Multilevel Survival Analysis: Studying the Timing of Children's Recurring Behaviors

The timing of events (e.g., how long it takes a child to exhibit a particular behavior) is often of interest in developmental science. Multilevel survival analysis (MSA) is useful for examining behavioral timing in observational studies (i.e., video recordings) of children's behavior. We illust...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Developmental psychology 2019-01, Vol.55 (1), p.53-65
Main Authors: Lougheed, Jessica P, Benson, Lizbeth, Cole, Pamela M, Ram, Nilam
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Anger
Behavior
Behavior Observation Techniques
Child Behavior
Child Behavior - physiology
Child development
Child, Preschool
Childhood Development
Children
Data Analysis
Distraction
Emotional Regulation
Emotional Response
Emotions
Emotions - physiology
Female
Frustration
Hierarchical Linear Modeling
Human
Humans
Male
Mother-Child Relations
Multilevel Analysis
Negative Emotions
Observation
Observational studies
Personality
Psychological Patterns
Self-Control
Statistical analysis
Survival Analysis
Temperament
Temperament - physiology
Thinking - physiology
Time
Toddlers
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Summary:The timing of events (e.g., how long it takes a child to exhibit a particular behavior) is often of interest in developmental science. Multilevel survival analysis (MSA) is useful for examining behavioral timing in observational studies (i.e., video recordings) of children's behavior. We illustrate how MSA can be used to answer 2 types of research questions. Specifically, using data from a study of 117 children 36 months old (SD = .38) during a frustration task, we examined the timing of their recurring anger expressions, and how this is related to (a) negative affectivity, a dimension of temperament related to the ability to regulate emotions, and (b) children's strategy use (distraction, bids to their mother). Contrary to expectations, negative affectivity was not associated with the timing of children's recurring anger expressions. As expected, children's recurring anger expressions were less likely to occur in the seconds when children were using a distraction strategy, whereas they were more likely when children made bids to their mother. MSA is a flexible analytic technique that, when applied to observational data, can yield valuable insights into the dynamics of children's behaviors.
ISSN:0012-1649
1939-0599
DOI:10.1037/dev0000619