Individual Differences In Development Research Articles

Behavioral and neural responses to social rejection: Individual differences in developmental trajectories across childhood and adolescence

Dealing with social rejection is challenging, especially during childhood when behavioral and neural responses to social rejection are still developing. In the current longitudinal study, we used a Bayesian multilevel growth curve model to describe individual differences in the development of behavioral and neural responses to social rejection in a large sample (n > 500). We found a peak in aggression following negative feedback (compared to neutral feedback) during late childhood, as well as individual differences during this developmental phase, possibly suggesting a sensitive window for dealing with social rejection across late childhood. Moreover, we found evidence for individual differences in the linear development of neural responses to social rejection in our three brain regions of interest: The anterior insula, the medial prefrontal cortex, and the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. In addition to providing insights in the individual trajectories of dealing with social rejection during childhood, this study also makes a meaningful methodological contribution: Our statistical analysis strategy (and online supplementary information) can be used as an example on how to take into account the many complexities of developmental neuroimaging datasets, while still enabling researchers to answer interesting questions about individual-level relationships.

Biological sensitivity to adolescent-parent discrepancies in perceived parental warmth

IntroductionParenting behaviors are formative to the psychological development of young people; however, parent and adolescent perceptions of parenting are only moderately correlated with each other. Whereas discrepant perceptions may represent a normative process of deindividuation from caregivers in some adolescents, in others a discrepancy might predict psychological maladjustment. The biological sensitivity to context model provides a framework from which individual differences in development can be estimated in adolescents whose perceptions of parenting diverge from those of their parents. MethodsAt baseline we obtained diurnal cortisol samples from US adolescents (M = 13.37 years of age, SD = 1.06) as well as parents' and adolescents’ ratings of parental warmth; we obtained adolescent-reported symptoms of psychopathology at baseline and again at follow-up two years later (N = 108, 57.5% female). We estimated waking cortisol, cortisol awakening response, and daytime cortisol slopes using piecewise regression models. ResultsLower adolescent than parent ratings of parental warmth predicted increased externalizing symptoms at follow-up. Higher waking cortisol and steeper cortisol awakening response and daytime slopes predicted increased internalizing symptoms at follow-up. Further, discrepant ratings of parental warmth interacted with cortisol awakening response and daytime slopes such that greater discrepancies predicted greater increases in externalizing symptoms in adolescents with steeper cortisol slopes. ConclusionsThese findings indicate that steeper changes in cortisol production throughout the day index a greater sensitivity to perceived parental warmth. Lower adolescent than parent ratings of parental warmth may represent dysfunction in the parental relationship rather than a normative process of deindividuation in adolescents with steeper diurnal cortisol slopes.

Developmental trajectories for literacy and math skills from primary to secondary school

BackgroundResearch on academic development has mainly focused on early time periods with less attention on individual differences in development in the later school years.MethodsTo improve our knowledge of how students develop academically during later school years, this study used a multivariate growth model to investigate the developmental trajectories of literacy and math skills in a sample of Australian students in fifth through ninth grades (n = 114).ResultsStudents progressed at greater average rates in math from primary to secondary school than in literacy. Both literacy and math skills showed significant individual differences in growth rate at Grade 9. There was no evidence of an association between change in math and change in literacy. Primary school socioeconomic status was not a statistically significant predictor of inter‐individual differences in the development of either literacy or math.ConclusionsThese results, taken together, suggest that both domain‐general and domain‐specific influences act on the development of these academic skills.HighlightsWhat is already known about this topic We know that developmental trajectories for literacy and math skills demonstrate considerable inter‐individual variation in the early school years. The Integrated Intelligent Architecture model, a cognitive model that incorporates procedural knowledge and planning behaviour with the construction–integration process, suggests that these inter‐individual differences will persist into later school years. The developmental trajectories of literacy and math skills are inter‐related and are likely influenced by both domain‐general and, to a lesser degree, domain‐specific factors. There is substantial evidence that socioeconomic status acts as a domain‐general predictor of individual differences in school achievement over time. What this paper adds Much of the research to date has focused on early developmental time periods with less attention devoted to individual differences in development in the later school years. Less is known about developmental trajectories of writing. This study helps to fill these gaps by using a multivariate framework focused on the core academic outcomes of literacy and math to examine individual differences in development during the later school grades. By examining whether development in literacy is associated with development in math, or whether developmental trajectories unfold independently of each other, we can provide evidence for domain‐specific or domain‐general influences on academic development. SES was included as a potential domain‐general predictor in the model. Implications for theory, policy or practice Our results suggested that continued knowledge‐integration processes may underlie literacy and math ability in ninth grade. Additionally, this study provided evidence for domain‐general and domain‐specific influences on the development of academic skills from primary to secondary school. SES was not a significant domain‐general predictor, suggesting that other domain‐general predictors should be considered.

