| Summary: | The aim of this thesis was to investigate the relationship between early quality of care and the development of effortful control. Part 1 is a meta-analytic investigation into the relationship between observed maternal parenting and child effortful control. The paper investigates an estimate of overall effect size, the effect of publication bias and key methodological and demographic moderators of the relationship. Part 2, the empirical paper, reports a 5 year longitudinal study into the relationship between early quality of care and later effortful control. Maternal Behaviour and Dyadic Interaction were assessed at age ten months using the Coding Interactive Behaviour scales (CIB; Feldman, 1998). Effortful control was assessed at age six years using the executive attention component of the Attention Network Task (Fan, McCandliss, Sommer, Raz and Posner, 2002). This was an EEG study which included investigation into the LPC and N2 neural indices of effortful control and their relationship to early quality of care. Parent-reported effortful control was assessed using the Child Behaviour Questionnaire (CBQ), Executive Function with the Behaviour Rating Inventory of Executive Function (BRIEF) and behaviour with the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ). Part 3 provides a critical appraisal of the research process. It considers conceptual and methodological issues and the clinical utility of the research findings. This thesis was conducted jointly with Sophie Bennett.
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