Browsing by Author "Bost, Kelly K."
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- Attachment, feeling, and feeding: Associations between caregivers' attachment, emotional and feeding responsiveness, and Children's food consumptionPublication . Santos, Ana F.; Fernandes, Carla; Fernandes, Marília; Bost, Kelly K.; Veríssimo, ManuelaA substantial body of literature links attachment to childhood obesity. However, research on the mechanisms underlying this association is scarce. The present study aimed to test four serial indirect path models to examine whether caregivers’ insecure attachment is related to children’s food consumption, through its influence on emotional and feeding responsiveness. A total of 352 caregivers of preschool children reported on their attachment orientation, emotional responses to their children’s distress, feeding practices, and their children’s food consumption. Results showed that caregivers with higher levels of attachment avoidance and anxiety were more likely to use unsupportive emotional responses to children’s distress, which predicted the increased use of unresponsive feeding practices, and consequently children’s higher sugary and fatty/salty food consumption. Higher levels of attachment avoidance were also associated with children’s lower fruit and vegetable consumption through lower use of supportive emotional responses and responsive feeding practices, while higher levels of attachment anxiety were associated with children’s lower fruit and vegetable consumption only by lower use of responsive feeding practices. These findings suggest that the influence of insecure attachment on caregivers’ emotion regulation may contribute to the use of specific feeding practices that, in turn, affect children’s food intake and may have implications for obesity risk.
- Concordância entre dados antropométricos reportados vs. medidos e relação com as práticas parentais alimentares em idade pré-escolarPublication . Santos, A. F.; Fernandes, C.; Cardia, Sara; Fernandes, M.; Bost, Kelly K.; Veríssimo, M.Resumo: O presente estudo teve como objetivo analisar a concordância entre os dados antropométricos das crianças (peso, altura, respetivos IMC e z-score de IMC calculados) reportados pelos pais e medidos objetivamente pelos investigadores, bem como a sua relação com as práticas parentais alimentares. Participaram no estudo 71 famílias, com crianças entre os 2 e os 6 anos. Verificou-se uma discordância entre os dados reportados pelos pais e os dados medidos para 45,5% das crianças. Foram encontrados efeitos bidirecionais entre a prática restrição por controlo de peso e a altura e peso reportados, bem como entre a prática pressão e o peso, IMC e z-score de IMC reportados. Os resultados sugerem que perceções parentais incorretas sobre o estado ponderal da criança poderão levar a maiores níveis de práticas parentais alimentares negativas, com impacto no peso das crianças. Por outro lado, pais e filhos, influenciam-se mutuamente, pelo que os pais são reativos ao peso das crianças, mas também o influenciam.
- A concordância entre o comportamento de base segura com a mãe nos primeiros anos de vida e os modelos internos dinâmicos no pré-escolarPublication . Silva, Filipa; Fernandes, Marília; Veríssimo, Manuela; Shin, Nana; Vaughn, Brian E.; Bost, Kelly K.Estuda-se, numa amostra que contempla dois países – Portugal e Estados Unidos da América –, a estabilidade da qualidade da vinculação, na relação mãe criança, analisando-se o comportamento de base segura na relação mãe-criança nos primeiros anos de vida e as representações mentais da criança acerca desta relação, no pré-escolar. Os participantes são 25 díades mãe-criança portuguesas e 47 díades mãe-criança americanas. Utiliza-se o Attachment Behaviour Q-Set (AQS) (Waters, 1995) para avaliar os comportamentos de base segura e, três anos mais tarde, aplica-se às crianças o Attachment Story Completion Task (ASCT) (Bretherton & Ridgeway, 1990) que avalia a qualidade e a segurança das representações internas da relação de vinculação. Os resultados mostram que, nesta amostra, há uma estabilidade da vinculação entre os 2-3 anos de idade e os 5-6 anos de idade. O valor de segurança do AQS está correlacionado positiva e significativamente com a dimensão de segurança do ASCT. Nesta amostra, os modelos internos dinâmicos parecem permanecer relativamente estáveis ao longo de um período significativo de tempo.
