Anne Kupfer

• Arizona State University

“Are you LISTENING?” may be one of the most frequent questions preschoolers hear from their parents and teachers, but can children be taught to listen carefully—and thus better comprehend language—and if so, what changes occur in their brains? Twenty-seven four- and five-year-old children were taught a language simulation strategy to use while list...

Might dialogic reading require previous or concurrent embodied activities to be effective? Twenty-nine preschool children, ages 3–5 years, were randomly assigned to the control condition (children listened to a story eight times), the dialogic-then-embodied condition (children engaged in dialogic reading for four readings and then embodied action w...

An important part of children's social and cognitive development is their understanding that people are psychological beings with internal, mental states including desire, intention, perception, and belief. A full understanding of people as psychological beings requires a representational theory of mind (ToM), which is an understanding that mental...

This study assessed children's (N = 236) ability to introspect the mental states of seeing and knowing relative to their ability to attribute each state to others. Children could introspect seeing 10 months before they could introspect knowing. Two- and 3-year-olds correctly reported their own seeing states, whereas 3- and 4-year-olds correctly rep...

. Recent research has pointed to the benefits of positive emotions and their appropriate modulation in buffering the impact of negative experience, and in promoting well-being. Two studies examined the psychometric properties of a new scale that was designed to assess perceived self-efficacy in using memories of positive emotional experiences and h...

The goal of this study was to test if both effortful control (EC) and impulsivity, a reactive index of temperament, uniquely predict adolescents' academic achievement, concurrently and longitudinally (Time 1: N = 168, x- age = 12 years). At Time 1, parents and teachers reported on students' EC and impulsivity. At both time points, spaced 2 years ap...

Despite evidence for the importance of individual differences in expressive language during toddlerhood in predicting later literacy skills, few researchers have examined individual and contextual factors related to language abilities across the toddler years. Furthermore, a gap remains in the literature about the extent to which the relations of n...

Reports an error in "Interactions between serotonin transporter gene haplotypes and quality of mothers' parenting predict the development of children's noncompliance" by Michael J. Sulik, Nancy Eisenberg, Kathryn Lemery-Chalfant, Tracy L. Spinrad, Kassondra M. Silva, Natalie D. Eggum, Jennifer A. Betkowski, Anne Kupfer, Cynthia L. Smith, Bridget Ga...

Stability and change in mother-adolescent conflict reactions (CRs) and the prediction of CRs from adolescents' earlier behavior problems (and vice versa) were examined with 131 mothers and their adolescents (63 boys). Dyads engaged in a 6-minute conflict discussion twice, 2 years apart (M age was 13 at Time 1 (T1). Nonverbal expressive and verbal C...

Resting respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) and shyness were examined as predictors of effortful control (EC) in a sample of 101 preschool-age children. Resting RSA was calculated from respiration and heart rate data collected during a neutral film; shyness was measured using parents', preschool teachers', and classroom observers' reports; and EC wa...

Five studies document the validity of a new 8-item scale designed to measure positivity, defined as the tendency to view life and experiences with a positive outlook. In the first study (N = 372), the psychometric properties of Positivity Scale (P Scale) were examined in accordance with classical test theory using a large number of college particip...

The LPR and STin2 polymorphisms of the serotonin transporter gene (SLC6A4) were combined into haplotypes that, together with quality of maternal parenting, were used to predict initial levels and linear change in children's ( N = 138) noncompliance and aggression from age 18–54 months. Quality of mothers' parenting behavior was observed when childr...

In a sample (n = 235) of 30-, 42-, and 54-month-olds, the relations among parenting, effortful control (EC), impulsivity, and children's committed compliance were examined. Parenting was assessed with mothers' observed sensitivity and warmth; EC was measured by mothers' and caregivers' reports, as well as a behavioral task; impulsivity was assessed...

RESEARCH FINDINGS: The purpose of this study was to examine the relations of children's effortful control and quality of relationships with teachers to school attitudes longitudinally in an ethnically diverse and economically disadvantaged sample. Data were collected as part of a larger intervention project during mid-fall, winter, and late spring...

Research Findings: The purpose of this study was to test the premise that children's effortful control (EC) is prospectively related to their academic achievement and to specify mechanisms through which EC is related to academic success. We used data from 214 children (M age at Time 1 [T1] = 73 months) to test whether social functioning (e.g., soci...

