| Abstract | There is significant variability in children's capacities for effortful control-- the ability to suppress a dominant response and perform a subdominant response. With wide-stretched influences throughout the lifespan, it is important to understand what factors contribute to the development of a healthy capacity for effortful control. Effortful control has a relatively late pattern of development compared to other aspects of temperament, beginning around 12 months of age and ending around 3 years of age. For this reason, constructs that precede effortful control in development can contribute to the developing capacity. The current study examined whether mother- and father-infant attachment relationships and expression of other temperament constructs (negative effect and surgency/extraversion) were contributing factors to the development of effortful control. Data was collected from mothers (n =33), fathers (n =33), and children (n=33), over a time span of two years. Infant temperament was measured at 6-months of age, qualities of mother-infant and father-infant attachment relationships were assessed around 12- and 13-months of age respectively, and toddler capacity for effortful control was measured around 36-months of age. Two attachment interaction behaviors, proximity-seeking with father and resistance with mother, were positively correlated with capacity for effortful control. |
