Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-dzt6s Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-22T18:44:10.221Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Infant joint attention skill and preschool behavioral outcomes in at-risk children

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 June 2004

STEPHEN J. SHEINKOPF ,
PETER MUNDY ,
ANGELIKA H. CLAUSSEN  and
JENNIFER WILLOUGHBY
STEPHEN J. SHEINKOPF
Affiliation:
E. P. Bradley Hospital, Brown Medical School
PETER MUNDY
Affiliation:
University of Miami
ANGELIKA H. CLAUSSEN
Affiliation:
University of Miami
JENNIFER WILLOUGHBY
Affiliation:
University of Maryland at Baltimore
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This study examined whether infant joint attention (JA) skills predicted social behaviors in a sample of at-risk preschool children (n = 30) with a history of prenatal exposure to cocaine. JA behaviors were assessed with the Early Social and Communication Scales at 12, 15, and 18 months of age. Three classes of JA were measured: Initiating JA (IJA), Responding to JA (RJA), and Requests. Behavioral outcomes were measured at 36 months and included ratings of disruptive and withdrawn behaviors and social competence. JA behaviors were related to behavioral outcomes after controlling for language and cognitive ability. The functionally distinct uses of JA were differentially related to behavioral outcome. IJA negatively predicted disruptive behaviors, whereas Requests positively predicted disruptive behaviors. Infant RJA negatively predicted withdrawn behaviors and positively predicted social competence. These results are interpreted in the context of competing theories that attempt to explain variability in the expression of JA skills in the second year of life.This research was partially supported by the Florida Department of Education and by a National Research Service Award from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (1 F32 DA05971-01). Portions of this paper, which was based on a dissertation submitted by the first author at the University of Miami, were presented at the biennial meeting of the Society for Research in Child Development in Albuquerque, NM, April 1999. The authors acknowledge the efforts of Joycelyn Lee for videotape coding and the teachers and staff at the Linda Ray Intervention Center, without whose commitment and efforts this research would not have been possible.

Type
Research Article
Information
Development and Psychopathology , Volume 16 , Issue 2 , June 2004 , pp. 273 - 291
Copyright
© 2004 Cambridge University Press

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

REFERENCES

Achenbach, T. M. (1992). Manual for the Child Behavior Checklist 2–3 1992 profile. Burlington, VT: University of Vermont, Department of Psychiatry.
Adamson, L. B., & McArthur, D. (1995). Joint attention, affect, and culture. In C. Moore & P. J. Dunham (Eds.), Joint attention: Its origin and role in development (pp. 205–221). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
Asendorpf, J. B. (1990). Beyond social withdrawal: Shyness, unsociability, and peer avoidance. Human Development 33, 250–259.Google Scholar
Bakeman, R., & Adamson, L. (1984). Coordinating attention to people and objects in mother–infant and peer–infant interaction. Child Development 55, 1278–1289.Google Scholar
Baker, L., & Cantwell, D. P. (1987). Factors associated with the development of psychiatric illness in children with early speech/language problems. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders 17, 499–510.Google Scholar
Baldwin, D. A. (1995). Understanding the link between joint attention and language. In C. Moore & P. J. Dunham (Eds.), Joint attention: Its origins and role in development (pp. 131–158). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
Baron, R. M., & Kenny, D. A. (1986). The moderator–mediator variable distinction in social psychological research: Conceptual, strategic, and statistical considerations. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 51, 1173–1182.Google Scholar
Baron–Cohen, S. (1993). From attention–goal psychology to belief–desire psychology: The development of a theory of mind and its dysfunction. In H. Tager–Flusberg, S. Baron–Cohen & D. J. Cohen (Eds.), Understanding other minds: Perspectives from autism (pp. 59–82). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Bates, E., Benigni, L., Bretherton, I., Camaioni, L., & Volterra, V. (1979). The emergence of symbols: Cognition and communication in infancy. New York: Academic Press.
Bayley, N. (1993). Bayley Scales of Infant Development (2nd ed.). San Antonio, TX: Psychological Corporation.
Beeghly, M., & Tronick, E. Z. (1994). Effects of prenatal exposure to cocaine in early infancy: Toxic effects on the process of mutual regulation. Infant Mental Health Journal 15, 158–175.Google Scholar
Beitchman, J. H., Hood, J., & Inglis, A. (1990). Psychiatric risk in children with speech and language disorders. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology 18, 283–296.Google Scholar
Bretherton, I. (1991). Intentional communication and the development of an understanding of mind. In D. Frye & C. Moore (Eds.), Children's theories of mind: Mental states and social understanding (pp. 49–75). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
Bruner, J., & Sherwood, V. (1983). Thought, language, and interaction in infancy. In J. D. Call, E. Galenson, & R. L. Tyson (Eds.), Frontiers in infant psychiatry (pp. 38–55). New York: Basic Books.
