Sensitive caregiving is an essential aspect of positive parenting that influences executive functions development, but the mechanisms underlying this association are less clear. Using data from the Family Life Project, a large prospective longitudinal sample of 1292 families residing in rural, predominately low-income communities, the current study examined whether sensitive caregiving impacts executive functions development by shaping behavioral reward processing systems in early postnatal life. Results indicated that higher levels of sensitive caregiving during infancy were associated with heightened reward responsivity at age 4, which in turn predicted superior executive functions ability at age 5. Notably, children's reward responsivity partially mediated the relationship between sensitive caregiving in infancy and executive functions ability at school entry. These findings add to prior work on early experience and children's executive functions and highlight caregiver scaffolding of developing reward processing systems as a potential foundational mechanism for supporting adaptive behavior and self-regulation across the lifespan.

中文翻译：

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敏感的照料和奖励反应：一种连接幼儿教养和执行功​​能发展的新机制

敏感的照料是影响执行功能发展的积极养育的一个重要方面，但这种关联背后的机制尚不清楚。使用来自家庭生活项目的数据，该项目是一个大型前瞻性纵向样本，包含居住在农村（主要是低收入社区）的 1292 个家庭，当前的研究检查了敏感的照料是否通过塑造产后早期的行为奖励处理系统来影响执行功能的发展。结果表明，婴儿期较高水平的敏感照料与 4 岁时更高的奖赏反应性相关，这反过来预示着 5 岁时具有更好的执行功能。值得注意的是，儿童的 婴儿的奖赏反应部分地调节了婴儿时期的敏感照料与入学时的执行功能能力之间的关系。这些发现补充了先前关于早期经验和儿童执行功能的工作，并强调了开发奖励处理系统的看护者脚手架是支持整个生命周期的适应性行为和自我调节的潜在基础机制。