Michael T Willoughby
Biographic Data
| ID | 4223441 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Michael T Willoughby |
| GIVEN NAMES | Michael T |
| FAMILY NAME | Willoughby |
| SIGNATURE | WILLOUGHBY M T |
| AFFILIATIONS | RTI International |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-8470-3533 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 44 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 236 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 44 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2006 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 8 |
Prenatal Sleep Quality, Neonatal Brain Volume, and Infant Emotion at 6 Months of Age
Although pregnancy‐related sleep disturbances are known to affect maternal health and fetal development, only recently have studies focused on the impact of maternal sleep quality on fetal brain development and infant social‐emotional outcomes. The present study expands upon this work and examines associations between prenatal sleep, brain regions implicated in emotional regulation and psychopathology (hippocampus and amygdala), and infant negati…
Predictive Relations Between Early Adversity, Nonlinear Trajectories of Hypothalamic–Pituitary–Adrenal Axis Functioning, and Later Callous-Unemotional Traits
The interplay between family routines and aggressive parenting in predicting externalizing problems during the transition to primary school
The transition to primary school is a critical period when individual differences in children's behavioral adjustment become increasingly evident and predict long-term academic and psychosocial outcomes. This study sought to understand the interplay between two aspects of family functioning-family routines and aggressive parenting behaviors-in predicting children's externalizing problems from preschool to the first grade and to test whether at-ri…
Testing the feasibility and utility of an executive function battery for use with primary school-aged students in Malawi
There is increasing evidence that malaria impacts student educational outcomes, in part through impairments in cognitive function. Currently, there is no consensus with regards to standardized tools or approaches to assess the extent and magnitude of this association. We conducted a pilot study to assess the feasibility and utility of a well-established tablet-based battery of executive function (EF) tasks for primary school-aged children in Mala…
An introduction to inverse probability weighting and marginal structural models: The case of environmental tobacco exposure and attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder behaviors
Developmental scientists routinely examine how a focal predictor relates to some aspect of children's development. Although covariate adjustment is typically used to test hypotheses, propensity score-based methods, including inverse probability of treatment weighting (IPTW) and marginal structural models (MSM), can strengthen inference and answer more nuanced, developmentally relevant questions. This article provides a didactic introduction to IP…
A Comparison of Three Executive Function Batteries in a Preschool-Aged Sample
There is great interest in the development of executive function (EF) in the preschool period. Accordingly, multiple performance-based measures of EF have been developed for this age group, yet little is known about how they compare to one another. This study used a large and diverse sample of 3-to-5-year-old children ( N = 846), who completed subtests of the National Institutes of Health's Toolbox Cognition Battery (NTCB), the Wechsler Preschool…
Airborne Lead Exposure and Childhood Cognition: The Environmental Influences on Child Health Outcomes (Echo) Cohort (2003–2022)
Objectives. To examine whether a previously reported association between airborne lead exposure and children’s cognitive function replicates across a geographically diverse sample of the United States. Methods. Residential addresses of children ( Results. An IQR increase in airborne lead was associated with a 0.74-point lower mean IQ score (b = −0.74; 95% confidence interval = −1.00, −0.48). The association between lead and EF was nonlinear and w…
Contributions of motor skill development and physical activity to the ontogeny of executive function skills in early childhood
Profiles of family-based social experiences in the first 3 years predict early cognitive, behavioral, and socioemotional competencies
This study utilized latent profile analyses to identify unique configurations of children's family-based social experiences during the first 3 years of life and examine differences across profiles with respect to developmental outcomes at 36 and 48 months of age. Seven family process variables were used: maternal emotional functioning, maternal sensitivity, negative controlling parenting, cognitive stimulation, corporal punishment, adult-adult ag…
Early maternal language input and classroom instructional quality in relation to children’s literacy trajectories from pre-kindergarten through fifth grade
Both early childhood maternal language input and the quality of classroom instruction in elementary school have been shown to be important environmental supports in predicting children's literacy skill development. However, no studies have simultaneously examined these two environmental supports in relation to children's early language skills and later literacy skills across elementary school. The current study examined how multiple years of earl…
Proximity to sources of airborne lead is associated with reductions in Children's executive function in the first four years of life
Improvements in motor competence skills are associated with improvements in executive function and math problem-solving skills in early childhood
