A nonlinear dynamical systems analysis of child emotion displays in relation to family context and child adjustment: a cox hazard approach.
This report examines how the relative attractor strengths of children's display of three  emotion states, anger, sadness/fear, and neutral-engaged, are associated with exposure to maternal  negative affect and care giving disruptions, and to child antisocial behavior and depression.  Exposure to negative maternal affect was associated with a weaker attractor state for sadness  or fear displays relative to those for anger and neutral-engaged displays. Exposure to care  giving disruptions was associated with stronger attractor strength for anger and sadness/fear  relative to that for neutral-engaged. Overt and covert antisocial behaviors were associated with  weaker attractor states for sadness/fear displays relative that for the neutral-engaged displays.  Overt antisocial behavior was associated with a stronger attractor state for anger displays relative  to that for neutral-engaged displays, and covert antisocial behavior with a weaker attractor state  for fear/sadness displays relative to that for neutral-engaged displays. Child depressive symptoms  were marginally associated with a stronger attractor state for fear/sadness displays relative to  neutral-engaged. The data suggest the attractor strengths for emotion display states are affected  by social experience and that between-individual risk for various forms of psychopathology is  related to the relative intra-individual attractor strength of various emotion displays in a  multi-state emotion display system.
Wichita State University, Wichita, KS, USA. james.snyder@wichita.edu
James
J
Snyder
Callie
C
Brockman
Mike
M
Stoolmiller
D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D000339:Affect; D000786:Anger; D002652:Child Behavior / Q000523:psychology*; D002653:Child Behavior Disorders / Q000523:psychology; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003863:Depression; D004644:Emotions; D005190:Family / Q000523:psychology*; D005239:Fear / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D006240:Happiness; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000523:psychology*; D009034:Mother-Child Relations; D009035:Mothers / Q000523:psychology; D017711:Nonlinear Dynamics; D016016:Proportional Hazards Models; D012307:Risk Factors; D012917:Social Adjustment