Concurrent and Longitudinal Correlation Between Children’s Emotional Reactivity, Regulation and Adjustment
Main Article Content
Abstract
This paper describes a study using two different samples to examine concurrent and longitudinal relations between children’s emotional reactivity, regulation and adjustment. Forty-eight children from preschool through second grade were recruited to provide data on concurrent relations between regulation, reactivity and adjustment (sample 1). And forty kindergarten children were recruited and assessed at 2 time points to provides longitudinal relations (sample 2). Emotional reactivity and regulation were assessed during home visits using the same series of disappointment tasks, questionnaires and coding system. In sample 1, teachers completed a problem behavior checklist at the same time with the home visit. In sample 2, teachers completed the checklist two years after home observation. Results indicate that the dysregulation of sadness is associated with internalizing behavior concurrently, and that the dysregulation of anger is associated with externalizing problems two years later. Children’s anger reactivity is associated with both concurrent and later externalizing problems.
Keywords: Anger, sadness, regulation, reactivity, adjustment.
References
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[30] Zeman, J., Shipman, K., & Suveg, C., Anger and sadness regulation: Predictions to internalizing and externalizing symptoms in children. Journal of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology, 31 (2002) 393.
[2] American Psychiatric Association, Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (4th ed.). Washington, DC: Author, 1994.
[3] Belsky, J., Hsieh, K. H., & Crnic, K., Mothering, fathering, and infant negativity as antecedents of boys' externalizing problems and inhibition at age 3 years: Differential susceptibility to rearing experience? Development and Psychopathology, 10 (1998) 301.
[4] Boyle, M. H., Offord, D. R., Racine, Y. A., Szatmari, P., & Sanford, M., Evaluation of the revised Ontario Child Health Study scales. Journal of Child Psychology & Psychiatry and Allied Disciplines, 34 (1993) 189.
[5] Buss, K. A., & Goldsmith, H. H., Fear and anger regulation in infancy: Effects on the temporal dynamic of affective expression. Child Development, 69 (1998) 359.
[6] Calkins, S. D., Gill, K. L., Johnson, M. C., & Smith, C. L., Emotional reactivity and emotional regulation strategies as predictors of social behavior with peers during toddlerhood. Social Development 8 (1999) 310.
[7] Carver, C.S., Negative affects deriving from the Behavioral Approach System. Emotion, 4 (2004) 3.
[8] Cole, P. M., Children's spontaneous control of facial expression. Child Development, 57 (1986) 1309.
[9] Cole, P. M., Teti, L. O., & Zahn-Waxler, C., Mutual emotion regulation and the stability of conduct problems between preschool and early school age. Development and Psychopathology, 15 (2003) 1.
[10] Eisenberg, N. Cumberland, A. Spinrad, T. L., Fabes, R. A., Shepard, S. A., Reiser, M., et al., The relations of regulation and emotionality to children’s externalizing and internalizing problem behavior. Child Development, 72 (2001) 1112.
[11] Eisenberg, N., & Morris, A. S., Children’s emotion-related regulation, In H. Reese & R. Kail (Eds.), Advances in Child Development and Behavior, 30 (2002) 189.
[12] Frick, P. F., & Morris, A. S., Temperament and developmental pathways to conduct problems. Journal of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology, 33 (2004) 54.
[13] Garber, J., Braafladt, N., & Weiss, B., Affect regulation in depressed and nondepressed children and young adolescents, Development & Psychopathology, 7 (1995) 93.
[14] Gilliom, M., Shaw, D. S., Beck, J. E., Schonberg, M. A., & Lukon, J. L., Anger regulation in disadvantaged preschool boys: Strategies, antecedents, and the development of self-control. Developmental Psychology, 38 (2002) 222.
[15] Hubbard, J. A., Observing children's emotion expression in peer interaction in a confederate-based, competitive paradigm. Paper presented at the Society for Research in Child Development biennial meeting, Washington, DC, 1997.
[16] Izard, C. E., Doughtery, L., & Hembree, E., A system for identifying affect expressions by holistic judgments (AFFEX). Newark: Instructional Resources Center, University of Delaware, 1983.
[17] Kagan, J., & Fox, N. A., Biology, culture, and temperamental biases. In N. Eisenberg (Ed.), Handbook of child psychology: Vol. 3. Social, emotional and personality development (6th ed., pp. 167-225). New York: Wiley, 2006.
[18] Morris, A. S., Silk, J. S., Steinberg, L., Sessa, F. M., Avenevoli, S., & Essex, M. J., Tempermental vulnerability and negative parenting as interacting of child adjustment. Journal of Marriage & Family, 64 (2002) 461.
[19] Morris, A. S., Steinberg, L., Sessa, F. M., Avenevoli, S., Silk, J. S., & Essex, M. J., Measuring children’s perceptions of psychological control: Developmental and conceptual considerations. In B. K. Barber (Ed.), Intrusive Parenting: How Psychological Control Affects Children and Adolescents (pp. 125-159). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association Press, 2002.
[20] Rothbart, M. K., Ahadi, S. A., & Hershey, K. L., Temperament and social behavior in childhood. Merrill-Palmer Quarterly, 40 (1994) 21.
[21] Rothbart, M. K., & Bates, J. E., Temperament. In N. Eisenberg (Ed.), Handbook of child psychology: Vol. 3 Social, emotional and personality development (6th ed., pp. 99-166). New York: Wiley, 2006.
[22] Rubin, K. H., Coplan, R. J., Fox, N. A., & Calkins, S. D., Emotionality, emotion regulation, and preschoolers' social adaptation. Development and Psychopathology, 7 (1995) 49.
[23] Rubin, K. H., Hastings, P., Chen, X., Stewart, S., & McNichol, K., Intrapersonal and maternal correlates of aggression, conflict, and externalizing problems in toddlers. Child Development, 69 (1998) 1614.
[24] Rydell, A. M., Berlin, L., & Bohlin, G., Emotionality, emotion regulation, and adaptation among 5- to 8-year-old children. Emotion, 3 (2003) 30.
[25] Silk, J. S., Steinberg, L., & Morris, A. S., Adolescents' emotion regulation in daily life: Links to depressive symptoms and problem behavior. Child Development, 74 (2003) 1869.
[26] Tellegen, A., Watson, D., & Clark, L. A., One dimensional and hierarchical structure of affect. Psychological Science, 10 (1999) 297.
[27] Thompson, R. A., Emotion and self-regulation. In R. A. Thompson (Ed.), Socioemotional development, Vol. 36: Nebraska Symposium of Motivation (pp. 367-467). Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1990.
[28] Thompson, R. A., Emotion regulation: a theme in search of a definition. In N. A. Fox(Ed.), Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development (Serial No. 240 ed., Vol. 59, pp. 25-52). Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1994.
[29] Walden, T. A., & Smith, M. C., Emotion regulation. Motivation and Emotion, 21(1) (1997) 7.
[30] Zeman, J., Shipman, K., & Suveg, C., Anger and sadness regulation: Predictions to internalizing and externalizing symptoms in children. Journal of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology, 31 (2002) 393.