Adult Reports of Parenting They Received Relates to Different Types of Moral Orientations

1. Adult Reports of Parenting They Received Relates to Different Types of Moral Orientations Darcia Narvaez, Ashley Lawrence, Ying Cheng, Lijuan Wang

2. Evolved Developmental Niche • “The reliable and repeatable features of stimulation and experience occurring in an organism’s developmental context” “ontogenetic niche” (West and King,1987) • the set of ecological & social circumstances typically inherited by members of a given species

6. Stunted Susceptible to illness Early death

8. Exploring the human evolved development niche How does this apply to humans?

9. Note: Adapted from Montagu, 1968, with additional info from Dettwayler, 1997; Harvey & Clutton-Brock, 1985; Konner, 2010; Trevathan, 2011; World Health Organization

10. Human babies are needy • Developmentally born 9-18 months early • 25% of adult brain volume at full-term birth (40-42 weeks) (80% by age 3) • Human babies require “exterogestation”(Montagu, 1978) • “Constructive interactionism” (Oyama, 2002)

11. What is the human Evolved Developmental Niche? • Inheritance, with slight variance, from social mammalian practices over 30 million years old • Common among small-band hunter-gatherers (99% of human genus history) Hewlett & Lamb, 2005; Konner, 2010; Narvaez, Panksepp, Schore & Gleason, 2013

12. Evolved Developmental Niche(30 million year old mammalian practices) • TOUCH: Held or kept near others constantly • RESPONSE: Prompt responses to fusses, cries and needs • BREASTFEEDING: Nursed frequently (2-3 times/hr initially) for 2-5 years • EXTENSIVE SOCIAL SUPPORT and ALLOPARENTS: Shared care by adults other than mothers • PLAY: Enjoy free play in natural world with multiage playmates • POSITIVE CLIMATE: Immersion in positive emotions • SOOTHING PERINATAL EXPERIENCES Hewlett & Lamb, 2005; Ingold, 1999; Konner, 2010; Narvaez, Panksepp, Schore & Gleason, in press)

13. Self-regulatory mechanisms affected by caregiving • Brainstem function (heart rate, respiration, attention) • Vagus nerve (affects all body systems and sociality) • Stress response (hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis) • Anxiety (glucocorticoid receptors in hippocampus) • Emotion systems (links between cortical executive functions and subcortical emotion systems) • Immune system (number and ratio of immune cells) • Neurotransmitters (number and function of serotonin, NMDA receptors)

14. Does the Evolved Developmental Niche matter? How is early experience related to MORAL functioning?

15. Early Life Sets the Stage for Social and Moral Development • Responsiveness matters! • Mutually responsive orientation(Kochanska) and secure attachment(e.g., Kochanska, 2002; Weinfield et al., 2008) • Empathy(Zahn-Waxler, Radke-Yarrow, Eisenberg) • Self-regulation(Weinfield et al., 2008) • Conscience(Kochanska) • Openness(Greenspan & Shanker, 2004) • Agency/self-efficacy/competence(Weinfield et al., 2008) How about the other evolved parenting practices?

16. Family Life Project Lijuan Wang Jennifer Lefever Ying (Alison) Cheng Tracy Gleason THANKS TO • Spencer Foundation • University of Notre Dame • College of Arts and Letters • Office of Research • Institute for Scholarship in the Liberal Arts • Department of Psychology • Members of the Moral Psychology Lab

17. Family Life Project • Longitudinal observational & maternal questionnaires and interviews from 4 to 36 months (data from the Centers for the Prevention of Child Neglect; n=636) • Maternal surveys of EDN behavior and attitudes in China (n=383) and USA (n=436) • Maternal survey of nurturing parenting attitudes USA (n=166) • Narvaez, Gleason, Wang, Brooks, Lefever, Cheng, & Centers for the Prevention of Child Neglect (2013) • Narvaez, Wang, Gleason, Cheng, Lefever, & Deng (2013); • Gleason et al. (under review)

18. Parenting Practice & Child Outcomes

19. Current Study Participants: 407 adults recruited through Amazon Turk took an online survey (Mage= 33.52; 56% male, 62% Euro-American). Dependent Variables were Triune Ethics Orientations: • ENGAGEMENT: caring, compassionate, merciful, cooperative • IMAGINATION: reflective, thoughtful, inventive, reasonable • SAFETY: controlled, tough, unyielding, competitive • BUNKER: combative tough vigilant belligerent • WALLFLOWER: submissive yielding timid unassertive Please respond to your views of how you are in SOCIAL SITUATIONS (rate 5 questions about conscious explicit goals and unconscious, socially-perceived behavior)

