Abstract(s)
A growing body of theoretical and empirical work has been attempting to answer the questions of how and how much of the effects of
children’s early experience may depend on their inner characteristics. Theory and evidence suggest that some children, notably those with
difficult temperaments, are more susceptible to both negative and positive aspects of parenting. The purpose of the current study was to
investigate whether child temperament moderated the links between the quality of mother-infant interactions, observed when children
were 1 year of age, and two components of child executive functioning (EF) at 3 years, namely impulse control and conflict EF, among
74 mother–child dyads. The results were consistent with the notion that children with more difficult temperaments may be more susceptible
to maternal behaviors than children with less difficult temperaments, but only regarding the development of impulse control abilities.
There was no clear evidence of such moderation for conflict EF. These results support the idea that distinct mechanisms may underlie the
development of different dimensions of child EF.