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Observed Personality in Preschool: Associations with Current and Longitudinal Symptoms.

ABSTRACT: Personality is consistently associated with psychopathology across the lifespan. However, little is known of how observed personality dimensions in preschoolers are associated with concurrent or longitudinal symptoms across development. Spectrum, vulnerability, and pathopolasty models theorize how child personality and psychopathology are related across development. The current study tests these three models using observationally coded personality dimensions in a longitudinal sample of preschoolers. A validated 'thin slice' technique was used to code observed Five Factor Model (FFM) personality dimensions of extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, neuroticism, and openness to experience in a clinically enriched preschool sample oversampled for depression (N?=?299). Children were followed longitudinally for 9 years while assessing dimensional psychological symptoms and global functioning. Longitudinal multilevel models testing the spectrum, or shared underlying factor model, indicated depressive symptoms in adolescence were predicted by higher preschool extraversion and lower agreeableness and conscientiousness, externalizing symptoms were predicted by lower agreeableness and higher neuroticism, and worse global functioning was predicted by higher extraversion and neuroticism, and lower agreeableness and conscientiousness. Some associations held after accounting for the influence of baseline psychological symptoms, indicating support for a vulnerability relationship between personality and later psychopathology. No support was demonstrated for pathoplasty models such that personality did not influence the developmental course or change of psychopathology over time. Findings indicate personality dimensions measured as early as the preschool period prospectively impact psychopathology and functioning across child development, demonstrating support for both a spectrum and vulnerability relationship between youth personality and psychopathology.

SUBMITTER: Gilbert KE

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6842663 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Observed Personality in Preschool: Associations with Current and Longitudinal Symptoms.

Gilbert Kirsten E KE Whalen Diana J DJ Tillman Rebecca R Barch Deanna M DM Luby Joan L JL Jackson Joshua J JJ

Journal of abnormal child psychology 20191201 12

Personality is consistently associated with psychopathology across the lifespan. However, little is known of how observed personality dimensions in preschoolers are associated with concurrent or longitudinal symptoms across development. Spectrum, vulnerability, and pathopolasty models theorize how child personality and psychopathology are related across development. The current study tests these three models using observationally coded personality dimensions in a longitudinal sample of preschool ...[more]

PMID: 31197503

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Project description:ObjectivesThe current study examined the influence of early parental stress and positive parent personality during infancy on sleep in middle childhood. Further, the role of positive parent personality as a buffer of the association between parental stress and sleep was considered.MethodsParticipants included 381 twins and their primary caregivers who were recruited from birth records in the United States. Primary caregivers completed survey assessments via phone when twins were 12 and 30 months of age to assess multiple dimensions of parental stress and positive parent personality. Approximately 6 years later (M = 5.78, SD = 0.42), twins participated in an intensive assessment that included wearing actigraph watches to provide an objective measurement of sleep, while primary caregivers completed daily diaries regarding twins' sleep.ResultsPositive parent personality was associated prospectively with longer actigraphy sleep duration and higher parent-reported sleep quality/daytime functioning. Parental stress was associated prospectively with greater variability in sleep duration. Positive parent personality moderated the parental stress - sleep-timing relation, such that greater parental stress was associated with a later midpoint of the sleep period only for children with parents low on positive personality (e.g., low optimism). All other findings were non-significant.ConclusionsFindings suggest that both positive attributes and stress may influence sleep in middle childhood and that low parent positive personality may exacerbate associations between parental stress and later timing of sleep periods in children. Early interventions to promote healthy sleeping may consider focusing on decreasing parental stress and increasing parental empathy and optimism as early as infancy. Statement of contribution What is already known on this subject? Early-life experiences, especially adversity, have been related to health outcomes among adults and children, such that negative experiences are associated with poor health outcomes. Poor sleep (e.g., short duration, poor quality) among children is associated with negative outcomes including poorer cognitive performance and higher adiposity. What does this study add? This study used a prospective design to understand relations between early parent-related factors and child sleep. Early parental stress and positive parent personality were associated with objective sleep quality. Positive parent personality during infancy may have promotive/protective influences on sleep later in childhood.

