Cynthia A. Stifter, Ph.D.
1987, University of Maryland
Professor of Human Development and Psychology
Research website: Infant Temperament Lab and Emotional Beginnings
136C South Henderson Building
(814) 865-2666
tvr@psu.edu
Research
My research is on socio-emotional development in infants, toddlers, and preschool children with an emphasis on the development of, and individual differences in, infant emotional reactivity and the ability to regulate emotion in infancy and early childhood. Specifically, I have been investigating how the infant’s temperament, physiological make-up, and parenting environment, each contribute to the emergence of the self-regulation of the emotions of anger and fear. More recently, I have become interested in the application of temperament and emotion regulation to physical health. I am collaborating with others to examine the impact of temperament and parental soothing strategies on childhood obesity. In addition, we are studying how positive affect can reduce the effects of stress on children’s immune system. Below are descriptions of two studies for which data collection is completed but coding and analysis continue.
Emotional Beginnings Project. As children develop they are increasingly asked to control their emotions and behavior. Waiting for food, walking but not running, and refraining from touching interesting objects, are just a few of the prohibitions that children face. One particular developmental task is the tolerance of frustration. Being asked to stop playing and come inside to do a chore requires the child to inhibit feelings of anger about having to stop an enjoyable activity. This ability to control one's emotions is often referred to as emotion regulation. The development of the ability to regulate one's emotion is believed to be a product of the child's temperament and environmental influences, specifically parental socialization. One of the primary purposes of the Emotional Beginnings Project of the Infant and Child Temperament Laboratory is to investigate how infants and toddlers come to regulate their emotions. To accomplish our goals we conducted a longitudinal study that was funded by the National Institutes for Mental Health. In this study children and their parents were seen several times from when the child was 2 weeks of age to 6 years of age. We used home visits, inoculation visits, and laboratory visits to gather our data. We also collected heart rate data as a marker of regulation. In addition, questionnaires and infant cry diaries were completed by parents. At the inception, 150 families had joined the project.
To date, we have published a number of papers on the Emotional Beginnings Project data that focused on parent regulation of infant crying, the psychophysiology of early social behavior, the impact of excessive crying on emotion regulation, the stability of temperament types, the socialization of emotion, and the relations among behavioral, emotional and cognitive forms of regulation. Most recently, we published a paper that demonstrated that exuberant children who were unable to regulate their disappointment were at greater risk for behavior problems than inhibited and low reactive children. We are continuing to work on papers that based on the rich, complex data of the Emotional Beginnings Project. In addition, doctoral and honors students are continuing to use these data set for their theses.
Family Life Project. The Family Life Project was five-year collaboration between researchers at Penn State University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, designed to study children and families living in rural poverty. The primary goal of the project was to develop an understanding of the unique ways community, employment, family economic resources, parent-child relationships, and individual differences among children influence development and competencies in children during their first three years of life. Our lab has been involved in Project 1 which is concerned with the characteristics of infants and children growing up in rural poverty. We have been focusing on the child’s temperament and physiology including heart rate and cortisol reactivity. We recently published a study comparing the assessments of parents, our home visitors, and behavioral coders on the infants’ negative and positive reactivity. Students are also actively involved in writing papers and theses from this unique data set.
Education
- University of Maryland, College Park, B.A., 1975, Sociology
- University of Maryland, Baltimore Social Work, M.S.W., 1978, Clinical Social Work
- University of Maryland, College Park, Ph.D., 1987, Human Development
Research and Professional Experience
- 1987-1993: Assistant Professor of Human Development, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA
- 1994-1995: Visiting Scholar, Harvard University School of Public Health
- 1994-1995: Visiting Associate Professor, Harvard University School of Medicine
- 1993-2000: Associate Professor of Human Development, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA
- 2000-Present: Professor of Human Development, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA
Selected Publications (1995-Present)
- Jahromi, L. & Stifter, C.A. (in press). Individual differences in the effectiveness of maternal soothing on reducing infant distress response. Infancy.
