Hostname: page-component-6bf8c574d5-k2jvg Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-03-07T03:52:48.178Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Linking Research Domain Criteria (RDoC) constructs to developmental psychopathology: The role of self-regulation and emotion knowledge in the development of internalizing and externalizing growth trajectories from ages 3 to 10

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 February 2019

Ka I Ip Open the ORCID record for Ka I Ip [Opens in a new window] ,
Jennifer M. Jester ,
Arnold Sameroff  and
Sheryl L. Olson
Ka I Ip*
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology
Jennifer M. Jester
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA
Arnold Sameroff
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology
Sheryl L. Olson
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology
*
Address for correspondence: Ka I Ip, 530 Church St, Ann Arbor, MI, 48109. E-mail: [email protected].
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Identifying Research Domain Criteria (RDoC) constructs in early childhood is essential for understanding etiological pathways of psychopathology. Our central goal was to identify early emotion knowledge and self-regulation difficulties across different RDoC domains and examine how they relate to typical versus atypical symptom trajectories between ages 3 and 10. Particularly, we assessed potential contributions of children's gender, executive control, delay of gratification, and regulation of frustration, emotion recognition, and emotion understanding at age 3 to co-occurring patterns of internalizing and externalizing across development. A total of 238 3-year-old boys and girls were assessed using behavioral tasks and parent reports and reassessed at ages 5 and 10 years. Results indicated that very few children developed “pure” internalizing or externalizing symptoms relative to various levels of co-occurring symptoms across development. Four classes of co-occurring internalizing and externalizing problems were identified: low, low-moderate, rising, and severe-decreasing trajectories. Three-year-old children with poor executive control but high emotion understanding were far more likely to show severe-decreasing than low/low-moderate class co-occurring internalizing and externalizing symptom patterns. Child gender and poor executive control differentiated children in rising versus low trajectories. Implications for early intervention targeting self-regulation of executive control are discussed.

Keywords

emotion knowledgeinternalizing and externalizing symptomspreschool; RDoCself-regulation
Type
Regular Articles
Information
Development and Psychopathology , Volume 31 , Issue 4 , October 2019 , pp. 1557 - 1574
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2019 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Achenbach, T. M. (1991). Integrative guide for the 1991 CBCL/4-18, YSR, and TRF profiles. Department of Psychiatry, University of Vermont Burlington.Google Scholar
Achenbach, T. M. (1992). Child Behavior Checklist for ages 2-3. University of Vermont, Center for Children, Youth, and Families.Google Scholar
Achenbach, T. M., & Rescorla, L. (2001). ASEBA school-age forms & profiles. Burlington, VT: Aseba.Google Scholar
Ahadi, S. A., Rothbart, M. K., & Ye, R. (1993). Children's temperament in the US and China: Similarities and differences. European Journal of Personality, 7, 359–378.Google Scholar
Aldao, A. (2013). The future of emotion regulation research: Capturing context. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 8, 155–172.Google Scholar
Angold, A., Costello, E. J., & Erkanli, A. (1999). Comorbidity. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 40, 57–87.Google Scholar
Asparouhov, T., & Muthen, B. O. (2013). Auxiliary variables in mixture modeling: 3-step approaches using Mplus. Mplus Web Notes: No. 15. Retrieved from http://www.statmodel.com.Google Scholar
Bassett, H. H., Denham, S., Mincic, M., & Graling, K. (2012). The structure of preschoolers’ emotion knowledge: Model equivalence and validity using a structural equation modeling approach. Early Education & Development, 23, 259–279.Google Scholar
Beauchaine, T. P., & McNulty, T. (2013). Comorbidities and continuities as ontogenic processes: Toward a developmental spectrum model of externalizing psychopathology. Development and Psychopathology, 25, 1505–1528.Google Scholar
Beyers, J. M., & Loeber, R. (2003). Untangling developmental relations between depressed mood and delinquency in male adolescents. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 31, 247–266.Google Scholar