Data were collected when children were 42, 54, and 72 months of age (Ns = 210, 191, and 172 for T1, T2, and T3, respectively). Children's emotion understanding (EU) and theory of mind (ToM) were examined as predictors of children's prosocial orientation within and across time. EU positively related to children's sympathy across 2.5 years, and T1 EU...

Indices of physiological regulation (i.e., resting respiratory sinus arrhythmia [RSA] and RSA suppression) and observed fearfulness were tested as predictors of empathy-related reactions to an unfamiliar person's simulated distress within and across 18 (T1, N = 247) and 30 (T2, N = 216) months of age. Controlling for T1 helping, high RSA suppressio...

Findings on the relation of maternal verbal teaching strategies to children's effortful control (EC; i.e., self-regulation) are limited in quantity and somewhat inconsistent. In this study, children's EC was assessed at 18, 30, and 42 months (ns = 255, 229, and 209, respectively) with adults' reports and a behavioral measure. Mothers' verbal teachi...

The relations of control/regulation-related temperamentally based dispositions (effortful control (EC), impulsivity, and approach/avoidance) to externalizing problems and personality ego resiliency were examined in a sample of 467 children (M age = 7.46 years), some of whom were children of alcoholics (COAs). In addition, we examined if the relatio...

In a sample of 18-, 30-, and 42-month-olds, the relations among parenting, effortful control (EC), and maladjustment were examined. Parenting was assessed with mothers' reports and observations; EC was measured with mothers' and caregivers' reports, as well as a behavioral task; and externalizing and internalizing symptoms were assessed with parent...

The Perceived Empathic Self-Efficacy Scale (PESE) and the Perceived Social Self-Efficacy Scale (PSSE) were developed to assess, respectively, individuals’ self-efficacy beliefs regarding both empathic responding to others’ needs or feelings and managing interpersonal relationships. In this study of young adults, a unidimensional factorial structure...

Measurement invariance of a one-factor model of effortful control (EC) was tested for 853 low-income preschoolers (M age = 4.48 years). Using a teacher-report questionnaire and seven behavioral measures, configural invariance (same factor structure across groups), metric invariance (same pattern of factor loadings across groups), and partial scalar...

We examined the relations of 84 preschoolers' (43 boys; mean age=54 months) situational stress reactivity to their observed emotions and mothers' reports of temperament and adjustment. Salivary cortisol and salivary alpha-amylase (sAA) were collected prior to, and following, a frustrating task. Children's anger, sadness, and positive affect were me...

Relations of avoidant personality disorder (AvPD) with shyness and inhibition suggest that a precursor of AvPD is withdrawal. Using a sample of 4.5- to 7-year-olds studied four times, 2 years apart, four and three classes of children differing in trajectories of mother- and teacher-reported withdrawal, respectively, were identified. Mothers and tea...

Adjunctive or induced behavior is generated during a variety of schedules of reinforcement. Several theoretical conceptualizations suggest that rate of reinforcement is the primary variable controlling the strength or levels of induced behavior. The operant response requirement within the schedule context has not been extensively studied as a deter...

The relations of children's (n = 214 at Time 1; M age = 6 years at Time 1) dispositional sympathy to adult-reported and behavioral measures of effortful control (EC) and impulsivity were examined in a longitudinal study including five assessments, each two years apart. Especially for boys, relatively high levels of EC and growth in EC were related...

The authors examined the relations of maternal supportive parenting to effortful control and internalizing problems (i.e., separation distress, inhibition to novelty), externalizing problems, and social competence when toddlers were 18 months old (n = 256) and a year later (n = 230). Mothers completed the Coping With Toddlers' Negative Emotions Sca...

The relations of children's coping strategies and coping efficacy to parent socialization and child adjustment were examined in a sample of school-age children that included families in which some of the grandparents and/or parents had an alcoholism diagnosis. Parents and older children reported on the children's coping strategies; parents reported...

A scientific understanding of human behavior has progressed to the point where corporal punishment is no longer necessary in child rearing. Children's behavior can be shaped with reinforcement and non-corporal punishment. Progress toward establishing these socially acceptable approaches has been slowed because of a lack of distinction among three d...

Despite being commonplace in American households a generation ago, corporal punishment of children has been subjected to criticism and shifting attitudes in recent years. Many school districts have banned it, and many child advocates recommend that parents no longer spank or strike their children. This book taps into the expertise of social science...