The Interaction between Negative Emotionality and Effortful Control in Early Social‐emotional Development

Abstract

Interactions between reactive and regulatory dimensions of temperament may be particularly relevant to children’s adjustment but are examined infrequently. This study investigated these interactions by examining effortful control as a moderator of the relations of fear and frustration reactivity to children’s social competence, internalizing, and externalizing problems. Participants included 306 three-year-old children and their mothers. Children’s effortful control was measured using observational measures, and reactivity was assessed with both observational and mother-reported measures. Mothers reported on children’s adjustment. Significant interactions indicated that children with higher mother-reported fear or higher observed frustration and lower executive control showed higher externalizing problems whereas children with higher observed fear and higher delay ability demonstrated lower externalizing problems. These results highlight effortful control as a moderator of the relation between reactivity and adjustment, and may inform the development of interventions geared toward the management of specific negative affects.

Concurrent and longitudinal associations of peers’ acceptance with emotion and effortful control in kindergarten

“…Negative emotional intensity often predicts maladjustment, particularly among children who exhibit lower levels of effortful control (e.g., Eisenberg, Fabes, Guthrie, & Reiser, 2000). For example, Moran, Lengua, and Zalewski (2013) found that, among 36–40-month-olds, the frequency and intensity of fear or frustration were positively related to externalizing symptoms for children with low and/or moderate –but not high– effortful control. However, the interaction between anger/frustration or negative emotion and effortful control did not predict social skills (which are related to, but not the same as, peer-nominated acceptance; Moran et al, 2013) or prosocial behaviors (reported by mothers/teachers; Rydell, Berlin, & Bohlin, 2003).…”

“…For example, Moran, Lengua, and Zalewski (2013) found that, among 36–40-month-olds, the frequency and intensity of fear or frustration were positively related to externalizing symptoms for children with low and/or moderate –but not high– effortful control. However, the interaction between anger/frustration or negative emotion and effortful control did not predict social skills (which are related to, but not the same as, peer-nominated acceptance; Moran et al, 2013) or prosocial behaviors (reported by mothers/teachers; Rydell, Berlin, & Bohlin, 2003). Furthermore, Belsky, Friedman, and Hsieh (2001) found that among 15- to 36-month-olds, negative emotionality negatively predicted social competence (e.g., empathy, cooperation) only for children low in regulation (i.e., attention focusing/shifting).…”

Observed emotion frequency versus intensity as predictors of socioemotional maladjustment.

“…Future research should assess emotion expression at home and school to examine emotion profiles and stability across settings, because this information could be informative regarding degrees of maladjustment risk. Future research should also examine emotion frequency and intensity in conjunction with emotion regulation in predicting externalizing symptoms, given previous research showing that negative emotion (typically undistinguished frequency and intensity) often predicts maladjustment particularly among children with low regulation (e.g., Eisenberg, Fabes, Guthrie, & Reiser, 2000; Moran et al, 2013). …”

Associations of anger and fear to later self-regulation and problem behavior symptoms

“…It should be noted that self-regulation skills or its components often have been tested as moderator of the association between negative emotionality and behavior problems (Eisenberg et al, 1996; Moran, Lengua, Zalewski, 2013; Oldehinkel, Hartman, Ferdinand, Verhulst, & Ormel, 2007). The result of this line of research has shown that, children who are prone to experience high levels of negative emotions may be at high risk for developing behavior problems, particularly if they lack the ability to regulate their attention and emotional arousal (e.g., shift their attention away from and focus on non-arousing arousing event/stimuli).…”

“…The result of this line of research has shown that, children who are prone to experience high levels of negative emotions may be at high risk for developing behavior problems, particularly if they lack the ability to regulate their attention and emotional arousal (e.g., shift their attention away from and focus on non-arousing arousing event/stimuli). For example, Moran et al (2013) found that three-year old children with higher mother-reported fear or observed anger displayed high externalizing behavior problems, but only under conditions of low attentional control. Given evidence for both mediating and moderating roles of self-regulation in the links between temperamental negative reactivity and behavior problems, children’s self-regulation at age 6 was tested as both mediating and moderating factor in the relations of children’s dispositional fear/anger at age 4.5 years to anxiety/conduct disorder symptoms at age 7.…”