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Biomedical subjects

R A Fabes

Publications and source records attributed to R A Fabes.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2001

Mothers' emotional expressivity and children's behavior problems and social competence: mediation through children's regulation.

The relations between mothers' expressed positive and negative emotion and 55-79-month-olds' (76% European American) regulation, social competence, and adjustment were examined. Structural equation modeling was used to test the plausibility of the hypothesis that the effects of maternal expression of emotion on children's adjustment and social competence are mediated through children's dispositional regulation. Mothers' expressed emotions were assessed during interactions with their children and with maternal reports of emotions expressed in the family. Children's regulation, externalizing and internalizing problems. and social competence were rated by parents and teachers, and children's persistence was surreptitiously observed. There were unique effects of positive and negative maternal expressed emotion on children's regulation. and the relations of maternal expressed emotion to children's externalizing problem behaviors and social competence were mediated through children's regulation. Alternative models of causation were tested; a child-directed model in which maternal expressivity mediated the effects of child regulation on child outcomes did not fit the data as well.

Affect↗
PubMed2001

Parental socialization of children's dysregulated expression of emotion and externalizing problems.

The relations of parents' warmth, emotional expressivity, and discussion of emotion to 2nd-5th graders' regulation of emotional expressivity, externalizing problem behaviors, and expressivity were examined. Parents' and children's facial expressions to evocative slides were observed, as was parents' discussion of the slides, and parents and teachers provided information on children's regulation of expressivity and problem behavior. Analyses supported the hypothesis that the effect of parental variables on children's problem behavior was at least partly indirect through their children's regulation of emotion. Children's low negative (versus positive) facial expressivity to negative slides was associated with problem behavior for boys. A reversed model did not support the possibility that children's functioning had causal effects on parenting. The findings suggest that parents' emotion-related behaviors are linked to children's regulation of expressivity and externalizing behaviors.

Affect↗
PubMed2001

The stability and consequences of young children's same-sex peer interactions.

This article addresses whether young children's play-partner choices are stable over time and how these choices influence behavior. Sixty-one children (28 boys and 33 girls; mean age = 53 months) were observed over 6 months, and type of play behavior and sex of play partners were recorded. Children's partner preferences were highly sex differentiated and stable over time, especially when larger aggregates of data were used. Two types of consequences were identified: a binary effect that influenced differences between the sexes and a social dosage effect that influenced variations within the sexes. The binary effect reflected a pattern in which the more both girls and boys played with same-sex partners, the more their behavior became sex differentiated. The social dosage effect reflected a pattern in which variations in levels of same-sex play in the fall contributed significantly to variations in the spring above initial levels of the target behaviors.

Child↗
PubMed2000

Dispositional emotionality and regulation: their role in predicting quality of social functioning.

Individual differences in emotionality and regulation are central to conceptions of temperament and personality. In this article, conceptions of emotionality and regulation and ways in which they predict social functioning are examined. Linear (including additive) and nonlinear effects are reviewed. In addition, data on mediational and moderational relations from a longitudinal study are presented. The effects of attention regulation on social functioning were mediated by resiliency, and this relation was moderated by negative emotionality at the first, but not second, assessment. Negative emotionality moderated the relation of behavior regulation to socially appropriate/prosocial behavior. These results highlight the importance of examining different types of regulation and the ways in which dispositional characteristics interact in predicting social outcomes.

Child↗
PubMed1998

Contemporaneous and longitudinal prediction of children's sympathy from dispositional regulation and emotionality.

The relation of 8- to 10-year-olds' teacher-reported dispositional sympathy to regulation and emotionality was examined with a longitudinal sample. In general, sympathy was correlated with adults' reports of regulation and low negative emotionality contemporaneously and, to some degree, 2 and 4 years prior. General emotional intensity interacted with some aspects of regulation in predicting sympathy; for example, attention focusing predicted sympathy but only for children low in general emotional intensity. In general, the pattern of correlations changed little from age 6-8 to age 8-10 years, although parent-reported negative emotionality was more highly negatively related to sympathy at the older age. Dispositional sympathy was associated with verbal or physiological markers of sympathy in a laboratory setting.

Arousal↗
PubMed1998

Shyness and children's emotionality, regulation, and coping: contemporaneous, longitudinal, and across-context relations.