Bruner, J. S. (1975). From communication to language: A psychological perspective. Cognition 3, 255–287.Google Scholar
Butterworth, G., & Cochran, E. (1980). Towards a mechanism of joint visual attention in human infancy. International Journal of Behavioral Development 3, 253–272.Google Scholar
Caplan, R., Chugani, H., Messa, C., Guthrie, D., Sigman, M., Traversay, J., & Mundy, P. (1993). Hemispherectomy for early onset intractable seizures: Presurgical cerebral glucose metabolism and postsurgical nonverbal communication patterns. Developmental Medicine and Child Neurology 35, 582–592.Google Scholar
Carpenter, M., Nagell, K., & Tomasello, M. (1998). Social cognition, joint attention, and communicative competence from 9 to 15 months of age. Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development 63(4, Serial No. 255).Google Scholar
Claussen, A. H., Mundy, P. C., Mallik, S. A., & Willoughby, J. C. (2002). Joint attention and disorganized attachment status in infants at risk. Development and Psychopathology 14, 279–291.Google Scholar
Corkum, V., & Moore, C. (1998). The origins of joint visual attention in infants. Developmental Psychology 34, 28–38.Google Scholar
Cutting, A. L., & Dunn, J. (2002). The cost of understanding other people: Social cognition predicts young children's sensitivity to criticism. Journal of Child Psychology & Psychiatry & Allied Disciplines 43, 849–860.Google Scholar
Dunham, P., & Dunham, F. (1992). Lexical development during middle infancy: A mutually driven infant–caregiver process. Developmental Psychology 28, 414–420.Google Scholar
Dunham, P. J., Dunham, F., & Curwin, A. (1993). Joint-attentional states and lexical acquisition at 18 months. Developmental Psychology 29, 827–831.Google Scholar
Dunham, P. J., & Moore, C. (1995). Current themes in research on joint attention. In C. Moore & P. J. Dunham (Eds.), Joint attention: Its origins and role in development (pp. 15–28). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
Fantuzzo, J., Sutton–Smith, B., Coolahan, K. C., Manz, P. H., Canning, S., & Debnam, D. (1995). Assessment of preschool play interaction behaviors in young low-income children: Penn Interactive Peer Play Scale. Early Childhood Research Quarterly 10, 105–120.Google Scholar
Flanagan, P. J., Coppa, D. F., Riggs, S. G., & Alario, A. J. (1994). Communication behaviors of infants of teen mothers. Journal of Adolescent Health 15, 169–175.Google Scholar
Garner, P. W., Landry, S. H., & Richardson, M. A. (1991). The development of joint attention skills in very-low-birthweight infants across the first 2 years. Infant Behavior and Development 14, 489–495.Google Scholar
Goldsmith, D. F., & Rogoff, B. (1997). Mothers' and toddlers' coordinated joint focus of attention: Variations with maternal dysphoric symptoms. Developmental Psychology 33, 113–119.Google Scholar
Hans, S. L. (1999). Demographic and psychosocial characteristics of substance-abusing pregnant women. Clinics in Perinatolgy 26, 55–74.Google Scholar
Henderson, L. M., Yoder, P. J., Yale, M. E., & McDuffie, A. (2002). Getting the point: Electrophysiological correlates of protodeclarative pointing. International Journal of Developmental Neuroscience 20, 449–458.Google Scholar
Hogan, A. E., Scott, K. G., & Bauer, C. R. (1992). The Adaptive Social Behavior Inventory (ASBI): A new assessment of social competence in high risk three-year-olds. Journal of Psychoeducational Assessment 10, 230–239.Google Scholar
Kasari, C., Freeman, S., & Paparella, T. (2001). Early intervention in autism: Joint attention and symbolic play. In L. Masters Glidden (Ed.), International review of research in mental retardation: Autism (Vol. 23, pp. 208–238). New York: Academic Press.
Kasari, C., Sigman, M., Mundy, P., & Yirmiya, N. (1990). Affective sharing in the context of joint attention interactions of normal, autistic, and mentally retarded children. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders 20, 87–100.Google Scholar
Kim, G., & Walden, T. (2001, April). Impact of temperamental distress on infant responsivity and regulation in social referencing: Direct and indirect effects. Paper presented at the biennial meeting of the Society for Research in Child Development, Minneapolis, MN.