Efforts to increase moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) in school-age children are associated with improved health, cognitive, and academic outcomes. However, questions remain about whether similar benefits are observed in early childhood. We hypothesized that motor competence, not MVPA, would be related to improved cognitive and academic skill development in early childhood. For this study, 283 children were recruited from 13 community…
Prenatal Risk Predicts Preschooler Executive Function: A Cascade Model
Little research has considered whether prenatal experience contributes to executive function (EF) development above and beyond postnatal experience. This study tests direct, mediated, and moderated associations between prenatal risk factors and preschool EF and IQ in a longitudinal sample of 1,292 children from the Family Life Project. A composite of prenatal risk factors (i.e., low birth weight, prematurity, maternal emotional problems, maternal…
How Early Maternal Language Input Varies by Race and Education and Predicts Later Child Language
The maternal language input literature suggests that mothers with more education use a greater quantity and complexity of language with their young children compared to mothers with less education although race and socioeconomic status have been confounded in most studies because of small sample sizes. The current Family Life study included a representative sample of 1,292 children, oversampling for poverty and African American, followed from bir…
Infant and Toddler Child-Care Quality and Stability in Relation to Proximal and Distal Academic and Social Outcomes
This study considered the quality and stability of infant and toddler nonparental child care from 6 to 36 months in relation to language, social, and academic skills measured proximally at 36 months and distally at kindergarten. Quality was measured separately as caregiver–child verbal interactions and caregiver sensitivity, and stability was measured as having fewer sequential child-care caregivers. This longitudinal examination involved a subsa…
Measurement models for studying child executive functioning: Questioning the status quo
83.5 months) data from the Family Life Project (N = 920), we also investigate the implications of measurement model specification for the interpretation of study findings. Children in this sample varied in terms of sex (49% male), race (43% black) and socioeconomic status (76% low-income). Our findings show that the conclusions we draw from 2 substantive analyses differ depending on whether EF is modeled as a reflective latent variable versus a c…
A Pilot Study of Emotional Response to Time-Out in Children With Conduct Problems and Callous-Unemotional Traits
Little research has examined how children with conduct problems and concurrent callous-unemotional traits (CPCU) emotionally and behaviorally respond to time-out. This pilot study examined the distribution and stability of emotions during time-out as well as the association between emotions and negative behaviors. Participants were 11 children ( M age = 9.8 years) with CPCU who participated in a summer treatment program designed specifically for …
Examining linguistic interactions of dual language learners using the Language Interaction Snapshot (LISn)
Testing longitudinal associations between executive function and academic achievement
Children with higher levels of executive function (EF) skills consistently demonstrate higher levels of academic achievement. Despite the consistency of these associations, fundamental questions remain about whether efforts to improve an individual child's EF skills result in corresponding improvements in his or her academic performance. In the absence of experimental evidence, developmentalists have used repeated measures designs to test the nat…
Testing the association between physical activity and executive function skills in early childhood
Maternal depressive symptoms, mother-child interactions, and children’s executive function
This study examined the independent and mediated associations between maternal depression symptoms (MDS), mother-child interaction, and child executive function (EF) in a prospective longitudinal sample of 1,037 children (50% boys) from predominantly low-income and rural communities. When children were 6, 15 and 24 months of age, mothers reported their level of depressive symptomatology. At 24 and 36 months of age, mother-child interactions durin…
On the Practical Interpretability of Cross-Lagged Panel Models: Rethinking a Developmental Workhorse
Reciprocal feedback processes between experience and development are central to contemporary developmental theory. Autoregressive cross-lagged panel (ARCL) models represent a common analytic approach intended to test such dynamics. The authors demonstrate that—despite the ARCL model's intuitive appeal—it typically (a) fails to align with the theoretical processes that it is intended to test and (b) yields estimates that are difficult to interpret…
Emotion Recognition Deficits among Children with Conduct Problems and Callous-Unemotional Behaviors
Early education of dual language learners: An efficacy study of the Nuestros Niños School Readiness professional development program
Callous-Unemotional Traits Among Adolescents with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD): Associations with Parenting
Poverty as a predictor of 4-year-olds' executive function: New perspectives on models of differential susceptibility
In a predominantly low-income, population-based longitudinal sample of 1,259 children followed from birth, results suggest that chronic exposure to poverty and the strains of financial hardship were each uniquely predictive of young childrenâ s performance on measures of executive functioning. Results suggest that temperament-based vulnerability serves as a statistical moderator of the link between poverty-related risk and childrenâ s executive f…
Predictors of behavioral regulation in kindergarten: Household chaos, parenting, and early executive functions