Reliability of an automated gaze-controlled paradigm for capturing neural responses during visual and face processing in toddlerhood.

Electroencephalography (EEG) has substantial potential value for examining individual differences during early development. Current challenges in developmental EEG research include high dropout rates and low trial numbers, which may in part be due to passive stimulus presentation. Comparability is challenged by idiosyncratic processing pipelines. We present a novel toolbox (“Braintools”) that uses gaze‐contingent stimulus presentation and an automated processing pipeline suitable for measuring visual processing through low‐density EEG recordings in the field. We tested the feasibility of this toolbox in 61 2.5‐ to 4‐year olds, and computed test–retest reliability (1‐ to 2‐week interval) of event‐related potentials (ERP) associated with visual (P1) and face processing (N290, P400). Feasibility was good, with 52 toddlers providing some EEG data at the first session. Reliability values for ERP features were moderate when derived from 20 trials; this would allow inclusion of 79% of the 61 toddlers for the P1 and 82% for the N290 and P400. P1 amplitude/latency were more reliable across sessions than for the N290 and P400. Amplitudes were generally more reliable than latencies. Automated and standardized solutions to collection and analysis of event‐related EEG data would allow efficient application in large‐scale global health studies, opening significant potential for examining individual differences in development.

No age differences? No problem

AbstractIn this essay we argue that the over‐reliance on age effects in the field of developmental psychology belies attention to actual development, obscuring attention to actual developmental processes. We use examples from diverse content areas in developmental psychology, such as narrative and autobiographical memory, personality trait development, Piagetian conservation tasks, pubertal timing, and Dynamic Systems Theory to build this argument. We conclude by arguing that focusing on individual differences in development, and cultural and historical context as major mechanisms of developmental processes will provide a fuller and richer understanding of the complexity of human development.HighlightsOver‐reliance on age differences does not explain development and obscures attention to individual differences and cultural context.

The Relative Reinforcing Value of Cookies Is Higher Among Head Start Preschoolers With Obesity.

The relative reinforcing value (RRV) of food measures how hard someone will work for a high-energy-dense (HED) food when an alternative reward is concurrently available. Higher RRV for HED food has been linked to obesity, yet this association has not been examined in low-income preschool-age children. Further, the development of individual differences in the RRV of food in early childhood is poorly understood. This cross-sectional study tested the hypothesis that the RRV of HED (cookies) to low-energy-dense (LED; fruit) food would be greater in children with obesity compared to children without obesity in a sample of 130 low-income 3- to 5-year-olds enrolled in Head Start classrooms in Central Pennsylvania. In addition, we examined individual differences in the RRV of food by child characteristics (i.e., age, sex, and reward sensitivity) and food security status. The RRV of food was measured on concurrent progressive-ratio schedules of reinforcement. RRV outcomes included the last schedule reached (breakpoint) for cookies (cookie Pmax) and fruit (fruit Pmax), the breakpoint for cookies in proportion to the total breakpoint for cookies and fruit combined (RRV cookie), and response rates (responses per minute). Parents completed the 18-item food security module to assess household food security status and the Behavioral Activation System scale to assess reward sensitivity. Pearson’s correlations and mixed models assessed associations between continuous and discrete child characteristics with RRV outcomes, respectively. Two-way mixed effects interaction models examined age and sex as moderators of the association between RRV and Body Mass Index z-scores (BMIZ). Statistical significance was defined as p < 0.05. Children with obesity (17%) had a greater cookie Pmax [F (1, 121) = 4.95, p = 0.03], higher RRV cookie [F (1, 121) = 4.28, p = 0.04], and responded at a faster rate for cookies [F (1, 121) = 17.27, p < 0.001] compared to children without obesity. Children with higher cookie response rates had higher BMIZ (r = 0.26, p < 0.01); and RRV cookie was positively associated with BMIZ for older children (5-year-olds: t = 2.40, p = 0.02) and boys (t = 2.55, p = 0.01), but not younger children or girls. The RRV of food did not differ by household food security status. Low-income children with obesity showed greater motivation to work for cookies than fruit compared to their peers without obesity. The RRV of HED food may be an important contributor to increased weight status in boys and future research is needed to better understand developmental trajectories of the RRV of food across childhood.

