Positive Praise at Age 3 Reduces Problems by Age 7

Summary: 3-year-olds who responded positively to parental praise had fewer behavioral and emotional issues by age 5-7. Children whose behaviors were less influenced by their mood also showed fewer problems.

The research, involving 60 children, used toothbrushing videos to measure child behavior and parental praise. This study highlights the importance of early positive reinforcement in child development.

Key Facts:

1. Positive sensitivity to parental praise at age 3 predicts fewer issues by age 7.
2. Behavior less influenced by mood correlates with fewer behavioral problems.
3. The study used videos of nightly toothbrushing to measure behavior and praise.

Source: Wiley

A new study published in Developmental Science found that children who were more positively sensitive to their parents’ praise when they were 3 years old had fewer behavioral and emotional problems when they were 5–7 years old.

Children whose behavior did not depend on their mood also had fewer behavioral and emotional problems later.

For the study, which involved 60 children, parents sent in videos of their 3-year-olds brushing their teeth each night across 16 days.

Toothbrushing time served as a measure of child behavior. Investigators also noted the amount of praise that parents offered during toothbrushing and collected daily parent reports of additional variables including child mood.

Childhood sensitivity to psychosocial influences was conceptualized as the strength and direction of the relationship between child behavior and those influences, including parent praise and child mood.

When their children were age 3 and then again at age 5–7, parents completed the preschool version of the Child Behavior Checklist to identify behavioral and emotional problems.

“An important future direction is to understand how childhood sensitivity to praise develops, and whether it can be shaped by interventions,” said corresponding author Cassidy McDermott, of the University of Pennsylvania.

About this neurodevelopment and behavioral neuroscience research news

Author: Sara Henning-Stout
Source: Wiley
Contact: Sara Henning-Stout – Wiley
Image: The image is credited to Neuroscience News

Original Research: Open access.
“Sensitivity to psychosocial influences at age 3 predicts mental health in middle childhood” by Cassidy McDermott et al. Developmental Science

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Abstract

Sensitivity to psychosocial influences at age 3 predicts mental health in middle childhood

Children vary in how sensitive they are to experiences, with consequences for their developmental outcomes. In the current study, we investigated how behavioral sensitivity at age 3 years predicts mental health in middle childhood.

Using a novel repeated measures design, we calculated child sensitivity to multiple psychological and social influences: parent praise, parent stress, child mood, and child sleep.

We conceptualized sensitivity as the strength and direction of the relationship between psychosocial influences and child behavior, operationalized as toothbrushing time, at age 3 years. When children were 5–7 years old (n = 60), parents reported on children’s internalizing and externalizing problems.

Children who were more sensitive to their parents’ praise at age 3 had fewer internalizing (r = −0.37, p = 0.016, p_FDR = 0.042) and externalizing (r = −0.35, p = 0.021, p_FDR = 0.042) problems in middle childhood.

Higher average parent praise also marginally predicted fewer externalizing problems (r = −0.33, p = 0.006, p_FDR = 0.057).

Child sensitivity to mood predicted fewer internalizing (r = −0.32, p = 0.013, p_FDR = 0.042) and externalizing (r = −0.38, p = 0.003, p_FDR = 0.026) problems.

By capturing variability in how children respond to daily fluctuations in their environment, we can contribute to the early prediction of mental health problems and improve access to early intervention services for children and families who need them most.