Behavioral regulation is an important school readiness skill that has been linked to early executive function (EF) and later success in learning and school achievement. Although poverty and related risks, as well as negative parenting, have been associated with poorer EF and behavioral regulation, chaotic home environments may also play a role in understanding both early EF and later behavioral regulation at school age. To explore these relations…
Chaos, poverty, and parenting: Predictors of early language development
Household chaos and children’s cognitive and socio-emotional development in early childhood: Does childcare play a buffering role
Executive function mediates socio-economic and racial differences in early academic achievement
Maternal and child contributions to cortisol response to emotional arousal in young children from low-income, rural communities
Relations of maternal and child characteristics to child cortisol reactivity to and recovery from emotional arousal were examined prospectively at approximately 7 months of age (infancy) and then again at approximately 15 months of age (toddlerhood). The sample was diverse and population based (N = 1,292 mother-infant dyads) and included families from predominantly low-income, rural communities. Maternal behavior, family income-to-need ratio and …
Testing longitudinal associations between executive function and academic achievement
Children with higher levels of executive function (EF) skills consistently demonstrate higher levels of academic achievement. Despite the consistency of these associations, fundamental questions remain about whether efforts to improve an individual child's EF skills result in corresponding improvements in his or her academic performance. In the absence of experimental evidence, developmentalists have used repeated measures designs to test the nat…
The role of household chaos in understanding relations between early poverty and children’s academic achievement
Examining linguistic interactions of dual language learners using the Language Interaction Snapshot (LISn)
Early education of dual language learners: An efficacy study of the Nuestros Niños School Readiness professional development program
Child care and cortisol across early childhood: Context matters
A considerable body of literature suggests that children's child-care experiences may impact adrenocortical functioning in early childhood. Yet emerging findings also suggest that the magnitude and sometimes the direction of child-care effects on development may be markedly different for children from higher risk contexts. Using data from a large population-based sample of families from predominantly low-income backgrounds in rural communities, w…
Attention‐deficit/hyperactivity disorder and callous‐unemotional traits as moderators of conduct problems when examining impairment and aggression in elementary school children
Examined whether attention‐deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and callous‐unemotional (CU) traits moderate the association between conduct problems (CPs) and impairment and aggression. Participants were 214 children who were rated by their elementary school classroom teachers. Results indicated that the association between CP and impairment and aggressive outcomes is almost always moderated by ADHD and/or CU. Moreover, in many instances, the a…
The Parent Opinion Questionnaire and Child Vignettes for Use with Abusive Parents: Assessment of Psychometric Properties
Profiles of family-based social experiences in the first 3 years predict early cognitive, behavioral, and socioemotional competencies
This study utilized latent profile analyses to identify unique configurations of children's family-based social experiences during the first 3 years of life and examine differences across profiles with respect to developmental outcomes at 36 and 48 months of age. Seven family process variables were used: maternal emotional functioning, maternal sensitivity, negative controlling parenting, cognitive stimulation, corporal punishment, adult-adult ag…
Proximity to sources of airborne lead is associated with reductions in Children's executive function in the first four years of life
Measurement models for studying child executive functioning: Questioning the status quo
83.5 months) data from the Family Life Project (N = 920), we also investigate the implications of measurement model specification for the interpretation of study findings. Children in this sample varied in terms of sex (49% male), race (43% black) and socioeconomic status (76% low-income). Our findings show that the conclusions we draw from 2 substantive analyses differ depending on whether EF is modeled as a reflective latent variable versus a c…
Testing the association between physical activity and executive function skills in early childhood
Maternal depressive symptoms, mother-child interactions, and children’s executive function
This study examined the independent and mediated associations between maternal depression symptoms (MDS), mother-child interaction, and child executive function (EF) in a prospective longitudinal sample of 1,037 children (50% boys) from predominantly low-income and rural communities. When children were 6, 15 and 24 months of age, mothers reported their level of depressive symptomatology. At 24 and 36 months of age, mother-child interactions durin…
Parenting and children’s representations of family predict disruptive and callous-unemotional behaviors
Data from a large prospective longitudinal study (n = 1,239) was used to investigate the association between observed sensitive parenting in early childhood and children's representations of family relationships as measured by the Family Drawing Paradigm (FDP) in first grade as well as the extent to which these representations partially mediate the influences of early caregiving experiences on later conduct problems and callous-unemotional behavi…
Early childcare, executive functioning, and the moderating role of early stress physiology
