Emotional Reactivity and Regulation in Head Start Children: Links to Ecologically Valid Behaviors and Internalizing Problems

Abstract

Children’s emotional reactivity may interact with their regulatory behaviors to contribute to internalizing problems and social functioning even early in development. Ninety-one preschool children participated in a longitudinal project examining children’s reactivity and regulatory behaviors as predictors of internalizing problems and positive and negative social behavior in the classroom. Children who paired negative emotion expression with disengagement during a laboratory task showed higher levels of internalizing problems and more negative social behavior in the classroom six months later. Positive emotion expression paired with engagement during a laboratory task predicted more positive social behavior in the classroom six months later. Physiological reactivity and regulation also predicted children’s social behavior in the classroom. Findings suggest that preschool children with maladaptive reactivity and regulatory patterns may be at greater risk for internalizing problems even in early childhood.

Assessment and implications of social withdrawal in early childhood: A first look at social avoidance

“…Taken together, our results are the first to suggest that even in early childhood, parents appear to discriminate among shyness, unsociability, and social avoidance. In terms of preliminary evidence of validity for the new subscale, social avoidance (along with shyness) was associated with indices of emotion dysregulation (i.e., negative emotionality, a lack of soothability), which are commonly linked with the development of internalizing problems in early childhood (e.g., Morgan, Izard, & Hyde, 2014). Perhaps most importantly, consistent with the notion that shyness, unsociability, and social avoidance represent three different reasons why children might remove themselves from opportunities for peer interaction , parent ratings of all three of these constructs were significantly associated with teacher ratings of children's socially withdrawn behaviors at school.…”

Affective Social Competence and Teacher–child Relationship Quality: Race/Ethnicity and Family Income Level as Moderators

“…More generally, children use emotion‐based language and behavior to resolve conflict with both peers and teachers and emotionally dysregulated children may be less able to communicate their academic and social needs (Morgan, Izard, & Hyde, 2014). Given the correlational nature of the data, it is also possible that children who repeatedly have conflict‐laden interactions with their teachers may not have the same opportunities for social emotional learning as other children.…”

Pisotón: un programa de desarrollo psicoafectivo, como alternativa para construir la paz

“…En este sentido los hallazgos de otros estudios han demostraron que la educación emocional impacta positivamente en el bienestar infantil, debido a que incrementan la comprensión y la regulación de emociones, reducen los síntomas emocionales y fortalecen un concepto del yo saludable, además de promover la autogestión efectiva (Ambrona, López-Pérez, & Márquez-González, 2012;Morgan, Izard, & Hyde, 2014;Slee et al, 2009). De igual forma, se encontró que trabajar sobre las dimensiones emocionales promueve las competencias socioemocionales, llevando a una reducción de síntomas externalizados tal como la conducta agresiva, problemas conductuales y la hiperactividad, y, al mismo tiempo, promueve las habilidades sociales, la conducta prosocial y el cumplimiento de las reglas del contexto (Ambrona et al, 2012;Korpershoek, Harms, de Boer, Van Kuijk, & Doolaard, 2016;Moraru, Stoica, Tomuletiu, & Filpisan, 2011;Morgan et al, 2014;Slee et al, 2009). Asimismo, el fortalecimiento de las capacidades de regulación emocional se asocia con mejor salud física (Berking & Wupperman, 2012;Galdona, Urdaneta, Aldaz, Laskibar, & Yanguas, 2011;Mathews, Kerns, & Ciesla, 2014), tanto como con una mayor preparación académica (Brophy-Herb, Zajicek-Farber, Bocknek, McKelvey, & Stansbury, 2013;Korpershoek et al, 2016;Moraru et al, 2011).…”