Bongers, I. L., Koot, H. M., Van Der Ende, J., & Verhulst, F. C. (2004). Developmental trajectories of externalizing behaviors in childhood and adolescence. Child Development, 75, 1523–1537.Google Scholar
Broeren, S., Muris, P., Diamantopoulou, S., & Baker, J. R. (2013). The course of childhood anxiety symptoms: Developmental trajectories and child-related factors in normal children. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 41, 81–95.Google Scholar
Broidy, L. M., Nagin, D. S., Tremblay, R. E., Bates, J. E., Brame, B., Dodge, K. A., … Vitaro, F. (2003). Developmental trajectories of childhood disruptive behaviors and adolescent delinquency: A six-site, cross-national study. Developmental Psychology, 39, 222.Google Scholar
Buhle, J. T., Silvers, J. A., Wager, T. D., Lopez, R., Onyemekwu, C., Kober, H., … Ochsner, K. N. (2014). Cognitive reappraisal of emotion: A meta-analysis of human neuroimaging studies. Cerebral Cortex, 24, 2981–2990.Google Scholar
Calkins, S. D. (2009). Regulatory competence and early disruptive behavior problems: The role of physiological regulation. Biopsychosocial Regulatory Processes in the Development of Childhood Behavioral Problems, 86–115.Google Scholar
Capaldi, D. M. (1992). Co-occurrence of conduct problems and depressive symptoms in early adolescent boys: II. A 2-year follow-up at Grade 8. Development and Psychopathology, 4, 125–144.Google Scholar
Casey, B. J., Somerville, L. H., Gotlib, I. H., Ayduk, O., Franklin, N. T., Askren, M. K., … Shoda, Y. (2011). Behavioral and neural correlates of delay of gratification 40 years later. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 108, 14998–15003.Google Scholar
Cole, P. M., Bruschi, C. J., & Tamang, B. L. (2002). Cultural differences in children's emotional reactions to difficult situations. Child Development, 73, 983–996.Google Scholar
Cole, P. M., Hall, S. E., & Hajal, N. J. (2008). Emotion dysregulation as a risk factor for psychopathology. Child and Adolescent Psychopathology, 2, 341–373.Google Scholar
Cole, P. M., Martin, S. E., & Dennis, T. A. (2004). Emotion regulation as a scientific construct: Methodological challenges and directions for child development research. Child Development, 317–333.Google Scholar
Cole, P. M., Zahn-Waxler, C., Fox, N. A., Usher, B. A., & Welsh, J. D. (1996). Individual differences in emotion regulation and behavior problems in preschool children. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 105, 518.Google Scholar
Cuthbert, B. N. (2014). The RDoC framework: Facilitating transition from ICD/DSM to dimensional approaches that integrate neuroscience and psychopathology. World Psychiatry, 13, 28–35. https://doi.org/10.1002/wps.20087Google Scholar
Denham, S. A. (1986). Social cognition, prosocial behavior, and emotion in preschoolers: Contextual validation. Child Development, 194–201.Google Scholar
Denham, S. A., Bassett, H. H., Brown, C., Way, E., & Steed, J. (2015). “I Know How You Feel”: Preschoolers’ emotion knowledge contributes to early school success. Journal of Early Childhood Research, 13, 252–262.Google Scholar
Denham, S. A., Blair, K. A., DeMulder, E., Levitas, J., Sawyer, K., Auerbach-Major, S., & Queenan, P. (2003). Preschool emotional competence: Pathway to social competence? Child Development, 74, 238–256.Google Scholar
Denham, S. A., Caverly, S., Schmidt, M., Blair, K., DeMulder, E., Caal, S., … Mason, T. (2002). Preschool understanding of emotions: Contributions to classroom anger and aggression. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 43, 901–916.Google Scholar
Denham, S. A., Bassett, H. H., Way, E., Mincic, M., Zinsser, K., & Graling, K. (2012). Preschoolers’ emotion knowledge: Self-regulatory foundations, and predictions of early school success. Cognition & Emotion, 26, 667–679.Google Scholar
Dennis, T. A., Brotman, L. M., Huang, K.-Y., & Gouley, K. K. (2007). Effortful control, social competence, and adjustment problems in children at risk for psychopathology. Journal of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology, 36, 442–454.Google Scholar
Di Maggio, R., Zappulla, C., & Pace, U. (2016). The relationship between emotion knowledge, emotion regulation and adjustment in preschoolers: A mediation model. Journal of Child and Family Studies, 25, 2626–2635.Google Scholar
Eiden, R. D., Colder, C., Edwards, E. P., & Leonard, K. E. (2009a). A longitudinal study of social competence among children of alcoholic and nonalcoholic parents: Role of parental psychopathology, parental warmth, and self-regulation. Psychology of Addictive Behaviors, 23, 36.Google Scholar
