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1. Quantifying latent social motivation and its associations with joint attention and language in infants at high and low likelihood for autism spectrum disorder

   https://doi.org/10.1111/desc.13336  

   Stallworthy, Isabella C. ; Berry, Daniel ; Davis, Savannah ; Wolff, Jason J. ; Burrows, Catherine A. ; Swanson, Meghan R. ; Grzadzinski, Rebecca L. ; Botteron, Kelly ; Dager, Stephen R. ; Estes, Annette M. ; et al ( October 2022 , Developmental Science)

   Social motivation—the psychobiological predisposition for social orienting, seeking social contact, and maintaining social interaction—manifests in early infancy and is hypothesized to be foundational for social communication development in typical and atypical populations. However, the lack of infant social‐motivation measures has hindered delineation of associations between infant social motivation, other early‐arising social abilities such as joint attention, and language outcomes. To investigate how infant social motivation contributes to joint attention and language, this study utilizes a mixed longitudinal sample of 741 infants at high (HL = 515) and low (LL = 226) likelihood for ASD. Using moderated nonlinear factor analysis (MNLFA), we incorporated items from parent‐report measures to establish a novel latent factor model of infant social motivation that exhibits measurement invariance by age, sex, and familial ASD likelihood. We then examined developmental associations between 6‐ and 12‐month social motivation, joint attention at 12–15 months, and language at 24 months of age. On average, greater social‐motivation growth from 6–12 months was associated with greater initiating joint attention (IJA) and trend‐level increases in sophistication of responding to joint attention (RJA). IJA and RJA were both positively associated with 24‐month language abilities. There were no additional associations between social motivation and future language in our path model. These findings substantiate a novel, theoretically driven approach to modeling social motivation and suggest a developmental cascade through which social motivation impacts other foundational skills. These findings have implications for the timing and nature of intervention targets to support social communication development in infancy.

   We describe a novel, theoretically based model of infant social motivation wherein multiple parent‐reported indicators contribute to a unitary latent social‐motivation factor.

   Analyses revealed social‐motivation factor scores exhibited measurement invariance for a longitudinal sample of infants at high and low familial ASD likelihood.

   Social‐motivation growth from ages 6–12 months is associated with better 12−15‐month joint attention abilities, which in turn are associated with greater 24‐month language skills.

   Findings inform timing and targets of potential interventions to support healthy social communication in the first year of life.

    

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2. Neural responses to linguistic stimuli in children with and without autism spectrum disorder

   https://doi.org/10.1111/ejn.13721  

   Finch, Kayla H. ; Tager‐Flusberg, Helen ; Nelson, Charles A. ( October 2017 , European Journal of Neuroscience)

   Atypical neural responses to language have been found in toddlers with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and in their unaffected siblings. However, given that language difficulties are often seen in these children, it is difficult to interpret whether these neural differences are a result of the diagnosis ofASDor impairments in their language abilities. In this study, we recorded event‐related potentials (ERPs) from four groups of 36‐month‐olds: low‐risk control (LRC), high risk forASDdefined as having an older sibling withASD(HRA) but who do not haveASDor milder autism‐like symptoms (HRA‐Typ),HRAchildren who do not haveASDbut exhibit milder autism‐like symptoms (HRA‐Atyp) andHRAchildren diagnosed withASD(ASD). Children listened to words expected to be acquired early (e.g. ball) and words expected to be acquired late (e.g. calf).ERPs were analysed over time windows sensitive to word processing as well as frontal and temporo‐parietal sites over the left and right hemispheres. When controlling for language abilities, there were group differences within the temporo‐parietal sites. Specifically, theHRA‐Atyp group showed a different timed response to late words compared to theASDandLRCgroups. In addition, we found a relation between neural responses in the left frontal sites andASDseverity. Our results suggest that both language abilities andASDdiagnoses are important to consider when interpreting neural differences in lexical processing.