The relations of teachers' and parents' reports of children's shyness (i.e., social inhibition) at ages 6-8, 8-10, and 10-12 years to dispositional regulation, emotionality, and coping were examined. Shyness was positively related to internalizing negative emotion, coping by doing nothing, and, for parent-rated shyness, behavioral inhibition/nonimpulsivity, attention focusing, and avoidant coping; it was negatively related to positive emotionality, instrumental coping, seeking support from teachers (at younger ages), and for teacher-rated shyness, attentional control. Often prediction held over several years and/or across reporters. Parent-reported internalizing negative emotion at age 4-6 predicted shyness at ages 6-8 and 8-10, but primarily for children low in attention shifting. Teacher-rated shyness was related to low social status; parent-rated shyness correlated with boys' adult-rated social status at age 4-6 and with style of social interaction, particularly for girls. The relation between parent- and teacher-reported shyness decreased with age. The overall pattern of findings was partially consistent with the conclusion that parent-rated shyness reflected primarily social wariness with unfamiliar people (i.e., temperamental shyness), whereas teacher-rated shyness tapped social inhibition due to social evaluative concerns.

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMed1997

Roles of temperamental arousal and gender-segregated play in young children's social adjustment.

The hypothesis that gender differences in children's adjustment is partially influenced by differences in temperament and interactions with same-sex peers was examined. Fifty-seven predominantly White, middle-class preschoolers (29 boys and 28 girls, M age = 54.5 months) participated. Measures were taken of children's arousability, problem behaviors, and tendencies to play with same-sex peers. A semester later, children's peer status was assessed. Analyses revealed that arousability and same-sex peer play interacted to predict problem behaviors. For boys high in arousability, play with same-sex peers increased problem behaviors. In contrast, arousable girls who played with other girls were relatively unlikely to show problem behaviors. Moreover, the interaction of arousability and same-sex peer play predicted boys' (but not girls') peer status, and this relation was partially mediated by problem behaviors. The role of gender-related processes is discussed.

Arousal↗
PubMed1997

Regulatory control and adults' stress-related responses to daily life events.

In this study, the authors examined the relations of regulatory control to adults' daily stress-related responses. A physiological index of regulatory control (vagal tone) and daily reports of stress and coping were obtained from 92 college students. The results of the study generally confirmed the prediction that individuals who are high in regulatory control were relatively unlikely to experience high levels of negative emotional arousal in response to stressors, but this relation held only for moderate- to high-intensity stressors. Moreover, under conditions of moderate to high stress, highly regulated individuals were likely to cope constructively with the stressor. Mediational analyses suggested that the relation of regulatory control to constructive coping was partially mediated by negative emotional arousal. The results support the conclusion that individual differences in regulatory control interact with situational factors in influencing the prediction of stress-related responses.

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMed1997

The relations of regulation and emotionality to resiliency and competent social functioning in elementary school children.

The relations of regulation and emotionality to elementary school children's social functioning were examined. Teachers and peers reported on children's social functioning; 1 parent and teacher rated children on various measures of regulation, resiliency, and emotionality; and a behavioral index of regulation was obtained. The effects of individual differences in attentional regulation on social status and socially appropriate behavior were mediated by resiliency, and dispositional negative emotionality moderated the positive relation between attentional control and resiliency (with this path being stronger for children high in negative emotionality). The effects of behavioral regulation were not mediated by resiliency; however, the relation of behavioral regulation to socially appropriate behavior (but not social status) was moderated by negative emotionality, with effects being significant and higher for children high in negative emotionality.

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMed1997

Contemporaneous and longitudinal prediction of children's social functioning from regulation and emotionality.

Relations of regulation and emotionality to social functioning were examined for 77 children followed from early to middle school age. Parents and teachers reported on children's social behavior, emotionality, and regulation, and children engaged in analogue peer conflict situations (i.e., with puppets). High-quality social functioning was predicted by high regulation and low levels of nonconstructive coping, negative emotionality, and general emotional intensity. Prediction often was obtained across reporters and time, although prediction was strongest within context (home versus school). Moreover, measures of regulation and emotionality frequently contributed unique variance to the prediction of social functioning. Contemporaneous correlations at age 8-10 were similar to those obtained at age 6-8, and prediction of later social functioning from emotionality and regulation at age 4-6 was similar at ages 6-8 and 8-10.

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMed1996

Concerns about drawing causal inferences from meta-analyses: an example in the study of gender differences in aggression.

Meta-analysis has increasingly been used as an explanatory research tool. The present investigation was designed to illustrate the potential limitations of meta-analysis for making causal inferences. Several meta-analytic investigations have led others to conclude that gender differences are getting smaller over time, however, there has been little concern regarding changes in research methodology over time. The present findings indicate that the gender differences in aggression appear to be remarkably stable when changes in study characteristics over time are controlled. The authors discuss the implications for the use of meta-analytic procedures to make causal inferences and the implications for understanding the causes of gender differences.

Aggression↗
PubMed1996

Getting angry at peers: associations with linking of the provocateur.