Eiden, R. D., Colder, C., Edwards, E. P., & Leonard, K. E. (2009b). A longitudinal study of social competence among children of alcoholic and nonalcoholic parents: Role of parental psychopathology, parental warmth, and self-regulation. Psychology of Addictive Behaviors, 23, 36.Google Scholar
Eisenberg, N., Fabes, R. A., Guthrie, I. K., & Reiser, M. (2000). Dispositional emotionality and regulation: their role in predicting quality of social functioning. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 78, 136.Google Scholar
Eisenberg, N., Sadovsky, A., Spinrad, T. L., Fabes, R. A., Losoya, S. H., Valiente, C., … Shepard, S. A. (2005). The relations of problem behavior status to children's negative emotionality, effortful control, and impulsivity: Concurrent relations and prediction of change. Developmental Psychology, 41, 193.Google Scholar
Eisenberg, N., Spinrad, T. L., & Eggum, N. D. (2010). Emotion-related self-regulation and its relation to children's maladjustment. Annual Review of Clinical Psychology, 6, 495.Google Scholar
Eisenberg, N., Spinrad, T. L., Fabes, R. A., Reiser, M., Cumberland, A., Shepard, S. A., … Thompson, M. (2004). The relations of effortful control and impulsivity to children's resiliency and adjustment. Child Development, 75, 25–46.Google Scholar
Eisenberg, N., Valiente, C., Spinrad, T. L., Cumberland, A., Liew, J., Reiser, M., … Losoya, S. H. (2009). Longitudinal relations of children's effortful control, impulsivity, and negative emotionality to their externalizing, internalizing, and co-occurring behavior problems. Developmental Psychology, 45, 988.Google Scholar
Else-Quest, N. M., Hyde, J. S., Goldsmith, H. H., & Van Hulle, C. A. (2006). Gender differences in temperament: A meta-analysis. Psychological Bulletin, 132, 33.Google Scholar
Fanti, K. A., & Henrich, C. C. (2010). Trajectories of pure and co-occurring internalizing and externalizing problems from age 2 to age 12: Findings from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Study of Early Child Care. Developmental Psychology, 46, 1159.Google Scholar
Feng, X., Shaw, D. S., & Silk, J. S. (2008). Developmental trajectories of anxiety symptoms among boys across early and middle childhood. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 117, 32.Google Scholar
Fergusson, D. M., John Horwood, L., & Ridder, E. M. (2005). Show me the child at seven: The consequences of conduct problems in childhood for psychosocial functioning in adulthood. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 46, 837–849.Google Scholar
Franklin, J. C., Jamieson, J. P., Glenn, C. R., & Nock, M. K. (2015). How developmental psychopathology theory and research can inform the research domain criteria (RDoC) project. Journal of Clinical Child & Adolescent Psychology, 44, 280–290.Google Scholar
Garner, P. W., & Lemerise, E. A. (2007). The roles of behavioral adjustment and conceptions of peers and emotions in preschool children's peer victimization. Development and Psychopathology, 19, 57–71.Google Scholar
Gilliom, M., & Shaw, D. S. (2004). Codevelopment of externalizing and internalizing problems in early childhood. Development and Psychopathology, 16, 313–333.Google Scholar
Gross, J. J. (1998). The emerging field of emotion regulation: an integrative review. Review of General Psychology, 2, 271.Google Scholar
Hankin, B. L., Wetter, E., & Cheely, C. (2008). Sex differences in child and adolescent depression: A developmental psychopathological approach. Retrieved from http://psycnet.apa.org/psycinfo/2008-01178-016.Google Scholar
Heinze, J. E., Miller, A. L., Seifer, R., Dickstein, S., & Locke, R. L. (2015). Emotion knowledge, loneliness, negative social experiences, and internalizing symptoms among low-income preschoolers. Social Development, 24, 240–265.Google Scholar
Hill, A. L., Degnan, K. A., Calkins, S. D., & Keane, S. P. (2006). Profiles of externalizing behavior problems for boys and girls across preschool: The roles of emotion regulation and inattention. Developmental Psychology, 42, 913.Google Scholar
Hinnant, J. B., & El-Sheikh, M. (2013). Codevelopment of externalizing and internalizing symptoms in middle to late childhood: Sex, baseline respiratory sinus arrhythmia, and respiratory sinus arrhythmia reactivity as predictors. Development and Psychopathology, 25, 419–436.Google Scholar
Insel, T., Cuthbert, B., Garvey, M., Heinssen, R., Pine, D. S., Quinn, K., … Wang, P. (2010). Research domain criteria (RDoC): Toward a new classification framework for research on mental disorders. American Journal of Psychiatry, 167, 748–751.Google Scholar