- Hierarchical models of social competence in preschool children: A multisite, multinational studyPublication . Vaughn, Brian E.; Shin, Nana; Kim, Mina; Coppola, Gabrielle; Krzysik, Lisa; Santos, António José; Peceguina, Maria Inês Duarte; Daniel, João Rodrigo; Veríssimo, Manuela; DeVries, Anthon; Elphick, Eric; Ballentina, Xiomara; Bost, Kelly K.; Newell, Wanda Y.; Miller, Ellaine B.; Snider, J. Blake; Korth, BryanThe generality of a multilevel factorial model of social competence (SC) for preschool children was tested in a 5-group, multinational sample (N = 1,540) using confirmatory factor analysis. The model fits the observed data well, and tests constraining paths for measured variables to their respective first-order factors across samples also fit well. Equivalence of measurement models was found at sample and sex within-sample levels but not for age within sample. In 2 groups, teachers’ ratings were examined as correlates of SC indicators. Composites of SC indicators were significantly associated with both positive and negative child attributes from the teachers’ ratings. The findings contribute to understanding of both methodological and substantive issues concerning SC in young children.
- Longitudinal analyses of a hierarchical model of peer social competence for preschool children: Structural fidelity and external correlatesPublication . Shin, Nana; Vaughn, Brian E.; Kim, Mina; Krzysik, Lisa; Bost, Kelly K.; McBride, Brent; Santos, António José; Peceguina, Maria Inês Duarte; Coppola, GabrielleAchieving consensus on the definition and measurement of social competence (SC) for preschool children has proven difficult in the developmental sciences. We tested a hierarchical model in which SC is assumed to be a second-order latent variable by using longitudinal data (N = 345). We also tested the degree to which peer SC at Time 1 predicted changes in positive adjustment from Time 1 to Time 2, based on teacher and peer ratings. Using a multiple-method datacollection strategy, information for three subdomains of SC (social engagement/ motivation, profiles of social interaction and personality assets assessed with Q-sorts, peer acceptance) were collected across consecutive years in preschool programs. Longitudinal confirmatory factor analyses (CFAs) demonstrated invariance of both the measurement and the structural models across age levels and yielded a cross-time path weight of .74 for the second-order factor. Analyses of latent means suggested significant increases in SC scores from the first year to second year of participation, and longitudinal cases in their second year of participation had higher scores than did age peers who entered the program as older children. Finally, Time 1 SC predicted increases from Time 1 to Time 2 for SC-relevant indicators rated by teachers and peers (standardized path coefficient of .29, p < .001).
- Preschool children’s mental representations of attachment: Antecedents in their secure base behaviors and maternal attachment scriptsPublication . Wong, Maria; Bost, Kelly K.; Shin, Nana; Veríssimo, Manuela; Maia, Joana Branco; Monteiro, Lígia Maria Santos; Silva, Filipa; Coppola, Gabrielle; Costantini, Alessandro; Vaughn, Brian E.This study examined the antecedents of preschool age children’s mental representations of attachment, assessed using the Attachment Story Completion Task (ASCT). Antecedent predictors were maternal attachment scripts, assessed using the Attachment Script Assessment (ASA), and the child’s secure base behaviors, assessed using the Attachment Q-Set (AQS). Participants were 121 mothers and their preschool children assessed in three samples (Portuguese sample, n ¼ 31; US Midwestern sample, n ¼ 38; US Southeastern sample, n ¼ 52). AQS and ASA assessments were completed approximately 1.5 years before the ASCT data were collected. No cross-sample contrasts for the attachment variables were significant. Correlations and structural equation modeling (SEM) indicated that the three attachment measures were significantly associated and that both maternal secure base script knowledge and children’s secure base behaviors (AQS) were uniquely and significantly associated with children’s mental representations of attachment (ASCT). A test of the indirect effect between maternal scripts and child representations through children’s secure base behaviors was not significant.