- Spinrad, T. & Stifter, C. A. (in press). Toddlers' empathy-related responding to distress: Predictions from negative emotionality and maternal behaviors in infancy. Infancy.
- Stifter, C. A., Cipriano, E., Conway, A., & Kelleher, R. (in press). Temperament and the development of conscience: The moderating role of effortful control. Social Development.
- Putnam, S. & Stifter, C. (2008). Regulated reaction: The impact of Mary Rothbart on the study of temperament. Infant and Child Development, 17, 311-320.
- Stifter, C. A., Willoughby, M., & Towe-Goodman, N. (2008). Agree or agree to disagree: Assessing the convergence between parents and observers of infant temperament. Infant and Child Development, 17, 407-426.
- Stifter, C. A., Putnam, S., & Jahromi, L. (2008). Exuberant and inhibited toddlers: Stability of temperament and prediction to behavior problems. Development and Psychopathology, 20, 401-421.
- Jahromi, L. & Stifter, C.A. (2008). Individual differences in preschoolers’ self-regulation and theory of mind. Merrill-Palmer Quarterly, 54,125-150.
- Warren, H. & Stifter, C. A. (2008). Maternal emotion-related socialization and preschoolers’ developing self- awareness. Social Development, 17, 239-258.
- Willoughby, M., Greenberg, M., Blair, C., Stifter, C., & The Family Life Investigative Group (2007). Neurobehavioral consequences of prenatal exposure to smoking at 6 to 8 months of age. Infancy, 12, 273-302.
- Jahromi, L. & Stifter, C.A. (2007). Individual differences in the effectiveness of maternal soothing on reducing infant distress response. Infancy, 11, 255-269.
- Ahn, H. & Stifter, C.A. (2006). Child care teachers' responses to children's emotional expressions. Early Education and Development, 17, 253-270.
- Quigley, K. & Stifter, C.A. (2006). A comparative validation of sympathetic reactivity in children and adults. Psychophysiology, 43, 357-365.
- Spinrad, T. & Stifter, C. A. (2006). Toddlers’ empathy-related responding to distress: Predictions from negative emotionality and maternal behaviors in infancy. Infancy, 10, 97-121.
- Putnam, S. & Stifter, C.A. (2005). Behavioral approach-inhibition in toddlers: Prediction from infancy, positive and negative affective components, and relations with behavior problems. Child Development, 76, 212-226.
- Fox, N. A. & Stifter, C.A. (2005). Emotional development. In B. Hopkins (Ed.), Cambridge Encyclopedia of Child Development (pp. 234-241). Cambridge: University of Cambridge Press.
- Spinrad, T., Stifter, C., Donelan-McCall, N., & Turner, L. (2004). Mothers' regulation strategies in response to toddlers' affect: Links to later emotion self-regulation. Social Development, 13, 40-55.
- Stifter, C. & Wiggins, C. (2004). Assessment of disturbances in emotion regulation and temperament. In R. DelCarmen-Wiggins & A. Carter, (eds.). Handbook of Infant,Toddler, and Preschool Mental Health Assessment (pp. 79-103). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
- Jahromi, L., Putnam, S., & Stifter, C. (2004). Maternal regulation of infant reactivity from 2 to 6 months. Developmental Psychology, 40, 477-487.
- Spinrad, T., & Stifter, C. A. (2003). Maternal sensitivity and infant emotional reactivity: Concurrent and longitudinal relations. Marriage and Family Review, 34, 243-263.
- Stifter, C. (2003). Child effects on the family: An example of the extreme case and a question of methodology. In A. Booth & A. Crouter (Eds.), Children's influence on family dynamics: The neglected side of family relationships (pp. 79-89). Mahwah, NJ:Erlbaum
- Bono, M. & Stifter, C. (2003). Maternal attention-directing strategies and infant focused attention during problem solving. Infancy, 4, 235-250.
- Stifter, C., Bono, M., & Spinrad, T. (2003). Parent characteristics and conceptualizations associated with the emergence of infant colic. Journal of Reproductive and Infant Psychology, 21, 309-322.
