{"id":231912,"date":"2017-04-04T12:40:45","date_gmt":"2017-04-04T16:40:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/?p=231912"},"modified":"2017-04-04T12:41:33","modified_gmt":"2017-04-04T16:41:33","slug":"kids-in-stressful-environments-may-adapt-cognitive-skills-231912","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/kids-in-stressful-environments-may-adapt-cognitive-skills-231912\/","title":{"rendered":"Kids in stressful environments may adapt cognitive skills"},"content":{"rendered":"

A new study shows<\/a><\/strong> that early experiences\u00a0of\u00a0environmental harshness, in combination with personal temperament, can shape the child\u2019s problem-solving abilities later in life.<\/p>\n

Children growing up in poverty with unengaged caregivers are more likely to do poorly on standardized assessments. However, the researchers found, those children who exhibited higher levels\u00a0of\u00a0so-called hawk traits at age two became better at using problem-solving skills to obtain a blocked reward.<\/p>\n

Hawk traits describe heightened levels\u00a0of\u00a0aggression, boldness, and dominant behavior in toddlerhood.<\/p>\n

By the time they were preschoolers, these high-risk children with hawk traits performed worse on a standardized\u00a0visual problem-solving task with low motivational significance, but did significantly better on problem-solving tasks if rewards were involved.<\/p>\n

The study, conducted at the URochester\u2019s Mt. Hope Family Center,<\/a><\/strong> was recently published in the Journal\u00a0of\u00a0Child\u00a0Psychology\u00a0and Psychiatry<\/em>. Using an evolutionary\u00a0perspective, the study addresses\u00a0questions\u00a0about how and why stressful environments and children’s\u00a0temperament may interact to shape\u00a0children’s cognition.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur study supports emerging\u00a0views\u00a0that early environmental experience, in combination with temperament\u00a0characteristics,\u00a0shape\u00a0children’s cognitive functioning to focus on what is most\u00a0salient in their environments,\u201d says lead author Jennifer Suor \u201919, a PhD candidate in clinical psychology at the URochester.<\/p>\n

The multi-method study looked at 201 mother\u2013child dyads when the children were two and four\u00a0years old. At age two, environmental harshness was assessed via maternal report of earned income, and observations of the mother\u2019s disengagement during a parent\u2013child interaction task. Children’s hawk temperament traits were assessed from a series of unfamiliar episodes. At age four, the researchers measured the children’s problem-solving skills.<\/p>\n

In one task children completed a standardized visual problem-solving assessment where they re-created a block puzzle shown to them by an experimenter. In a reward-oriented problem solving task, children had to figure out how to open a transparent\u00a0box with a set of keys that contained a toy prize the child had previously picked out. However, the researchers had provided the wrong set of keys to be able to observe the children\u2019s problem-solving behaviors like strategy, how they manipulated the keys, and their level of concentration on the task.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile on average children performed similarly on problem solving tasks \u2013 the kids who had experienced greater caregiving adversity and had more hawk traits were more likely to do better on the reward problem solving tasks,\u201d explains co-author Melissa Sturge-Apple, Ä¢¹½´«Ã½ associate professor of psychology, and dean of graduate studies in arts, sciences, and engineering. \u201cThey were more persistent, tried more solutions, were more engaged.\u201d<\/p>\n

Placed in a larger evolutionary context, the findings suggest that high-risk children adapt to their stressful environment in a way that might help with survival.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen kids are faced with poverty and unengaged caregivers, they devote more energy to solving the problem which is more meaningful to them than one that isn’t,\u201d says Sturge-Apple.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvolutionary approaches to\u00a0child\u00a0development might\u00a0offer important insights into the functional significance behind developmental adaptations in cognition. Standardized cognitive\u00a0assessments, which\u00a0often\u00a0lack\u00a0direct ecological\u00a0and\u00a0motivational\u00a0significance,\u00a0may not be able to fully\u00a0capture\u00a0the specialized repertoire\u00a0of\u00a0cognitive skills\u00a0children in stressful environments have developed as a survival mechanism,\u201d explains Suor.<\/p>\n