Project description:Importance:Monitoring one's performance is necessary for learning and adaptive behavior; however, heightened performance monitoring is a purported endophenotype of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). The anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), a brain region implicated in the pathogenesis of OCD, is associated with performance monitoring. Whether performance monitoring early in development is an identifiable risk factor for OCD and whether early childhood performance monitoring is associated with later alterations in ACC volume are unknown. Objective:To determine whether an observed indicator of heightened performance monitoring during the preschool age is associated with later onset of OCD and altered dorsal ACC (dACC) volume through adolescence. Design, Setting, and Participants:This longitudinal observational cohort study was performed at an academic medical center as part of the Preschool Depression Study. A sample of 292 children oversampled for depression from September 22, 2003, through May 12, 2005, completed a performance-based observational task during which they received persistent negative evaluation. Blind raters behaviorally coded child performance monitoring. During the next 12 years, children completed annual diagnostic assessments; 133 completed the final behavioral follow-up and 152 contributed 1 to 3 magnetic resonance imaging scans. Follow-up was completed on August 14, 2017. Main Outcomes and Measures:Onset of DSM-5 diagnosis of OCD from baseline to the final behavioral assessment and whole-brain-adjusted dACC volume at the 3 waves of scanning. Results:Among the 292 preschool children who completed the baseline evaluation (51.4% boys; mean [SD] age, 4.5 [0.8] years), when controlling for demographic and clinical indicators, those who exhibited observed heightened performance monitoring were 2 times more likely to develop OCD (n = 35) during the next 12 years (odds ratio, 2.00; 95% CI, 1.06-3.78; P = .03). Multilevel modeling of dACC volume across the 3 scan waves (n = 152) demonstrated that heightened performance monitoring was associated with smaller right dACC volume (intercept estimate, -0.14; SE, 0.07; t = -2.17; P = .03). Conclusions and Relevance:An ecologically valid indicator of performance monitoring in early childhood was associated with onset of OCD and smaller dACC volumes in later childhood and adolescence. Early childhood observed performance monitoring is a readily observed risk factor of OCD that can be identified in preschool-aged children.

Project description:BackgroundDespite a growing literature detailing early childhood risk factors for borderline personality disorder (BPD), few studies have examined moderating factors that might mitigate or exacerbate the effects of those risk factors. The current study examined whether three preschool-age characteristics-impulsivity, emotional lability, and initiative-taking-moderated the relationship between known preschool-age risk factors and adolescent BPD symptoms.MethodsWe performed multilevel modeling analyses in a sample (n = 151) from the Preschool Depression Study, a prospective longitudinal study with assessments from preschool through adolescence. Preschool risk factors included adverse childhood experiences, internalizing symptoms, and externalizing symptoms measured with parent clinical interviews. Preschool moderating factors were assessed via parent report and observational coding of temperament and behavior. The Borderline Personality Features Scale for Children measured BPD symptoms in adolescence.ResultsWe found that observed initiative-taking moderated the relationship between preschool internalizing symptoms and adolescent BPD symptoms (b = 0.57, p = .011) and moderated the relationship between preschool externalizing symptoms and adolescent BPD symptoms (b = 1.42, p = .013). Greater initiative-taking was associated with lower BPD risk for children with high internalizing or externalizing symptoms. Conversely, for children with low internalizing or externalizing symptoms, greater initiative-taking was associated with increased BPD risk.ConclusionsWe identify a potential moderating factor in BPD development, offer novel targets for screening and intervention, and provide a framework for using early childhood observational assessments in BPD research. Our findings suggest the need for future research on early moderating factors in BPD development, which could inform early childhood interventions targeting those factors to mitigate the effects of potentially less malleable risk factors.

Dataset Information

Observed Personality in Preschool: Associations with Current and Longitudinal Symptoms.

Publications

Observed Personality in Preschool: Associations with Current and Longitudinal Symptoms.

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