Intervention studies indicate that children's childcare experiences can be leveraged to support the development of executive functioning (EF). The role of more normative childcare experiences is less clear. Increasingly, theory and empirical work suggest that individual differences in children's physiological stress systems may be associated with meaningful differences in the way they experience these early environments. Using data from a large p…
Predicting teacher participation in a classroom-based, integrated preventive intervention for preschoolers
An Evaluation of the Psychometric Properties and Criterion Validity of the Religious Social Support Scale
This study evaluates the psychometric properties and criterion validity of the Religious Social Support (RSS) Scale in a diverse, representative community sample of new mothers (N= 1,156). Results indicated that two factors best represented the RSS. Criterion validity was established by demonstrating that the RSS was associated with relational and health outcomes. However, these associations were reduced to statistical insignificance once a gener…
Internal Employability as a Strategy for Key Employee Retention
Economies the world over and particularly those in southern Europe, are suffering the crippling effects of the extremely complex economic and financial crisis. This study looks at the impact of certain human resource policies geared towards increasing internal employability as a means of retaining valued employees and promoting job flexibility within the firm, as well as increasing positive attitudes towards organizational citizenship. Satisfacti…
Airborne Lead Exposure and Childhood Cognition: The Environmental Influences on Child Health Outcomes (Echo) Cohort (2003–2022)
Objectives. To examine whether a previously reported association between airborne lead exposure and children’s cognitive function replicates across a geographically diverse sample of the United States. Methods. Residential addresses of children ( Results. An IQR increase in airborne lead was associated with a 0.74-point lower mean IQ score (b = −0.74; 95% confidence interval = −1.00, −0.48). The association between lead and EF was nonlinear and w…
Improvements in motor competence skills are associated with improvements in executive function and math problem-solving skills in early childhood
Efforts to increase moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) in school-age children are associated with improved health, cognitive, and academic outcomes. However, questions remain about whether similar benefits are observed in early childhood. We hypothesized that motor competence, not MVPA, would be related to improved cognitive and academic skill development in early childhood. For this study, 283 children were recruited from 13 community…
The Parent Opinion Questionnaire and Child Vignettes for Use with Abusive Parents: Assessment of Psychometric Properties
Neurobehavioral Consequences of Prenatal Exposure to Smoking at 6 to 8 Months of Age
Between 400,000 and 800,000 infants are born in the United States each year to women who smoked cigarettes during their pregnancy. Whereas the physical health consequences to infants of prenatal exposure to smoking are well established, the early neurobehavioral consequences are less well understood. This study investigated the neurobehavioral consequences of prenatal exposure to smoking using an epidemiologically derived sample of 454 infants wh…
Understanding Breastfeeding Initiation and Continuation in Rural Communities: A Combined Qualitative/Quantitative Approach
Attention‐deficit/hyperactivity disorder and callous‐unemotional traits as moderators of conduct problems when examining impairment and aggression in elementary school children
Examined whether attention‐deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and callous‐unemotional (CU) traits moderate the association between conduct problems (CPs) and impairment and aggression. Participants were 214 children who were rated by their elementary school classroom teachers. Results indicated that the association between CP and impairment and aggressive outcomes is almost always moderated by ADHD and/or CU. Moreover, in many instances, the a…
Maternal and child contributions to cortisol response to emotional arousal in young children from low-income, rural communities
Relations of maternal and child characteristics to child cortisol reactivity to and recovery from emotional arousal were examined prospectively at approximately 7 months of age (infancy) and then again at approximately 15 months of age (toddlerhood). The sample was diverse and population based (N = 1,292 mother-infant dyads) and included families from predominantly low-income, rural communities. Maternal behavior, family income-to-need ratio and …
An Evaluation of the Psychometric Properties and Criterion Validity of the Religious Social Support Scale
This study evaluates the psychometric properties and criterion validity of the Religious Social Support (RSS) Scale in a diverse, representative community sample of new mothers (N= 1,156). Results indicated that two factors best represented the RSS. Criterion validity was established by demonstrating that the RSS was associated with relational and health outcomes. However, these associations were reduced to statistical insignificance once a gener…
Predicting teacher participation in a classroom-based, integrated preventive intervention for preschoolers
Salivary Cortisol Mediates Effects of Poverty and Parenting on Executive Functions in Early Childhood
In a predominantly low-income population-based longitudinal sample of 1,292 children followed from birth, higher level of salivary cortisol assessed at ages 7, 15, and 24 months was uniquely associated with lower executive function ability and to a lesser extent IQ at age 3 years. Measures of positive and negative aspects of parenting and household risk were also uniquely related to both executive functions and IQ. The effect of positive parentin…
Chaos, poverty, and parenting: Predictors of early language development
Executive function in early childhood: Longitudinal measurement invariance and developmental change.
