The Influence of Temperamental Reactivity and Situational Context on the Emotion-Regulatory Abilities of 3-Year-Old Children

Abstract

Although much research has been conducted on emotion regulation, little work in the preschool period has examined the interrelationships between emotion regulation, temperamental reactivity, and situational context. The authors investigated the temperamental dispositions of fifty-three 3-year-old children (27 boys, 26 girls) and their behavioral responses to several challenging tasks (i.e., stranger-approach situation, busy-caregiver paradigm, and delay-of-gratification task). Results indicated that both situational context and temperamental reactivity influenced the type of emotion-regulatory strategy used and that those relationships were best understood within a developmental framework. Moreover, the authors found that girls displayed more comforting strategies, suggesting that gender differences in emotion regulation may exist.

Self-Regulation

“…Stansbury and Zimmerman (1999) describe four types of emotion regulatory strategies: instrumental or trying to change the situation (e.g., bidding for caregiver attention), comforting or soothing oneself without changing the situation (e.g., thumb-sucking), distraction or redirecting attention elsewhere (e.g., looking away), or cognitive, which is thought to be the most sophisticated and includes reframing the situation in a positive light, bargaining, or compromising. Importantly, children use different strategies depending on their individual characteristics as well as the situational context (Zimmermann and Stansbury 2003). This line of work demonstrates that the regulation of attention and emotion is closely interrelated and also reflects the principles of LCHD.…”

Emotion Regulation and Emotion Understanding in Preschoolers as a Predictor of the Maternal Socialization of Emotion

“…Çocukların duygu düzenleme becerileri ebeveyn ilintili durumlar haricinde pek çok farklı değişkenden etkilenebilmektedir. Gerçekleştirilen araştırmalar, çocukların mizaç özelliklerinin bu değişkenlerden biri olduğunu ve duygu düzenleme becerileri ile arasında önemli bir ilişki bulunduğunu göstermektedir (Altan, 2006;Mangelsdorf, Shapiro ve Marzolf, 1995;Zimmermann ve Stansbury, 2003).…”

Preschool Boys’ Development of Emotional Self-Regulation Strategies in a Sample At Risk for Behavior Problems

“…Some research suggests that the development of emotional SRS due to social factors may differ between boys and girls (Conway, 2005; Eschenbeck, Kohlmann, & Lohaus, 2007; Werner, Cassidy, & Juliano, 2006; Zimmerman & Stansbury, 2003). Research also indicates that boys are more emotionally expressive early in life than girls, and parents' different responses to affect may socialize differential emotional SRS beginning in infancy and early childhood (Brody, 1995; Weinberg, Tronick, Cohn, & Olson, 1999).…”