Genetic Mechanisms of Cognitive Development

The results of large-scale meta-analyses of GWAS and genetic association studies demonstrated the role of allelic variants of a large number of genes in the development of cognitive abilities. Many of the identified genes are expressed in the brain and are involved in the pathogenesis of nervous system diseases. It has been shown that the summarized genetic effect for various cognitive abilities is no more than 50%. For certain genes, such as BDNF, DRD2, FNBP1L, PDE1C, PDE4B, and PDE4D, related to the regulation of neurogenesis and synaptic plasticity, associations with specific cognitive abilities were revealed. We assume the prospect of using the obtained results for the targeted effect in order to improve human cognitive abilities. This review describes DNA methylation, histone acetylation, expression of specific noncoding RNAs during brain functioning, and the development of individual differences in cognitive abilities. The revealed epigenetic mechanisms suggest the methods of reversible correction of cognitive functioning both in nonclinical forms and pathological states.

Losing my loss aversion: The effects of current and past environment on the relative sensitivity to losses and gains

It is often assumed that most people are loss averse, placing more weight on losses than commensurate gains; however, some research identifies variability in loss sensitivity that reflects features of the environment. We examined this plasticity in loss sensitivity by manipulating the size and distribution of possible outcomes in a set of mixed gambles, and assessing individual stability in loss sensitivity. In each of two sessions, participants made accept-reject decisions for 64 mixed-outcome gambles. Participants were randomly assigned to conditions defined by the relative range of losses and gains (wider range of losses vs. wider range of gains), and the currency-units at stake (‘pennies’ vs. ‘pounds’). Participants showed modest but non-trivial consistency in their sensitivity to losses; though loss sensitivity also varied substantially with our manipulations. When possible gains had greater range than possible losses, most participants were loss averse; however, when possible losses had the greater range, reverse loss aversion was the norm (i.e., more weight on gains than losses). This is consistent with decision-by-sampling theory, whereby an outcome’s rank within a consideration-set determines its value, but can also be explained by the gamble’s expected-value rank within the decision-set, or by adapting aspirations to the decision-environment. Loss aversion was also reduced in the second session of decisions when the stakes had been higher in the previous session. This illustrates the influence of prior context on current sensitivity to losses, and suggests a role for idiosyncratic experiences in the development of individual differences in loss sensitivity.

Development of externalizing symptoms across the toddler period: The critical role of older siblings.

We examined child and family risk factors that were associated with the development of individual differences in externalizing problems across the toddler years. Our central hypothesis was that toddlers with more aggressive and disruptive older siblings would be at elevated risk for heightened levels of externalizing behavior. We tested this hypothesis in the context of other theoretically relevant risk factors: toddlers' inhibitory and internalized control, experiences of coercive parental discipline, and gender. Participants were 167 toddlers, their older siblings, and parents in a longitudinal study following younger siblings across the first 3 years of life. Mothers and fathers contributed ratings of externalizing symptoms between 1 and 18 months across the transition to siblinghood for older siblings and 18 to 36 months for younger siblings. Toddlers' inhibitory and internalized control were assessed using behavioral and parent report measures, and parents completed questionnaires concerning their use of coercive discipline. Individual differences in toddler externalizing symptoms were highly stable between 18 and 36 months of age for a sample of second-born children with older siblings, even though there was evidence of significant decline in externalizing symptoms from 18 to 36 months. As predicted, toddlers with elevated levels of externalizing symptoms tended to have older siblings with higher externalizing difficulties across the first 18 months of the younger sibling's life. Thus, these findings highlighted the need for further research on older siblings' contributions to the behavioral development of their toddler-age younger siblings. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