This study tested the longitudinal measurement invariance and developmental changes of a newly developed battery of executive function (EF) tasks for use in early childhood. The battery was administered in the Family Life Project-a prospective longitudinal study (N = 1,292) of families who were oversampled from low-income and African American families at the birth of a new child-at assessments conducted when the child was 3, 4, and 5 years old. A…
Executive function mediates socio-economic and racial differences in early academic achievement
Poverty as a predictor of 4-year-olds' executive function: New perspectives on models of differential susceptibility
In a predominantly low-income, population-based longitudinal sample of 1,259 children followed from birth, results suggest that chronic exposure to poverty and the strains of financial hardship were each uniquely predictive of young childrenâ s performance on measures of executive functioning. Results suggest that temperament-based vulnerability serves as a statistical moderator of the link between poverty-related risk and childrenâ s executive f…
Internal Employability as a Strategy for Key Employee Retention
Economies the world over and particularly those in southern Europe, are suffering the crippling effects of the extremely complex economic and financial crisis. This study looks at the impact of certain human resource policies geared towards increasing internal employability as a means of retaining valued employees and promoting job flexibility within the firm, as well as increasing positive attitudes towards organizational citizenship. Satisfacti…
Child care and cortisol across early childhood: Context matters
A considerable body of literature suggests that children's child-care experiences may impact adrenocortical functioning in early childhood. Yet emerging findings also suggest that the magnitude and sometimes the direction of child-care effects on development may be markedly different for children from higher risk contexts. Using data from a large population-based sample of families from predominantly low-income backgrounds in rural communities, w…
Early childcare, executive functioning, and the moderating role of early stress physiology
Intervention studies indicate that children's childcare experiences can be leveraged to support the development of executive functioning (EF). The role of more normative childcare experiences is less clear. Increasingly, theory and empirical work suggest that individual differences in children's physiological stress systems may be associated with meaningful differences in the way they experience these early environments. Using data from a large p…
Household chaos and children’s cognitive and socio-emotional development in early childhood: Does childcare play a buffering role
Parenting and children’s representations of family predict disruptive and callous-unemotional behaviors
Data from a large prospective longitudinal study (n = 1,239) was used to investigate the association between observed sensitive parenting in early childhood and children's representations of family relationships as measured by the Family Drawing Paradigm (FDP) in first grade as well as the extent to which these representations partially mediate the influences of early caregiving experiences on later conduct problems and callous-unemotional behavi…
Callous-Unemotional Traits Among Adolescents with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD): Associations with Parenting
The role of household chaos in understanding relations between early poverty and children’s academic achievement
Predictors of behavioral regulation in kindergarten: Household chaos, parenting, and early executive functions
Behavioral regulation is an important school readiness skill that has been linked to early executive function (EF) and later success in learning and school achievement. Although poverty and related risks, as well as negative parenting, have been associated with poorer EF and behavioral regulation, chaotic home environments may also play a role in understanding both early EF and later behavioral regulation at school age. To explore these relations…
On the Practical Interpretability of Cross-Lagged Panel Models: Rethinking a Developmental Workhorse
Reciprocal feedback processes between experience and development are central to contemporary developmental theory. Autoregressive cross-lagged panel (ARCL) models represent a common analytic approach intended to test such dynamics. The authors demonstrate that—despite the ARCL model's intuitive appeal—it typically (a) fails to align with the theoretical processes that it is intended to test and (b) yields estimates that are difficult to interpret…
Emotion Recognition Deficits among Children with Conduct Problems and Callous-Unemotional Behaviors
Early education of dual language learners: An efficacy study of the Nuestros Niños School Readiness professional development program
Testing the association between physical activity and executive function skills in early childhood
Maternal depressive symptoms, mother-child interactions, and children’s executive function
This study examined the independent and mediated associations between maternal depression symptoms (MDS), mother-child interaction, and child executive function (EF) in a prospective longitudinal sample of 1,037 children (50% boys) from predominantly low-income and rural communities. When children were 6, 15 and 24 months of age, mothers reported their level of depressive symptomatology. At 24 and 36 months of age, mother-child interactions durin…
Psychology (39 works) · Developmental psychology (33 works) · Early Childhood Education and Development (21 works) · Child and Adolescent Psychosocial and Emotional Development (19 works) · Cognition (17 works) · Medicine (17 works) · Clinical Psychology (13 works) · Early childhood (12 works) · Demography (11 works) · Clinical Psychology (10 works)