We examined how preschoolers coped with anger in interactions with well liked and not well liked peers. The free-play interactions of preschool-aged children (M age = 66.27 months) were observed for 6 months. The frequency, causes, and intensity of children's anger, as well as their anger-related reactions, were compared for incidents provoked by peers who were "really liked" to those provoked by peers who were liked only " a little bit." Although there were no differences in the intensity of anger provocations by well liked and not well liked provocateurs, children's responses to provocations by well liked peers were more controlled than was the case for anger provoked by peers who were not well liked. In general, boys were more responsive to how they felt about the provocateur than were girls. These findings suggest that anger episodes with well liked children were less stressful than those with peers who were not well liked.

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMed1996

The relations of children's dispositional prosocial behavior to emotionality, regulation, and social functioning.

The purpose of this study was to examine the relations of a measure of children's dispositional prosocial behavior (i.e., peer nominations) to individual differences in children's negative emotionality, regulation, and social functioning. Children with prosocial reputations tended to be high in constructive social skills (i.e., socially appropriate behavior and constructive coping) and attentional regulation, and low in negative emotionality. The relations of children's negative emotionality to prosocial reputation were moderated by level of dispositional attentional regulation. In addition, the relations of prosocial reputation to constructive social skills and parent-reported negative emotionality (for girls) increased with age. Vagal tone, a marker of physiological regulation, was negatively related to girls' prosocial reputation.

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMed1996

Parents' reactions to children's negative emotions: relations to children's social competence and comforting behavior.

The purpose of this study was to examine the relations of mothers' and fathers' reported emotion-related practices to parents' and teachers' reports of third- to sixth-grade children's social skills, popularity, and coping, as well as the quantity and quality of children's comforting of an infant. Mothers' problem-focused reactions tended to be positively associated with children's social functioning and coping, whereas maternal minimizing reactions tended to be linked to lower levels of social competence and high levels of avoidant coping. There were few findings for fathers' reactions, although fathers reported fewer problem-focused reactions with socially competent, in contrast to less competent, daughters. Emotion-focused and problem-focused maternal reactions, as well as encouragement of the expression of emotion, were associated with boys' children's comforting behavior, although a moderate level of maternal encouragement of the expression of emotion was associated with quality of girls' comforting.

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMed1995

Relations of shyness and low sociability to regulation and emotionality.

The relations of shyness and low sociability (i.e., the nonfearful preference to be alone) to measures of regulation and emotionality were examined. College students and (for some variables) friends reported on their relevant dispositional characteristics. In general, shyness was associated with low regulation and high negative emotionality (including intensity, negative affectivity, and personal distress), low positive affect, and low constructive coping. In contrast, low sociability was unrelated to negative emotionality; associated with low positive emotional intensity, low physiological reactivity, and high inhibition control; and correlated with low seeking of social support as a means of coping. The findings are considered within a heuristic model in which emotional reactivity and regulation are proposed as predictors of social responding.

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMed1995

The role of emotionality and regulation in children's social functioning: a longitudinal study.

Multiple measures of children's emotionality (emotional intensity and negative affectivity), regulation (including attentional and behavioral regulation and coping), and social functioning (teachers' reports of nonaggressive/socially appropriate behavior and prosocial/socially competent behavior; and parents' reports of problem behavior) were obtained for 6-8-year-olds. In addition, emotionality, attentional regulation, and coping were assessed 2 years previously. Social functioning was expected to be predicted by low negative emotionality and high levels of regulation. In general, the data supported the predictions, although the findings for parent reports of problem behavior were primarily for boys. Prediction of social functioning from measures of regulation and emotionality occurred primarily within a given context (school vs. home) rather than across contexts, even though there were relations across reporters within the school or home context. In addition, vagal tone, a marker of physiological regulation, was positively related to competent social functioning and emotionality/regulation for boys, but inversely related for girls.

Affective Symptoms↗
PubMed1994

The relations of emotionality and regulation to dispositional and situational empathy-related responding.

The purpose of the present study was to examine the prediction of adults' situational and dispositional empathy-related responses from measures of emotionality (emotional intensity and positive and negative affect) and regulation. A multimethod approach including self-reported, facial, and heart rate (HR) responses was used to assess situational vicarious emotional responding; Ss' (and sometimes friends') reports were used to assess the dispositional characteristics. In general, dispositional sympathy, personal distress, and perspective taking exhibited different, conceptually logical patterns of association with indexes of emotionality and regulation. The relations of situational measures of vicarious emotional responding to dispositional emotionality and regulation varied somewhat by type of measure and gender. Findings for facial and HR (for men) measures were primarily for the more evocative empathy-inducing stimulus. In general, the findings provided support for the role of individual differences in emotionality and regulation in empathy-related responding.

Adolescent↗