Kochanska, G., Murray, K., & Coy, K. C. (1997). Inhibitory control as a contributor to consience in childhood: From toddler to early school age. Child Development 68, 263–277.Google Scholar
Kochanska, G., Murray, K., Jacques, T. Y., Koenig, A. L., & Vandergeest, K. A. (1996). Inhibitory control in young children and its role in emerging internalization. Child Development 67, 490–507.Google Scholar
Kochanska, G., Murray, K. T., & Harlan, E. T. (2000). Effortful control in early childhood: Continuity and change, antecedents, and implications for social development. Developmental Psychology 36, 220–232.Google Scholar
Landry, S. H., Smith, K. E., Miller–Loncar, C. L., & Swank, P. R. (1998). The relation of change in maternal interactive styles to the developing social competence of full-term and preterm children. Child Development 69, 105–123.Google Scholar
Leslie, A. M., & Happe, F. (1989). Autism and ostensive communication: The relevance of metarepresentation. Development and Psychopathology 1, 205–212.Google Scholar
Lester, B. M., LaGasse, L. L., & Seifer, R. (1998). Prenatal cocaine exposure and child outcome: The meaning of subtle effects. Science 282, 633–634.Google Scholar
Lester, B. M., & Tronick, E. Z. (1994). The effects of prenatal cocaine exposure and child outcome. Infant Mental Health Journal 15, 107–120.Google Scholar
Loveland, K., & Landry, S. (1986). Joint attention and language in autism and developmental language delay. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders 16, 335–349.Google Scholar
Masten, A. S., & Coatsworth, J. D. (1998). The development of competence in favorable and unfavorable environments. Lessons from research on successful children. American Psychologist 53, 205–220.Google Scholar
Mayes, L. C., Grillon, C., Granger, R., & Schottenfeld, R. (1998). Regulation of arousal and attention in preschool children exposed to cocaine prenatally. In J. A. Harvey & B. E. Kosofsky (Eds.), Cocaine: Effects on the developing brain (Vol. 846, pp. 126–143). New York: The New York Academy of Sciences.
McEvoy, R. E., Rogers, S. J., & Pennington, B. F. (1993). Executive function and social communication deficits in young autistic children. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry 34, 563–578.Google Scholar
Moore, C. (1996). Theories of mind in infancy. British Journal of Developmental Psychology 14, 19–40.Google Scholar
Morales, M., Broderick, M., Clemens, B., Ogert, A., Weierstall, K., Martin, M., & Stafford, K. (2001, April). Longitudinal and concurrent relations between joint attention and emotion regulation in typically developing 2-year-old children. Paper presented at the biennial meeting of the Society for Research in Child Development, Minneapolis, MN.
Morales, M., Mundy, P., Delgado, C. E. F., Yale, M., Messinger, D., Neal, R., & Schwartz, H. K. (2000). Responding to joint attention across the 6- through 24-month age period and early language acquisition. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology 21, 283–298.Google Scholar
Morales, M., Mundy, P., & Rojas, J. (1998). Following the direction of gaze and language development in 6-month-olds. Infant Behavior and Development 21, 373–377.Google Scholar
Mundy, P. (1995). Joint attention and social–emotional approach behavior in children with autism. Development and Psychopathology 7, 63–82.Google Scholar
Mundy, P. (2003). The neural basis of the social impairment in autism: The role of the dorsal medial–frontal cortex and the anterior cingulate system. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry 44, 1–17.Google Scholar
Mundy, P., Card, J., & Fox, N. A. (2000). EEG correlates of the development of infant joint attention skills. Developmental Psychobiology 36, 325–338.Google Scholar
Mundy, P., & Gomes, A. (1998). Individual differences in joint attention skill development in the second year. Infant Behavior and Development 21, 469–482.Google Scholar
Mundy, P., & Hogan, A. (1994). Intersubjectivity, joint attention and autistic developmental pathology. In D. Cicchetti & S. Toth (Eds.), Disorders and dysfunctions of the self. Rochester Symposium on Developmental Psychopathology (Vol. 5, pp. 1–30). Rochester, NY: Rochester University Press.
Mundy, P., Hogan, A., & Doehring, P. (1994). A preliminary manual for the abridged Early Social Communication Scales. Miami, FL: Author.
Mundy, P., Kasari, C., & Sigman, M. (1992). Nonverbal communication, affective sharing, and intersubjectivity. Infant Behavior and Development 15, 377–381.Google Scholar
Mundy, P., & Neal, R. (2000). Neural plasticity, joint attention and autistic developmental pathology. In L. Glidden (Ed.), International review of research in mental retardation (Vol. 23). New York: Academic Press.
Mundy, P., & Neal, R. (2001). Neural plasticity, joint attention and a transactional social orienting model of autism. In L. Glidden (Ed.), International review of research in mental retardation. New York: Academic Press.