Psychologists Melissa Sturge-Apple and Patrick Davies of the URochester, and Dante Cicchetti from\u00a0the University of Minnesota and the University\u2019s Mt. Hope Family Center co-authored the study, which was supported by grants from the National Institute of Mental Health and\u00a0the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A new study shows that early experiences of environmental harshness, in combination with personal temperament, can shape the child\u2019s problem-solving abilities later in life.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":942,"featured_media":231942,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[456],"tags":[2926,25882,2036,18572],"class_list":["post-231912","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-society-culture","tag-child-development","tag-melissa-sturge-apple","tag-mt-hope-family-center","tag-research-finding"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nKids in stressful environments may adapt cognitive skills<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/kids-in-stressful-environments-may-adapt-cognitive-skills-231912\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Kids in stressful environments may adapt cognitive skills\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A new study shows that early experiences of environmental harshness, in combination with personal temperament, can shape the child\u2019s problem-solving abilities later in life.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/kids-in-stressful-environments-may-adapt-cognitive-skills-231912\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"News Center\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-04-04T16:40:45+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2017-04-04T16:41:33+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/fea-child-cookie-cutter.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1000\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"600\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Sandra Knispel\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Sandra Knispel\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.rochester.edu\\\/newscenter\\\/kids-in-stressful-environments-may-adapt-cognitive-skills-231912\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.rochester.edu\\\/newscenter\\\/kids-in-stressful-environments-may-adapt-cognitive-skills-231912\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Sandra Knispel\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.rochester.edu\\\/newscenter\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/48a5dd20d1ade85ff52a0babb9a550a5\"},\"headline\":\"Kids in stressful environments may adapt cognitive skills\",\"datePublished\":\"2017-04-04T16:40:45+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2017-04-04T16:41:33+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.rochester.edu\\\/newscenter\\\/kids-in-stressful-environments-may-adapt-cognitive-skills-231912\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":604,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.rochester.edu\\\/newscenter\\\/kids-in-stressful-environments-may-adapt-cognitive-skills-231912\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.rochester.edu\\\/newscenter\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2017\\\/04\\\/fea-child-cookie-cutter.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"child development\",\"Melissa Sturge-Apple\",\"Mt. Hope Family Center\",\"research finding\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Society & Culture\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.rochester.edu\\\/newscenter\\\/kids-in-stressful-environments-may-adapt-cognitive-skills-231912\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.rochester.edu\\\/newscenter\\\/kids-in-stressful-environments-may-adapt-cognitive-skills-231912\\\/\",\"name\":\"Kids in stressful environments may adapt cognitive skills\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.rochester.edu\\\/newscenter\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.rochester.edu\\\/newscenter\\\/kids-in-stressful-environments-may-adapt-cognitive-skills-231912\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.rochester.edu\\\/newscenter\\\/kids-in-stressful-environments-may-adapt-cognitive-skills-231912\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.rochester.edu\\\/newscenter\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2017\\\/04\\\/fea-child-cookie-cutter.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2017-04-04T16:40:45+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2017-04-04T16:41:33+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.rochester.edu\\\/newscenter\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/48a5dd20d1ade85ff52a0babb9a550a5\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.rochester.edu\\\/newscenter\\\/kids-in-stressful-environments-may-adapt-cognitive-skills-231912\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.rochester.edu\\\/newscenter\\\/kids-in-stressful-environments-may-adapt-cognitive-skills-231912\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.rochester.edu\\\/newscenter\\\/kids-in-stressful-environments-may-adapt-cognitive-skills-231912\\\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.rochester.edu\\\/newscenter\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2017\\\/04\\\/fea-child-cookie-cutter.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.rochester.edu\\\/newscenter\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2017\\\/04\\\/fea-child-cookie-cutter.jpg\",\"width\":1000,\"height\":600,\"caption\":\"By the time they were preschoolers, high-risk children with \\\"hawk traits\\\" like heightened levels of aggression and boldness performed worse on a standardized visual problem-solving task with low motivational significance, but did significantly better on problem-solving tasks if rewards were involved.