Positive emotionality at age 3 predicts cognitive styles in 7-year-old children.
This study examined associations between temperament at age 3 and depressotypic cognitive styles at age 7 in a community sample of children. Sixty-four preschool aged children were assessed for positive emotionality (PE) and negative emotionality (NE) using a standardized battery of laboratory tasks and naturalistic home observations. At follow-up 4 years later, the children completed laboratory tasks designed to tap helplessness in social and problem-solving situations, positive and negative information-processing biases, and self-reports of attributional style. Lower PE at age 3 predicted greater helplessness in the interpersonal task and decreased positive schematic processing. There was little evidence for a relationship between NE and depressotypic cognitive styles. Our findings are consistent with the hypothesis that some portion of cognitive vulnerability to depression may stem from early-emerging differences in the expression of positive emotions.
Hayden
Elizabeth P
EP
State University of New York at Stony Brook, NY, USA. ehayden@uwo.ca
Klein
Daniel N
DN
Durbin
C Emily
CE
Olino
Thomas M
TM
D000375:Aging / Q000523:psychology; D002648:Child; D002652:Child Behavior; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003071:Cognition; D003863:Depression / Q000453:epidemiology; D004644:Emotions; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007360:Intelligence; D007802:Language; D008297:Male; D010988:Play and Playthings; D012917:Social Adjustment; D012923:Social Class; D013060:Speech; D013694:Temperament