Insel, T. R. (2014). The NIMH Research Domain Criteria (RDoC) Project: Precision Medicine for Psychiatry. American Journal of Psychiatry, 171, 395–397. https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.ajp.2014.14020138Google Scholar
Izard, C., Fine, S., Schultz, D., Mostow, A., Ackerman, B., & Youngstrom, E. (2001). Emotion knowledge as a predictor of social behavior and academic competence in children at risk. Psychological Science, 12, 18–23.Google Scholar
Jung, T., & Wickrama, K. A. S. (2008). An introduction to latent class growth analysis and growth mixture modeling. Social and Personality Psychology Compass, 2, 302–317.Google Scholar
Keenan, K., Feng, X., Babinski, D., Hipwell, A., Hinze, A., Loeber, R., & Stouthamer-Loeber, M. (2011). Developmental comorbidity of depression and conduct problems in girls. In Kerr, M, Stattin, J, Engles, R. C. M. E., Overbeek, G., and Stouhamer-Loeber, G. (Eds.), Understanding girls’ problem behaviors (pp. 117–137). Wiley.Google Scholar
Keenan, K., & Shaw, D. (1997). Developmental and social influences on young girls’ early problem behavior. Psychological Bulletin, 121, 95.Google Scholar
Keiley, M. K., Bates, J. E., Dodge, K. A., & Pettit, G. S. (2000). A cross-domain growth analysis: Externalizing and internalizing behaviors during 8 years of childhood. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 28, 161–179.Google Scholar
Kim, J., & Cicchetti, D. (2010). Longitudinal pathways linking child maltreatment, emotion regulation, peer relations, and psychopathology. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 51, 706–716.Google Scholar
Kim, S., Nordling, J. K., Yoon, J. E., Boldt, L. J., & Kochanska, G. (2013). Effortful control in “hot” and “cool” tasks differentially predicts children's behavior problems and academic performance. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 41, 43–56.Google Scholar
Kochanska, G., Murray, K., Jacques, T. Y., Koenig, A. L., & Vandegeest, K. A. (1996). Inhibitory control in young children and its role in emerging internalization. Child Development, 490–507.Google Scholar
Kohn, N., Eickhoff, S. B., Scheller, M., Laird, A. R., Fox, P. T., & Habel, U. (2014). Neural network of cognitive emotion regulation—an ALE meta-analysis and MACM analysis. Neuroimage, 87, 345–355.Google Scholar
Lahey, B. B., Van Hulle, C. A., Waldman, I. D., Rodgers, J. L., D'Onofrio, B. M., Pedlow, S., … Keenan, K. (2006). Testing descriptive hypotheses regarding sex differences in the development of conduct problems and delinquency. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 34, 730–748.Google Scholar
Lengua, L. J. (2006). Growth in temperament and parenting as predictors of adjustment during children's transition to adolescence. Developmental Psychology, 42, 819.Google Scholar
Miner, J. L., & Clarke-Stewart, K. A. (2008). Trajectories of externalizing behavior from age 2 to age 9: Relations with gender, temperament, ethnicity, parenting, and rater. Developmental Psychology, 44, 771.Google Scholar
Mischel, W., Shoda, Y., & Peake, P. K. (1988). The nature of adolescent competencies predicted by preschool delay of gratification. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 54, 687.Google Scholar
Moffitt, T. E. (2003). Life-course-persistent and adolescence-limited antisocial behavior: a 10-year research review and a research agenda. In Lahey, B. B., Moffitt, T. E., & Caspi, A. (Eds.), Causes of conduct disorder and juvenile delinquency (pp. 49–75). New York: Guilford Press.Google Scholar
Morris, S. E., & Cuthbert, B. N. (2012). Research domain criteria: Cognitive systems, neural circuits, and dimensions of behavior. Dialogues in Clinical Neuroscience, 14, 29.Google Scholar
Murray, K. T., & Kochanska, G. (2002). Effortful control: Factor structure and relation to externalizing and internalizing behaviors. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 30, 503–514.Google Scholar
Muthén, L. K., & Muthén, B. O. (2012). Mplus: The comprehensive modelling program for applied researchers: User's guide, 5.Google Scholar
NICHD Early Child Care Research Network (2004). Affect dysregulation in the mother-child relationship in the toddler years: Antecedents and consequences. Development and Psychopathology, 16, 43.Google Scholar
Nigg, J. T. (2017). Annual Research Review: On the relations among self-regulation, self-control, executive functioning, effortful control, cognitive control, impulsivity, risk-taking, and inhibition for developmental psychopathology. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 58(4), 361–383.Google Scholar