- Putman, S., Spritz, B., & Stifter, C. (2002). Mother-child co-regulation during delay of gratification at 30 months. Infancy, 3, 209-225.
- Stifter, C. (2002). Individual differences in emotion regulation in infancy: A thematic collection. Infancy, 3, 129-132.
- Stifter, C., & Spinrad, T. (2002). The effect of excessive crying on the development of emotion regulation. Infancy, 3, 133-152.
- Putnam, S., & Stifter, C. (2002). Development of approach and inhibition in the first year: Parallel findings from motor behavior, temperament ratings, and directional cardiac response. Developmental Science, 5, 441-451.
- Stifter, C. A. (2001). "Life" after unexplained crying: Child and parent outcomes. In R. Barry, I. St. James Roberts, & M. Keefe (Eds.), New evidence on unexplained early infant crying: Its origins, nature, and management (pp. 273-288). Johnson & Johnson Pediatric Institute.
- Stifter, C. & Corey, J. (2001). Vagal regulation and observed social behavior in infancy. Social Development, 10, 189-201.
- Fish, M., & Stifter, C. A. (1999). Parenting attitudes and behaviors in rural Appalachian mothers: A comparison study. Journal of Rural Community Psychology.
- Porges, S. Doussard-Roosevelt, J., Stifter, C., McClenny, B., & Riniolo, T. (1999). Sleep state and the efficiency of the vagal brake in the regulation of heart rate in the human newborn: An extension of the Polyvagal Theory. Psychophysiology, 36, 14-21.
- Spinrad, T., & Stifter, C. A. (1999). Mothering. In C. Smith (Ed.), The encyclopedia of parenting theory and research (pp. 280-282). Westport, CT: Greenwood Publishing.
- Stifter, C. A., & Spinrad, T. (1999). Colic and parents. In C. Smith (Ed.), The encyclopedia of parenting theory and research (pp. 73-74). Greenwood Publishing: Westport, CT.
- Stifter, C. A., Spinrad, T., & Braungart-Rieker, J. (1999). Toward a developmental model of child compliance: The role of emotion regulation in infancy. Child Development, 70, 21-32.
- Ponirakis, A., Susman, E., & Stifter, C. A. (1998). Negative emotionality and cortisol during adolescent pregnancy and its effects on infant health and autonomic nervous system reactivity. Developmental Psychobiology, 33, 163-174.
- Stifter, C. A., & Bono, M. (1998). The effect of infant colic on maternal self-perceptions and mother-infant attachment. Child: Care, Health, and Development, 24, 339-351.
- Braungart-Reiker, J., Garwood, M., & Stifter, C. (1997). Compliance and noncompliance: The roles of maternal control and child temperament Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 18, 411-428.
- Braungart, J. M., & Stifter, C. A. (1996). Infant responses to frustrating events: Continuity and change in reactivity and regulation. Child Development, 67, 1767-1779.
- Stifter, C. A., & Jain, A. (1996). Psychophysiological correlates of infant temperament: Stability of behavior and autonomic patterning for 5 to 18 month olds. Developmental Psychobiology, 29, 379-391.
- Fish, M., & Stifter, C. A. (1995). Patterns of mother-infant interaction and attachment: A cluster-analytic approach. Infant Behavior and Development, 18, 435-446.
- Halberstadt, A., Cassidy, J. Stifter, C., Parke, R., & Fox, N. (1995). Self-expressiveness with the family context: Psychometric support for a new measure. Psychological Assessment, 7, 93-103.
- Stifter, C. A. (1995). Approach/withdrawal processes in infancy: The relationship between parasympathetic tone and infant temperament. In K. Hood, E. Tobach & G. Greenberg (Eds.), Approach/withdrawal theory and behavioral development. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
- Stifter, C. A., & Braungart, J. M. (1995). The regulation of negative reactivity in infancy: Function and development. Developmental Psychology, 31, 448-455.