\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.rochester.edu\\\/newscenter\\\/kids-in-stressful-environments-may-adapt-cognitive-skills-231912\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.rochester.edu\\\/newscenter\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Kids in stressful environments may adapt cognitive skills\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.rochester.edu\\\/newscenter\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.rochester.edu\\\/newscenter\\\/\",\"name\":\"News Center\",\"description\":\"Ä¢¹½´«Ã½\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.rochester.edu\\\/newscenter\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.rochester.edu\\\/newscenter\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/48a5dd20d1ade85ff52a0babb9a550a5\",\"name\":\"Sandra Knispel\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.rochester.edu\\\/newscenter\\\/author\\\/sknispel\\\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Kids in stressful environments may adapt cognitive skills","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/kids-in-stressful-environments-may-adapt-cognitive-skills-231912\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Kids in stressful environments may adapt cognitive skills","og_description":"A new study shows that early experiences of environmental harshness, in combination with personal temperament, can shape the child\u2019s problem-solving abilities later in life.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/kids-in-stressful-environments-may-adapt-cognitive-skills-231912\/","og_site_name":"News Center","article_published_time":"2017-04-04T16:40:45+00:00","article_modified_time":"2017-04-04T16:41:33+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/fea-child-cookie-cutter.jpg","width":1000,"height":600,"type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Sandra Knispel","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Sandra Knispel","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/kids-in-stressful-environments-may-adapt-cognitive-skills-231912\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/kids-in-stressful-environments-may-adapt-cognitive-skills-231912\/"},"author":{"name":"Sandra Knispel","@id":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/#\/schema\/person\/48a5dd20d1ade85ff52a0babb9a550a5"},"headline":"Kids in stressful environments may adapt cognitive skills","datePublished":"2017-04-04T16:40:45+00:00","dateModified":"2017-04-04T16:41:33+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/kids-in-stressful-environments-may-adapt-cognitive-skills-231912\/"},"wordCount":604,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/kids-in-stressful-environments-may-adapt-cognitive-skills-231912\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/fea-child-cookie-cutter.jpg","keywords":["child development","Melissa Sturge-Apple","Mt. Hope Family Center","research finding"],"articleSection":["Society & Culture"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/kids-in-stressful-environments-may-adapt-cognitive-skills-231912\/","url":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/kids-in-stressful-environments-may-adapt-cognitive-skills-231912\/","name":"Kids in stressful environments may adapt cognitive skills","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/kids-in-stressful-environments-may-adapt-cognitive-skills-231912\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/kids-in-stressful-environments-may-adapt-cognitive-skills-231912\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/fea-child-cookie-cutter.jpg","datePublished":"2017-04-04T16:40:45+00:00","dateModified":"2017-04-04T16:41:33+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/#\/schema\/person\/48a5dd20d1ade85ff52a0babb9a550a5"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/kids-in-stressful-environments-may-adapt-cognitive-skills-231912\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/kids-in-stressful-environments-may-adapt-cognitive-skills-231912\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/kids-in-stressful-environments-may-adapt-cognitive-skills-231912\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/fea-child-cookie-cutter.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/fea-child-cookie-cutter.jpg","width":1000,"height":600,"caption":"By the time they were preschoolers, high-risk children with \"hawk traits\" like heightened levels of aggression and boldness performed worse on a standardized visual problem-solving task with low motivational significance, but did significantly better on problem-solving tasks if rewards were involved."},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/kids-in-stressful-environments-may-adapt-cognitive-skills-231912\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Kids in stressful environments may adapt cognitive skills"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/","name":"News Center","description":"Ä¢¹½´«Ã½","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/#\/schema\/person\/48a5dd20d1ade85ff52a0babb9a550a5","name":"Sandra Knispel","url":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/author\/sknispel\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/231912","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/942"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=231912"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/231912\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":231962,"href":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/231912\/revisions\/231962"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/231942"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=231912"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=231912"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=231912"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}