Mundy, P., & Sheinkopf, S. J. (1998). Early communication skill and developmental disorders. In J. Burack, R. Hodapp, & E. Zigler (Eds.), Handbook of mental retardation and development (pp. 183–207). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Mundy, P., Sigman, M., & Kasari, C. (1990). A longitudinal study of joint attention and language development in autistic children. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders 20, 115–128.Google Scholar
Mundy, P., Sigman, M., Ungerer, J., & Sherman, T. (1986). Defining the social deficits of autism: The contribution of nonverbal communication measures. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry 27, 657–669.Google Scholar
Mundy, P., & Willoughby, J. (1996). Nonverbal communication, joint attention, and early socio-emotional development. In M. Lewis & M. Sullivan (Eds.), Emotional development in atypical children (pp. 65–87). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.
Mundy, P., & Willoughby, J. (1998). Nonverbal communication, affect, and social emotional development. In A. Wetherby, S. Warren, & J. Reichle (Eds.), Transitions in prelinguistic communication: Preintentional to intentional and presymbolic to symbolic (pp. 111–134). Baltimore, MD: Brookes.
O'Brien, B. S., & Frick, P. J. (1996). Reward dominance: Associations with anxiety, conduct problems, and psychopathy in children. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology 24, 223–240.Google Scholar
Raver, C. C., & Leadbeater, B. J. (1993). The problem of other in research on theory of mind and social development. Human Development 36, 350–362.Google Scholar
Raver, C. C., & Leadbeater, B. J. (1995). Factors influencing joint attention between socioeconomically disadvantaged adolescent mothers and their infants. In C. Moore & P. J. Dunham (Eds.), Joint attention: Its origins and role in development (pp. 251–271). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
Reynell, J. K., & Gruber, C. P. (1990). Reynell Developmental Language Scales: U.S. edition. Los Angeles: Western Psychological Services.
Rheingold, H. L., Hay, D. F., & West, M. J. (1976). Sharing in the second year of life. Child Development 47, 1148–1158.Google Scholar
Richardson, G. (1998). Prenatal cocaine exposure. In J. A. Harvey & B. E. Kosofsky (Eds.), Cocaine: Effects on the developing brain (Vol. 846, pp. 144–152). New York: The New York Academy of Sciences.
Scaife, M., & Bruner, J. S. (1975). The capacity for joint visual attention in the infant. Nature 253(5489), 265–266.Google Scholar
Seibert, J. M., Hogan, A. E., & Mundy, P. C. (1982). Assessing interactional competencies: The Early Social Communication Scales. Infant Mental Health Journal 3, 244–245.Google Scholar
Sigman, M., & Ruskin, E. (1999). Continuity and change in the social competence of children with autism, Down syndrome, and developmental delays. Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development 64(5, Serial No. 256).Google Scholar
Singer, L. T., Arendt, R., Fagen, J., Minnes, S., Salvator, A., Bolek, T., & Becker, M. (1999). Neonatal visual information processing in cocaine-exposed and non-exposed infants. Infant Behavior and Development 22, 1–15.Google Scholar
Stern, D. (1985). The interpersonal world of the infant: A view from psychoanalysis and developmental psychology. New York: Basic Books.
Tomasello, M. (1995). Joint attention as social cognition. In C. Moore & P. J. Dunham (Eds.), Joint attention: Its origins and role in development (pp. 103–130). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
Tomasello, M., & Farrar, M. J. (1986). Joint attention and early language. Child Development 57, 1454–1463.Google Scholar
Tomasello, M., Kruger, A., & Ratner, H. H. (1993). Cultural learning. Behavior and Brain Sciences 16, 495–552.Google Scholar
Tronick, E. Z., & Beeghly, M. (1999). Prenatal cocaine exposure, child development, and the compromising effects of cumulative risk. Clinics in Perinatology 26, 151–171.Google Scholar
Ulvund, S. E., & Smith, L. (1996). The predictive validity of nonverbal communicative skills in infants with perinatal hazards. Infant Behavior and Development 19, 441–449.Google Scholar
Vaughan, A., Mundy, P., Block, J., Delgado, C., Gomez, Y., Meyer, J., Neal, A. R., & Pomares, Y. (2003). Child, caregiver, and temperament contributions to infant joint attention. Infancy 4, 603–616.Google Scholar
Volpe, J. J. (1992). Effect of cocaine use on the fetus. New England Journal of Medicine 327, 399–407.Google Scholar
Wachs, T. D. (1988). Relevance of physical–environment influences for toddler temperament. Infant Behavior and Development 11, 431–445.Google Scholar
Wachs, T. D., & Chan, A. (1986). Specificity of environmental action, as seen in environmental correlates of infants' communicative performance. Child Development 57, 1464–1474.Google Scholar
Wetherby, A. M., & Prutting, C. A. (1984). Profiles of communicative and cognitive social abilities in autistic children. Journal of Speech and Hearing Research 27, 367–377.Google Scholar
Yoder, P., & Warren, S. (1999). Facilitating self-initiated proto-declaratives and proto-imperatives in prelinguistic children with developmental disabilities. Journal of Early Intervention 22, 337–354.Google Scholar