GENDER DIFFERENCES IN NEGATIVE RELATIVE ASPECTS: THE ROLE OF PERSONALITY AND COMMUNICATION STYLE

The research aimed at the exploration of gender differences in the quality of close relationships with a mother, a father, a sibling, a partner, and a friend concerning the negative exchange in the form of conflicts and antagonism, as well as the role of personality traits and communication styles in the development of individual differences. The sample consisted of 400 participants (69% females), age from 19 to 51. Data were collected using the short version of personality questionnaire Big Five Plus Two (VP+2-70), questionnaire about close relationship quality Network of Relationship Inventory (NRI), and the scale for estimating communication skills, Communicator Style Measure (CSM). The results confirmed gender specificities concerning a degree of the negative exchange in the relationship types, and their correlations with personality traits and communication style. Females had stronger negative exchange with partners and fathers, while males had it with siblings. Extraverted females had more conflicts with their mothers. Higher Openness and Positive Valence of males was followed by greater conflicts with partner and lower Antagonism with friends, whereas the higher Consciousness was followed by greater negative exchange with siblings. Daughters with more assertive communication and sons with more expressive communication had stronger degree of confrontations with parents. On the other hand, males with more assertive communication, and females with more expressive communication had stronger conflicts with partners. Stronger negative exchange of females with fathers and partners was probably due to their greater orientation to deal with relationship problems and emancipation needs. The result that more assertive women had stronger degree of conflict with parents maybe the results from the fostering of the honest communication in the family of origin. Confronting more assertive women with their parents may stem from fostering honest and directive communication in the family of origin. Given that the society pressures males to be independent, the result that more expressive males had stronger negative exchange with their family of origin had been expected. These findings showed that expressiveness indicate immaturity. The willingness of more assertive men to engage in a negative exchange with a partner indicates their involvement in the relationship.

Personality trait development across the transition to retirement.

In this study, we examined trajectories of Big Five personality development in the 5 years before and after retirement. Our sample was composed of 690 retirees (ages 51-81) and a propensity-score matched comparison group of 532 nonretirees drawn from a nationally representative longitudinal study of the Netherlands. Participants contributed data across a maximum of 6 measurement waves over a period of 7 years. In the month after retirement, participants experienced sudden increases in openness and agreeableness followed by gradual declines in these traits over the next 5 years. Emotional stability increased before and after retirement. The transition to retirement was not associated with changes in conscientiousness or extraversion. Further, we found significant individual differences in development across the transition to retirement for each personality trait but could not identify any moderators that accounted for these individual differences. These results contribute to our understanding of personality development in older adulthood as well as the temporal dynamics of personality change in response to major life events. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

The development of individual differences in cooperative behaviour: maternal glucocorticoid hormones alter helping behaviour of offspring in wild meerkats.

The phenotype of parents can have long-lasting effects on the development of offspring as well as on their behaviour, physiology and morphology as adults. In some cases, these changes may increase offspring fitness but, in others, they can elevate parental fitness at a cost to the fitness of their offspring. We show that in Kalahari meerkats ( Suricata suricatta), the circulating glucocorticoid (GC) hormones of pregnant females affect the growth and cooperative behaviour of their offspring. We performed a 3-year experiment in wild meerkats to test the hypothesis that GC-mediated maternal effects reduce the potential for offspring to reproduce directly and therefore cause them to exhibit more cooperative behaviour. Daughters (but not sons) born to mothers treated with cortisol during pregnancy grew more slowly early in life and exhibited significantly more of two types of cooperative behaviour (pup rearing and feeding) once they were adults compared to offspring from control mothers. They also had lower measures of GCs as they aged, which could explain the observed increases in cooperative behaviour. Because early life growth is a crucial determinant of fitness in female meerkats, our results indicate that GC-mediated maternal effects may reduce the fitness of offspring, but may elevate parental fitness as a consequence of increasing the cooperative behaviour of their daughters. This article is part of the theme issue 'Developing differences: early-life effects and evolutionary medicine'.