20. Predictor Variables Attachment (CRQ; Bartholomew & Horowitz): Secure, Preoccupied, Fearful, Dismissive Anxiety and Depression: 64-item Inventory of Depression and Anxiety Symptoms (IDAS; Watson et al., 2007) Physical Health: Health history, self rating (single items); past month (3 items). All were added. Moral Personality (Interpersonal Reactivity Index, Davis, 1983): Empathy, Perspective Taking, Personal Distress Evolved Developmental Health-History: EDN-H is a measure for adults with 15 questions about childhood experience. We use family togetherness (2 items), affection, punishment, play (3 items); supportive childhood (3 items); positive home climate, negative home climate

21. Evolved Developmental Niche-History FAMILY TOGETHERNESS (6 pt. scale) • How often did you do things together as a family outside the home (e.g., going to religious services, shows, community events, visiting parks, traveling)? • How often did you do things together as a family at home (e.g., eating together, doing chores together, playing)? AFFECTION: How often were you affectionately touched, kissed, or hugged by at least one of your parents or guardians? PUNISHMENT: Did you ever receive corporal punishment from a parent or guardian (e.g., hit, spanked, slapped, pinched)?

22. PLAY • How much did you participate in activities directed by adults (e.g., organized sports, clubs, scouting, music/dance lessons, etc.)? • How much did you play freely with other children OUTSIDE (play organized by the children; not in organized activities)? • How much did you play freely with other children INSIDE (play organized by the children; not in organized activities)?

23. Past Home Climate (PHC) IN YOUR FAMILY HOME WHEN YOU WERE A CHILD (age 0-18), please rate the emotion sets according to how frequently you felt them (6-pt) POSITIVE • JOY (Excited, Happy, Jovial, or Lively) • EXPANSIVE (Open, Playful, or Creative) • SELF-ASSURED (Proud, Confident, or Fearless) • SERENE (Calm, Relaxed, or at Ease) NEGATIVE • GRIEF (Downhearted, Sad, or Lonely) • HUMILIATION (Humiliated, Demeaned, or Shamed) • GUILT (Ashamed, Guilty, or Blameworthy) • FEAR (Dread, Tense, Nervous, or Scared) • ANGER (Angry, Hostile, Irritable, or Scornful) • NUMBNESS (Apathetic, Numb, Passive, or Shut Down)

24. Analyses • Correlations • Regressions • Mediation models

25. EDN

26. Health and interpersonal

27. Summary of Correlations • Early experience appears to influence predictors of moral functioning (secure attachment, empathic concern, perspective taking) and ethical orientation • greater EDN-consistent care was correlated with Engagement and Imagination • Generally but not always, less EDN-consistent care tended to be correlated with Safety, Bunker and Wallflower.

28. Mental and physical health were correlated with ethical orientation—better mental health was correlated with Engagement and Imagination. Worse mental health was correlated with Safety, Bunker and Wallflower. • Poor physical health was correlated only with Wallflower.

29. Regressions A regression was conducted for each ethic (Engagement, Imagination, Safety, Bunker, Wallflower), testing four models. Model 1 included childhood experiences (EDN): play (inside, outside), family togetherness (at home, out), positive and negative climate Model 2 added attachment (secure, preoccupied, fearful, dismissive) Model 3 added physical and mental health. Model 4 added interpersonal personality (empathy, perspective taking, personal distress).

30. Regression on Engagement

33. Regression on Wallflower

36. Summary of Regressions • The fourth model in each regression explained the greatest amount of variance. • For Engagement: EDN home climate; interpersonal morality (empathy, perspective taking) were significant predictors • For Wallflower: EDN home climate (lack of positive); Fearful and Dismissive attachment; poor mental health (anxiety and depression); and interpersonal reactivity (personal distress)

37. Mediation Models Predicting Engagement Empathic Concern EDN Variable Engagement Orientation Perspective Taking

38. Direct and indirect effects are significant for • Family Togetherness (at home and away) • Play (inside and outside) • Positive Home Climate • Breastfeeding

39. Discussion • Adults’ self-reported early experience (EDN) was related to the predictors of moral functioning (attachment, interpersonal orientation), to mental health, and to ethical orientations in correlations and regressions. • Initial mediation analyses indicate not only direct effects of EDN on Engagement but indirect effects (EDN mediated by empathic concern and perspective taking).

40. Conclusion • The epigenetic and developmental plasticity effects of early experience need to be closely examined for their specific influences on moral functioning.

41. Epigenetics of Moral Development

42. SAFETY

43. For more information • Darcia Narvaez (dnarvaez@nd.edu) • Webpage (download papers): http://www.nd.edu/~dnarvaez/ • My blog at Psychology Today: Moral Landscapes http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/moral-landscapes

44. 2014, W.W. Norton Series on Interpersonal Neurobiology