Polar Prints - News from the Bowdoin Child Temperament Lab
March 2005
FINISHED!
As many of you already know, we have (finally) finished the data collection phase of our study! Between April of 2002 and December 2004, we conducted 99 24-month visits, 97 30-month visits, and 95 36-month visits. We have said it many times, but let us thank you once more for your support. It has been wonderful watching your children grow up and we are honored that you cared enough about this project to make the trek to our lab several times and thoughtfully complete the stacks of questionnaires. We are truly grateful.
What now?
Although the data collection is complete, Dr. Putnam and his students will likely be working on this study for several years to come.
One huge job we have begun is the coding of the videotaped sessions. Students are working in teams to develop and use systems that quantify child behavior in the different tasks. For instance, to assess "exuberance" at 24 months, students are rating the facial joy, laughter, and activity level of the children when popping bubbles. Another team is measuring 24-month "risk taking" by observing children's willingness to jump from steps to a mattress.
In addition to coding, students in the lab have been busy in the library, becoming familiar with previous research and theory regarding topics we are addressing in the study and making predictions for our data. A few students, having completed coding and writing projects, have been able to take the next step - analyzing the data to test their predictions.
We are hopeful that the hard work in the earlier phases will soon pay off, when we begin writing more formal manuscripts that we will submit for publication.
Initial Findings
We have not yet published data from this study, but we have begun disseminating early versions of our results. Last May, Nate Smith presented "Parental Warmth and Control as Contributors to Toddler's Shyness" to the International Society for Infant Studies at a conference in Chicago. His results suggested that girls (but not boys) whose mothers were controlling at 18 months became increasingly shy during toddlerhood. Importantly, this was found whether shyness was measured in the lab or by questionnaire.
This April, Alexa Ogata will present "Parental Response to Temperament Display: Structure, Stability through Toddlerhood and Relations to Big 3 Temperament Factors" at a meeting of the Society for Research in Child Development (SRCD) in Atlanta. Her project is based on the forms parents completed during the visits. As you may recall, the questions asked parents to report how they would react when their child behaved in certain ways (e.g., when the child was angry, excited, active, etc.). Alexa has found that parents are more likely to punish and become upset by negative emotions displays of boys than of girls. In addition, whereas parents are less likely to punish negative emotions as toddlers get older, they are more likely to punish overactivity. Finally, her analyses suggest that children who are relatively low in attention focusing often have parents who become upset and punitive when their children fail to focus their attention. Alexa has applied for a summer scholarship to conduct additional analysis, and hopes to publish this work next year.
Meet the Families...
You already know something about us. We thought you might also like to know a bit about the other families that made this study possible.
Some of you could easily walk to the visits, since you live only a block or two away. Other families traveled from as far as Alna, South Portland, New Gloucester and Boothbay Harbor! As you might expect from Maine, most of the families are Caucasian, but we do have some Native-, Asian-, Hispanic-, and African-American participants. Moms range from ages 19 to 42 but most of you are around 32 years old. Dads range from 22 to 46 years of age, averaging about 35 years. As for the children, almost 50% were only children when the study began, and about 30% had only one other sibling.
What else?
Professor Putnam, his colleagues, and his students are keeping busy with other child-related projects these days.
Dr. Suzanne Lovett, the cognitive developmental psychologist at Bowdoin, is presenting two studies to SRCD this April. The first, conducted with Bowdoin graduate Abigail Perelman , examined the ways in which children's thinking about differences between living and non-living things changes between preschool and 5th grade. Her second project, carried out with another former student, Fe Vivas , investigated changes between ages 6 and 9 in the ability to distinguish between memory, comprehension, and attention.
In the past year, Dr. Putnam has published two papers, both stemming from research he conducted as a graduate student at Penn State. "Maternal Regulation of Infant Reactivity from 2 to 6 Months" (Access Full Article PDF
»), published in Developmental Psychology, found feeding to only be effective in calming infants who were moderately upset following an inoculation, whereas rocking and vocalizing were effective when infants were more upset. "Behavioral Approach-inhibition in Toddlers: Prediction from Infancy, Positive and Negative Affective Components and Relations with Behavior Problems", published in Child Development, showed that high negativity in toddlers predicted anxiety problems, whereas kids who were extremely positive and approaching were also more aggressive and destructive. Dr. Putnam is also busy with speaking engagements this spring, chairing two symposia at SRCD and delivering the keynote address to the 58th Annual Undergraduate Psychology Research Conference at Mt. Holyoke.
In March, The Bowdoin College Children's Center is hosting an Early Childhood Conference. This event, attended primarily by child care professionals in New England, features local specialists conducting workshops on topics such as promoting self-regulation in infants and toddlers and managing challenging classroom behaviors.
Not all developmental psychology research at Bowdoin is on young children. Sean Turley is currently conducting an honors project on junior high students. His preliminary findings suggest that parents who closely monitor their adolescent's whereabouts have offspring who are unlikely to develop extreme peer orientations (for instance, these kids tend not to "play dumb" to fit into a group). In addition, these children's healthy peer orientations serve as a protective factor for succumbing to negative peer pressure.
On the web!
We are currently developing a web site that should be running by late spring. On this page, you will be able to stay informed regarding the findings that are generated from the data to which you contributed, as well as future studies we conduct. When it is complete, you will be able to link to the page from Dr. Putnam's current faculty site: http://www.bowdoin.edu/faculty/s/sputnam/. You may also enjoy reading a recent write-up describing Dr. Putnam's research at http://www.bowdoin.edu/news/archives/1academicnews/001549.shtml. Finally, the lab is mentioned in an article concerning shyness in the April 4 issue of Time magazine. The story can be accessed at http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1042458,00.html.
The Future...
Professor Putnam and his students are tentatively planning multiple projects, both small and large.
Alexa Ogata is planning an honor's project she hopes to carry out over the next year concerning the role played by crawling in the emotional development. Previous research has demonstrated the importance of self-directed locomotion for fear of heights, and Alexa suspects that crawling may also be related to stranger and separation fear. If you know families with infants that will be between the ages of 4 and 12 months between June '05 and April '06, please encourage them to contact Professor Putnam (sputnam@bowdoin.edu) to learn more.
Allie Yanikoski and Sarah Clark are also developing plans for honor's projects. Both are familiar with the toddler study and are considering outcomes that could be associated with the factors we have measured. They may conduct brief follow-up visits next spring. We hope you will consider participating.
Professor Putnam is considering two different projects for which he may soon apply for funding. The first is a coordinated effort with a colleague at Washington State. Using several of the measures developed in the toddler study, he would conduct visits at 1, 2, 3, and 4 years. His colleague would see children at multiple points in the first year, then conduct the same 1- and 2-year procedures as Sam does at Bowdoin. The other project is a more in-depth exploration of links between temperament and common parenting challenges, such as eating, sleeping, and toilet training.
New Digs!
Last fall, the Psychology department moved into brand-new Kanbar Hall, located on the corner of Bath Road and Sills Drive. This wonderful new facility also houses the Education department and the Baldwin Center for academic counseling. Although we miss the character of Banister Hall, the laboratory space has been designed specifically for the research needs of the faculty, who look forward to more efficient management of their studies.