Cioffi, C. C., Leve, L. D., Natsuaki, M. N., Shaw, D. S., Reiss, D., & Neiderhiser, J. N. (2020). Does parental warmth moderate longitudinal associations between infant attention control and children’s inhibitory control? Infant and Child Development, 29, e2147.

Attention control (AC) plays an important role in the development of inhibitory control (IC) in children, yet there are few longitudinal studies of this association. This research tested whether maternal warmth at child age 27 months moderated the link between AC during infancy and IC during childhood. Associations were examined within a prospective adoption design (n = 361 children). Tobit regression analyses indicated low levels of infant AC at 9 months predicted low levels of IC at 6 years, controlling for birth parent IC, prenatal risk, infant temperament, child sex, and openness of adoption. Adoptive mother warmth at 27 months moderated this association. In the context of low levels of maternal warmth, low levels of infant AC predicted low IC.