Do current statistical learning tasks capture stable individual differences in children? An investigation of task reliability across modality.

Do commonly used statistical-learning tasks capture stable individual differences in children? Infants, children, and adults are capable of using statistical learning (SL) to extract information about their environment. Although most studies have looked at group-level performance, a growing literature examines individual differences in SL and their relation to language-learning outcomes: Individuals who are better at SL are expected to show better linguistic abilities. Accordingly, studies have shown positive correlations between SL performance and language outcomes in both children and adults. However, these studies have often used tasks designed to explore group-level performance without modifying them, resulting in psychometric shortcomings that impact reliability in adults (Siegelman, Bogaerts, Christiansen, & Frost in Transactions of the Royal Society B, 372, 20160059, 2017a; Siegelman, Bogaerts, & Frost in Behavior Research Methods, 49, 418-432, 2017b). Even though similar measures are used to assess individual differences in children, no study to date has examined the reliability of these measures in development. This study examined the reliability of common SL measures in both children and adults. It assessed the reliability of three SL tasks (two auditory and one visual) twice (two months apart) in adults and children (mean age 8 years). Although the tasks showed moderate reliability in adults, they did not capture stable individual variation in children. None of the tasks were reliable across sessions, and all showed internal consistency measures well below psychometric standards. These findings raise significant concerns about the use of current SL measures to predict and explain individual differences in development. The article ends with a discussion of possible explanations for the difference in reliability between children and adults.

Alternating Diffusion Map Based Fusion of Multimodal Brain Connectivity Networks for IQ Prediction.

To explain individual differences in development, behavior, and cognition, most previous studies focused on projecting resting-state functional MRI (fMRI) based functional connectivity (FC) data into a low-dimensional space via linear dimensionality reduction techniques, followed by executing analysis operations. However, linear dimensionality analysis techniques may fail to capture the nonlinearity of brain neuroactivity. Moreover, besides resting-state FC, the FC based on task fMRI can be expected to provide complementary information. Motivated by these considerations, we nonlinearly fuse resting-state and task-based FC networks (FCNs) to seek a better representation in this paper. We propose a framework based on alternating diffusion map (ADM), which extracts geometry-preserving low-dimensional embeddings that successfully parameterize the intrinsic variables driving the phenomenon of interest. Specifically, we first separately build resting-state and task-based FCNs by symmetric positive definite matrices using sparse inverse covariance estimation for each subject, and then utilize the ADM to fuse them in order to extract significant low-dimensional embeddings, which are used as fingerprints to identify individuals. The proposed framework is validated on the Philadelphia Neurodevelopmental Cohort data, where we conduct extensive experimental study on resting-state and fractal n-back task fMRI for the classification of intelligence quotient (IQ). The fusion of resting-state and n-back task fMRI by the proposed framework achieves better classification accuracy than any single fMRI, and the proposed framework is shown to outperform several other data fusion methods. To our knowledge, this paper is the first to demonstrate a successful extension of the ADM to fuse resting-state and task-based fMRI data for accurate prediction of IQ.

The association between perinatal hypoxia exposure and externalizing symptoms and children's decision making in conditions of uncertainty is moderated by DRD2 genotype.