    

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3. Latinx adolescents’ school-related science conversations with family members: Associations with adolescents’ science expectancy-value beliefs in high school

   https://doi.org/10.1080/10888691.2022.2045201  

   Tulagan, Nestor B. ; Puente, Kayla ; Simpkins, Sandra D. ( July 2022 , Applied Developmental Science)

   Integrating situated expectancy-value and family systems theories, the current study tested the extent to which Latinx adolescents’ 9th-grade school-related science conversations with parents and older siblings/cousins positively predicted their 10th-grade science ability selfconcepts and task values. We also tested whether these links were moderated by who primarily initiated the conversations (i.e., adolescents, family members, or both). We used two wave, multi-reporter survey data from 104 Latinx families, consisting of triads of parents, older siblings/cousins, and adolescents (89% Mexican-descent, 40% female; Mage¼ 14.53 years). Partially supporting our hypotheses, parent-adolescent school-related science conversations predicted adolescents’ 10th-grade science ability self-concepts. Moreover, the links between parent-adolescent conversations and science ability self-concepts and task values were positive and significant when parents more frequently initiated conversations than adolescents. Similar but weaker associations were found for sibling/ cousin-adolescent school-related science conversations. These findings underscore the motivational benefits of family members initiating school-related science conversations with Latinx adolescents. 

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4. Longitudinal and Concurrent Effortful Control as Predictors of Risky Bicycling in Adolescence: Moderating Effects of Age and Gender

   https://doi.org/10.1093/jpepsy/jsad095  

   Kim, Nam-Yoon ; Plumert, Jodie M. ; Kearney, Joseph K. ; Clark, Lee Anna ; Dindo, Lilian ; O’Neal, Elizabeth E. ( December 2023 , Journal of Pediatric Psychology)

   Collisions between bicycles and motor vehicles are one of the leading risk factors for injury and death in childhood and adolescence. We examined longitudinal and concurrent effortful control (EC) as predictors of risky bicycling behavior in early- to mid-adolescence, with age and gender as moderators. We also examined whether EC was associated with parent-reported real-world bicycling behavior and all lifetime unintentional injuries.

   Parent-reported EC measures were collected when children (N = 85) were 4 years old and when they were either 10 years (N = 42) or 15 years (N = 43) old. We assessed risky bicycling behavior by asking the adolescents to bicycle across roads with high-density traffic in an immersive virtual environment. Parents also reported on children’s real-world bicycling behavior and lifetime unintentional injuries at the time of the bicycling session.

   We found that both longitudinal and concurrent EC predicted adolescents’ gap choices, though these effects were moderated by age and gender. Lower parent-reported early EC in younger and older girls predicted a greater willingness to take tight gaps (3.5 s). Lower parent-reported concurrent EC in older boys predicted a greater willingness to take gaps of any size. Children lower in early EC started bicycling earlier and were rated as less cautious bicyclists as adolescents. Adolescents lower in concurrent EC were also rated as less cautious bicyclists and had experienced more lifetime unintentional injuries requiring medical attention.

   Early measures of child temperament may help to identify at-risk populations who may benefit from parent-based interventions.

    

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5. Responding to joint attention as a developmental catalyst: Longitudinal associations with language and social responsiveness

   https://doi.org/10.1111/infa.12515  

   Lasch, Carolyn ; Carlson, Stephanie M. ; Elison, Jed T. ( November 2022 , Infancy)

   Joint attention (JA), infants' ability to engage in triadic attention with another person and a separate object or event, emerges in infancy. Responding to joint attention (RJA) develops earlier than initiating joint attention (IJA) and may benefit from a reconceptualization from a competence to a skill that varies in performance. Investigating associations between RJA performance and important skills of toddlerhood such as language, social responsiveness, and executive function (EF) in typically developing samples can better elucidate how RJA may serve as a developmental precursor to later dimensional skills, with implications for both typical and atypical development. Here, 210 (82% White) infants completed the Dimensional Joint Attention Assessment (DJAA), a naturalistic play‐based assessment of RJA, at 8–15 months. At 16–38 months social responsiveness, verbal ability, and EF were assessed. Multilevel models showed that DJAA scores were associated with later verbal abilities and parent‐reported social responsiveness. Exploratory analyses showed trend‐level associations between RJA and EF. Results establish the content validity of the DJAA as a measure of RJA, and longitudinal associations with later verbal ability and social responsiveness. Future work should examine EF emergence and consolidation, and RJA and later EF associations.

    

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