- A relação entre a qualidade de vinculação à mãe e o desenvolvimento da competência social em crianças de idade pré-escolarPublication . Veríssimo, Manuela; Fernandes, Carla; Santos, António José; Peceguina, Maria Inês Duarte; Vaughn, Brian E.; Bost, Kelly K.O presente estudo de natureza longitudinal tem como objectivo estudar a relação entre a qualidade da vinculação da criança à mãe (em média aos 32 meses) e a sua competência social em idade pré-escolar, avaliada dois anos mais tarde. No total participaram 48 díades mãe-criança de nacionalidade portuguesa e americana. Em ambos os contextos sócio culturais constatou-se que a qualidade da vinculação está positiva e significativamente correlacionada com a competência social. Estes resultados sugerem que as relações de vinculação mãe-criança são facilitadoras da adaptação da criança ao grupo pré-escolar, na medida em que promovem o envolvimento positivo com os pares, potenciado uma variedade de competências que contribuem para a aceitação no grupo de pares. ------ ABSTRACT ------ In this study, we attempted to map early attachment security to the development of social competence in preschool years. Participants were 48 mother dyads from two different countries (Portugal and the United States of America). Positive and significant correlations were found between the AQS security score and the social competence. The results suggest that the parent-child attachment relationships contribute to children’s adaptation in the preschool peer group by promoting positive engagement with peers and by supporting a range of skills that underlie peer acceptance.
- Secure base representations for both fathers and mothers predict children’s secure base behavior in a sample of portuguese familiesPublication . Monteiro, Lígia Maria Santos; Veríssimo, Manuela; Vaughn, Brian E.; Santos, António José; Bost, Kelly K.Relations between fathers’ and mothers’ representations of attachment (independently assessed using an attachment script representation task) and children’s secure base behavior (assessed using the Attachment Q-sort; AQS) were studied in 56 Portuguese families (mean age of child ¼ 31.9 months). Each parent’s secure base script representation score predicted AQS security scores for the child with that parent at approximately equivalent degrees of association. However, both parental secure base script scores and AQS security scores were positively correlated across parents. A hierarchical regression predicting AQS security with father from both parent’s scriptedness scores and from the AQS score with mother showed a unique, significant influence of father’s scriptedness score and the AQS score with mother, but mother’s scriptedness score did not uniquely add to the prediction. Difficult temperament was ruled out as a mediator of the cross-parent association for AQS security scores.
- Specifying social structures in preschool classrooms: descriptive and functional distinctions between affiliative subgroupsPublication . Santos, António José; Vaughn, Brian E.; Bost, Kelly K.Preschool children attending Head Start programs (N=586, 296 boys and 290 girls, between 3 and 5 years of age, over 95% African–American) were observed to determine physical proximity to peers as well as rates of visual attention given and received. Sociometric data were used to derive peer acceptance scores, peer friendships, and sociometric status classifications. Three subgroup types (high mutual proximity (HMP), lower mutual proximity (LMP), and ungrouped children) were identified through complete linkage hierarchical clustering and chi-square procedures from the proximity data. HMP subgroups tended to be larger, to have higher sociometric acceptance scores, and children in these subgroups had more reciprocated friendships than was true for the other subgroup types. Significant within-group preferences and out-group biases were observed for both HMP and LMP subgroups using measures of visual attention and sociometric choice data, but these were more marked for HMP subgroups. Results are consistent with previous ethological studies of affiliative structures in preschool classrooms and also show that methods of data collection and analysis from social ethology and child psychology research traditions are mutually informing.
- The latent structure of secure base script knowledgePublication . Waters, Theodore E. A.; Fraley, R. Chris; Groh, Ashley M.; Steele, Ryan D.; Vaughn, Brian E.; Bost, Kelly K.; Veríssimo, Manuela; Coppola, Gabrielle; Roisman, Glenn I.There is increasing evidence that attachment representations abstracted from childhood experiences with primary caregivers are organized as a cognitive script describing secure base use and support (i.e., the secure base script). To date, however, the latent structure of secure base script knowledge has gone unexamined— this despite that such basic information about the factor structure and distributional properties of these individual differences has important conceptual implications for our understanding of how representations of early experience are organized and generalized, as well as methodological significance in relation to maximizing statistical power and precision. In this study, we report factor and taxometric analyses that examined the latent structure of secure base script knowledge in 2 large samples. Results suggested that variation in secure base script knowledge—as measured by both the adolescent (N 674) and adult (N 714) versions of the Attachment Script Assessment—is generalized across relationships and continuously distributed.