Ochsner, K. N., Silvers, J. A., & Buhle, J. T. (2012). Functional imaging studies of emotion regulation: A synthetic review and evolving model of the cognitive control of emotion. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1251, E21–E24.Google Scholar
Oldehinkel, A. J., Hartman, C. A., Ferdinand, R. F., Verhulst, F. C., & Ormel, J. (2007). Effortful control as modifier of the association between negative emotionality and adolescents’ mental health problems. Development and Psychopathology, 19, 523–539.Google Scholar
Olson, S. L., Choe, D. E., & Sameroff, A. J. (2017). Trajectories of child externalizing problems between ages 3 and 10 years: Contributions of children's early effortful control, theory of mind, and parenting experiences. Development and Psychopathology, 29, 1333–1335.Google Scholar
Olson, S. L., Sameroff, A. J., Kerr, D. C., Lopez, N. L., & Wellman, H. M. (2005). Developmental foundations of externalizing problems in young children: The role of effortful control. Development and Psychopathology, 17, 25–45.Google Scholar
Posner, M. I., & Rothbart, M. K. (2000). Developing mechanisms of self-regulation. Development and Psychopathology, 12, 427–441.Google Scholar
Proctor, L. J., Skriner, L. C., Roesch, S., & Litrownik, A. J. (2010). Trajectories of behavioral adjustment following early placement in foster care: Predicting stability and change over 8 years. Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 49, 464–473.Google Scholar
Rothbart, M. K., Posner, M. I., & Kieras, J. (2006). Temperament, attention, and the development of self-regulation. In McCartney, K. & Phillips, D. (Eds.), Blackwell handbook of early childhood development. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing.Google Scholar
Schultz, D., Izard, C. E., Ackerman, B. P., & Youngstrom, E. A. (2001). Emotion knowledge in economically disadvantaged children: Self-regulatory antecedents and relations to social difficulties and withdrawal. Development and Psychopathology, 13, 53–67.Google Scholar
Shaw, D. S., Hyde, L. W., & Brennan, L. M. (2012). Early predictors of boys’ antisocial trajectories. Development and Psychopathology, 24, 871–888.Google Scholar
Sterba, S. K., Prinstein, M. J., & Cox, M. J. (2007). Trajectories of internalizing problems across childhood: Heterogeneity, external validity, and gender differences. Development and Psychopathology, 19, 345–366.Google Scholar
Sturge-Apple, M. L., Davies, P. T., Cicchetti, D., Hentges, R. F., & Coe, J. L. (2017). Family instability and children's effortful control in the context of poverty: Sometimes a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush. Development and Psychopathology, 29, 685–696.Google Scholar
Tremblay, R. E. (2010). Developmental origins of disruptive behaviour problems: The ‘original sin’ hypothesis, epigenetics and their consequences for prevention. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 51, 341–367.Google Scholar
Trentacosta, C. J., & Fine, S. E. (2010). Emotion knowledge, social competence, and behavior problems in childhood and adolescence: A meta-analytic review. Social Development, 19(1), 1–29.Google Scholar
Trim, R. S., Meehan, B. T., King, K. M., & Chassin, L. (2007). The relation between adolescent substance use and young adult internalizing symptoms: Findings from a high-risk longitudinal sample. Psychology of Addictive Behaviors, 21, 97.Google Scholar
Vermunt, J. K. (2010). Latent class modeling with covariates: Two improved three-step approaches. Political Analysis, 18, 450–469.Google Scholar
Wechsler, D. (1989). WPPSI-R: Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence. San Antonio, TX: Psychological Corporation Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.Google Scholar
Wiggins, J. L., Mitchell, C., Hyde, L. W., & Monk, C. S. (2015). Identifying early pathways of risk and resilience: The codevelopment of internalizing and externalizing symptoms and the role of harsh parenting. Development and Psychopathology, 27, 1295–1312.Google Scholar
Wu, J., Witkiewitz, K., McMahon, R. J., Dodge, K. A., & Conduct Problems Prevention Research Group. (2010). A parallel process growth mixture model of conduct problems and substance use with risky sexual behavior. Drug and Alcohol Dependence, 111, 207–214.Google Scholar
Zahn-Waxler, C., Shirtcliff, E. A., & Marceau, K. (2008). Disorders of childhood and adolescence: Gender and psychopathology. Annual Review of Clinical Psychology, 4, 275–303.Google Scholar