Variants of the DRD2 Taq1A polymorphism, which have been shown to result in functional differences in dopamine D2 receptors (D2R), have been linked to various externalizing outcomes in adults. However, the neurobiological processes that contribute to these associations are not well understood. The current study investigates gene×environment effects on teacher-rated externalizing behaviors and probabilistic decision making in a sample of 333 children (age 9) enrolled in an ongoing longitudinal study. Findings indicate that externalizing behaviors increased as a function of hypoxic exposure only among individuals carrying the A1 (A1+) allele. Results also indicate that willingness to pursue reward under conditions of maximum uncertainty (50% probability) decreased as a function of hypoxic exposure only among A1- individuals. Among A1 carriers, no association between probability decision making and hypoxic exposure emerged. These findings suggest that hypoxia could influence neural development through different biological pathways depending on D2 receptor genotype, and provide insight into the development of individual differences in behavior and decision making.

A Nuclear Twin Family Study of Self–Esteem

Twin studies suggest that both genes and environments influence the emergence and development of individual differences in self–esteem. However, different lines of research have emphasized either the role of genes or of environmental influences in shaping self–esteem, and the pathways through which genes and environments exert their influence on self–esteem remain largely unclear. In this study, we used nationally representative data from over 2000 German twin families and a nuclear twin family design (NTFD) to further our understanding of the genetic and environmental influences on individual differences in self–esteem. Compared with classical twin designs, NTFDs allow for finer–grained descriptions of the genetic and environmental influences on phenotypic variation, produce less biased estimates of those effects, and provide more information about different environmental influences and gene–environment correlation that contribute to siblings’ similarity. Our NTFD results suggested that additive and non–additive genetic influences contributed to individual differences in self–esteem as well as environmental influences that are both shared and not shared by twins. The shared environmental component mostly reflected non–parental influences. These findings highlight the increased sensitivity afforded by NTFDs but also remaining limitations that need to be addressed by future behavioural genetic work on the sources of self–esteem. Copyright © 2018 European Association of Personality Psychology

Studying individual differences in human adolescent brain development.

Adolescence is a period of social, psychological and biological development. During adolescence, relationships with others become more complex, peer relationships are paramount and social cognition develops substantially. These psychosocial changes are paralleled by structural and functional changes in the brain. Existing research in adolescent neurocognitive development has focused largely on averages, but this obscures meaningful individual variation in development. In this Perspective, we propose that the field should now move toward studying individual differences. We start by discussing individual variation in structural and functional brain development. To illustrate the importance of considering individual differences in development, we consider three sources of variation that contribute to neurocognitive processing: socioeconomic status, culture and peer environment. To assess individual differences in neurodevelopmental trajectories, large-scale longitudinal datasets are required. Future developmental neuroimaging studies should attempt to characterize individual differences to move toward a more nuanced understanding of neurocognitive changes during adolescence.

Использование концепции DIR в работе с детьми с РАС

Developmental Individual Differences (DIR) approach is designed to take into account the uniqueness of each child and each family. Within the framework of DIR approach, experts build habilitation and rehabilitation work based on the interests of the child, proceeding from the premise that his learning does not occur separately from emotional development and also that these two processes are interrelated. Author describes the principles of DIR approach and the features of its basic method — Floortime, which is helping the child to perceive the world, to establish emotional relationships with parents and to learn

An Evolutionary Psychological Perspective on a the Development of Individual Differences

An Evolutionary Psychological Perspective on a the Development of Individual Differences

Development of identity clarity and content in adulthood.

The current research examines self-concept clarity over 2 assessment points with the aims of establishing patterns of stability and change in self-concept clarity across adulthood, modeling corollary changes in traits and health-related role limitations, and demonstrating the ways in which gender and age moderate these patterns. Within this sample of 461 adults age 19-86 years of age, self-concept clarity had robust rank-order stability and no significant mean-level change during a 3-year assessment window. However, significant interindividual variability was present in the developmental patterns of self-concept clarity over time. These individual differences in development of self-concept clarity corresponded to developmental patterns in Big Five personality traits and health-related role limitations. Results of this 2 wave longitudinal study suggest 3 primary conclusions: (a) self-concept clarity predicts and corresponds to trait maturation over time, (b) decreasing self-concept clarity corresponds to increasing role limitations, and (c) these effects are somewhat contingent on gender and age. Results are discussed in reference to the maturation of identity content and metacognitive identity evaluation over the life span. (PsycINFO Database Record