, which then led to greater family stress in the infancy period and maternal and child distress and dysregulation during the preschool period. For all children, social and academic impairment during the school transition was an important mediator. Two pathways to later symptom directionality consisted of one beginning with child sex and the other with child temperament. CONCLUSIONS: Most risk factors predicted symptom severity and not directionality. The risk factors for internalizing and externalizing problems may be much the same, and the same preventive interventions might be effective for both classes of problems. Furthermore, at-risk children from high SES families might be identifiable as early as infancy, whereas those from lower SES families may be identifiable only as preschoolers.

Adult↗
PubMed2006

Gender differences in temperament: a meta-analysis.

The authors used meta-analytical techniques to estimate the magnitude of gender differences in mean level and variability of 35 dimensions and 3 factors of temperament in children ages 3 months to 13 years. Effortful control showed a large difference favoring girls and the dimensions within that factor (e.g., inhibitory control: d = -.41, perceptual sensitivity: d = -0.38) showed moderate gender differences favoring girls, consistent with boys' greater incidence of externalizing disorders. Surgency showed a difference favoring boys, as did some of the dimensions within that factor (e.g., activity: d = 0.33, high-intensity pleasure: d = 0.30), consistent with boys' greater involvement in active rough-and-tumble play. Negative affectivity showed negligible gender differences.

Female↗
PubMed2006

Early father involvement moderates biobehavioral susceptibility to mental health problems in middle childhood.

OBJECTIVE: To study how early father involvement and children's biobehavioral sensitivity to social contexts interactively predict mental health symptoms in middle childhood. METHOD: Fathers' involvement in infant care and maternal symptoms of depression were prospectively ascertained in a community-based study of child health and development in Madison and Milwaukee, WI. In a subsample of 120 children, behavioral, autonomic, and adrenocortical reactivity to standardized challenges were measured as indicators of biobehavioral sensitivity to social context during a 4-hour home assessment in 1998, when the children were 7 years of age. Mental health symptoms were evaluated at age 9 years using parent, child, and teacher reports. RESULTS: Early father involvement and children's biobehavioral sensitivity to context significantly and interactively predicted symptom severity. Among children experiencing low father involvement in infancy, behavioral, autonomic, and adrenocortical reactivity became risk factors for later mental health symptoms. The highest symptom severity scores were found for children with high autonomic reactivity that, as infants, had experienced low father involvement and mothers with symptoms of depression. CONCLUSIONS: Among children experiencing minimal paternal caretaking in infancy, heightened biobehavioral sensitivity to social contexts may be an important predisposing factor for the emergence of mental health symptoms in middle childhood. Such predispositions may be exacerbated by the presence of maternal depression.

Child↗
PubMed2005

Cardiac reactivity is associated with changes in negative emotion in 24-month-olds.

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.

Affect↗
PubMed2004

Context-specific freezing and associated physiological reactivity as a dysregulated fear response.

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.

Child, Preschool↗
PubMed2004

Temperament and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder: the development of a multiple pathway model.

This article outlines the parallels between major theories of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and relevant temperament domains, summarizing recent research from our laboratories on (a) child temperament and (b) adult personality traits related to ADHD symptoms. These data are convergent in suggesting a role of effortful control and regulation in the core symptoms of ADHD. Negative approach and anger is also associated with ADHD, but this may be due to the overlap of ADHD and antisocial behavior. Positive approach may be involved in an alternate pathway to ADHD. The involvement of effortful control is congruent with experimental findings of executive functioning deficits in children with ADHD. We hypothesize that, whereas regulation problems may occur in most children with ADHD, a subgroup also may be characterized by positive approach problems and another subgroup by negative approach problems. We conclude with a theorized multiple process developmental model outlining alternate pathways to ADHD that warrant empirical investigation to better resolve etiological heterogeneity in ADHD.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2003

Right frontal brain activity, cortisol, and withdrawal behavior in 6-month-old infants.

Although several studies have examined 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.

Affect↗
PubMed2003

Comparison of video- and EMG-based evaluations of the magnitude of children's emotion-modulated startle response.

We investigated the reliability and validity of a video-based method of measuring the magnitude of children's emotion-modulated startle response when electromyographic (EMG) measurement is not feasible. Thirty-one children between the ages of 4 and 7 years were videotaped while watching short video clips designed to elicit happiness or fear. Embedded in the audio track of the video clips were acoustic startle probes. A coding system was developed to quantify from the video record the strength of the eye-blink startle response to the probes. EMG measurement of the eye blink was obtained simultaneously. Intercoder reliability for the video coding was high (Cohen's kappa = .90). The average within-subjects probe-by-probe correlation between the EMG- and video-based methods was .84. Group-level correlations between the methods were also strong, and there was some evidence of emotion modulation of the startle response with both the EMG- and the video-derived data. Although the video method cannot be used to assess the latency, probability, or duration of startle blinks, the findings indicate that it can serve as a valid proxy of EMG in the assessment of the magnitude of emotion-modulated startle in studies of children conducted outside of a laboratory setting, where traditional psychophysiological methods are not feasible.

Child↗
PubMed2002

Development and natural history of mood disorders.

To expand and accelerate research on mood disorders, the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) developed a project to formulate a strategic research plan for mood disorder research. One of the areas selected for review concerns the development and natural history of these disorders. The NIMH convened a multidisciplinary Workgroup of scientists to review the field and the NIMH portfolio and to generate specific recommendations. To encourage a balanced and creative set of proposals, experts were included within and outside this area of research, as well as public stakeholders. The Workgroup identified the need for expanded knowledge of mood disorders in children and adolescents, noting important gaps in understanding the onset, course, and recurrence of early-onset unipolar and bipolar disorder. Recommendations included the need for a multidisciplinary research initiative on the pathogenesis of unipolar depression encompassing genetic and environmental risk and protective factors. Specifically, we encourage the NIMH to convene a panel of experts and advocates to review the findings concerning children at high risk for unipolar depression. Joint analyses of existing data sets should examine specific risk factors to refine models of pathogenesis in preparation for the next era of multidisciplinary research. Other priority areas include the need to assess the long-term impact of successful treatment of juvenile depression and known precursors of depression, in particular, childhood anxiety disorders. Expanded knowledge of pediatric-onset bipolar disorder was identified as a particularly pressing issue because of the severity of the disorder, the controversies surrounding its diagnosis and treatment, and the possibility that widespread use of psychotropic medications in vulnerable children may precipitate the condition. The Workgroup recommends that the NIMH establish a collaborative multisite multidisciplinary Network of Research Programs on Pediatric-Onset Bipolar Disorder to achieve a better understanding of its causes, course, treatment, and prevention. The NIMH should develop a capacity-building plan to ensure the availability of trained investigators in the child and adolescent field. Mood disorders are among the most prevalent, recurrent, and disabling of all illnesses. They are often disorders of early onset. Although the NIMH has made important strides in mood disorders research, more data, beginning with at-risk infants, children, and adolescents, are needed concerning the etiology and developmental course of these disorders. A diverse program of multidisciplinary research is recommended to reduce the burden on children and families affected with these conditions.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2002

Wisconsin Twin Panel.

The Wisconsin Twin Panel was initiated in 1994 to serve a study of the development of childhood mood and behavioral disorders. Families who give birth to twins within the state of Wisconsin are recruited within 6 months of the birth. The panel currently supports three ongoing, longitudinal research projects. Research foci include studying epigenetic contributions to emotional, physical, cognitive, and motoric development of infant and toddler twins; physiological concomitants of childhood temperament; and early risk and resiliency factors related to child psychopathology. All three studies include videotaped observational assessments and biological measures.

Child↗