Social and temperamental antecedents of young children's maladaptive social information processing in the development of internalizing and externalizing tendencies

Children's maladaptive social information processing (SIP)---including attributing hostile intentions to others and planning aggressive versus passive responses---has been shown to predict both externalizing (disruptive/aggressive) and internalizing (anxious/withdrawn) tendencies in children. But the predictors of maladaptive SIP have not been well established, and the contribution of SIP to maladaptive behaviour beyond the role of its predictors is unclear. Longitudinal data spanning the first six years of life for 910 families from the National Institute for Child Health and Human Development Study of Early Child Care were analyzed with two aims. The first aim was to examine developmental antecedents (temperament, family income, and maternal education, depression, and harshness) of maladaptive SIP in young children. Children of less educated mothers were more likely to report hostile attributions and to generate more aggressive responses, but this effect was mediated by maternal harsh parenting. Infant temperament variables, including reactivity (distress to novelty) and surgency (approach and impulsivity), were poor predictors of SIP. The second aim of the present study was to establish the role of SIP in the development of internalizing and externalizing tendencies. Externalizing tendencies were amplified in high-surgency children who also constructed aggressive responses. Externalizing tendencies were attenuated for children who consistently reported only accidental attributions of cause---rather than any hostile attributions of intent---during a preschool SIP assessment (28% of the sample). Likewise, teacher-reported internalizing tendencies were attenuated for children who attributed only accidental causes as preschoolers. Yet, for children high in temperamental reactivity, reporting only accidental attributions of cause was predictive of greater maternal-reported internalizing tendencies, whereas reporting hostile attributions of intent were predictive of fewer internalizing tendencies. The results highlight the need to examine the interactive effect of temperamental risk and children's social information processing on internalizing and externalizing tendencies in early childhood. Further research that examines the normative and pathological development of children's understanding of people's intentions and motivations is also needed, as is research on the role of maternal education and parenting in this development. Implications for prevention of childhood adjustment problems are presented.