The Relations of Effortful Control and Impulsivity to Children's Resiliency and Adjustment

Abstract

The unique relations of effortful control and impulsivity to resiliency and adjustment were examined when children were 4.5 to 8 years old, and 2 years later. Parents and teachers reported on all constructs and children's attentional persistence was observed. In concurrent structural equation models, effortful control and impulsivity uniquely and directly predicted resiliency and externalizing problems and indirectly predicted internalizing problems (through resiliency). Teacher-reported anger moderated the relations of effortful control and impulsivity to externalizing problems. In the longitudinal model, all relations held at T2 except for the path from impulsivity to externalizing

The relations of effortful control and impulsivity to children's sympathy: A longitudinal study

“…Nonetheless, in children aged 5 and older, we obtained a good fit in models when EC and reactive control were separate but correlated latent constructs-better than if they were combined (e.g., Eisenberg et al, 2004).…”

“…Participants were initially recruited through newspaper ads, letters sent to parents through schools, and flyers posted at local schools (as part of an eight-year longitudinal study of socioemotional development; e.g., Eisenberg et al, 2004;Valiente et al, 2004). The primary caregiving parent in families that initially expressed interest in participating was administered the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL; Achenbach, 1991) over the phone, and this information was used to obtain a diverse sample, including some with borderline and clinical problem behaviors (see Eisenberg, Gershoff et al, 2001;Valiente et al, 2004).…”

“…EC has predicted, often across time, children's externalizing problems (Eisenberg et al, 2000Kochanska & Knaack, 2003;Lemery, Essex, & Snyder, 2002;Lengua, West, & Sandler, 1998; see Muris & Ollendick, 2005) and social and academic competence (e.g., Eisenberg et al 2000;NICHD, 2003;Spinrad et al, 2006). In some of these studies, such prediction has been obtained across time when controlling for earlier levels of the developmental outcome being examined (e.g., Eisenberg et al, 2002Eisenberg et al, , 2004. In addition, impulsivity and behavioral overcontrol--aspects of reactive control--have sometimes been linked to maladjustment (e.g., Huey & Weisz, 1997;Krueger, Caspi, Moffitt, White, Stouthamer-Loeber, 1996;Lemery et al, 2002;Lengua et al, 1998), although there is some evidence that reactive control and EC do not relate in identical ways to externalizing and internalizing problems.…”

Relation of emotion-related regulation to children's social competence: A longitudinal study.

“…In factor analyses, attentional control and inhibitory control have usually loaded together (e.g., Rothbart et al, 2001). Moreover, items related to attention shifting and focusing are considered to tap nearly the same construct (e.g., they are combined in the Early Adolescent Temperament Questionnaire, for example; Capaldi & Rothbart, 1992), and these scales have been significantly related in numerous U.S. samples (e.g., Eisenberg, Zhou et al, 2005) and have loaded on the same construct in confirmatory factor analyses in research with young children (Cumberland-Li, Eisenberg, & Reiser, 2004).…”

Relations among mothers' expressivity, children's effortful control, and their problem behaviors: A four-year longitudinal study.

“…Thus, temperament items receiving mean scores >3.00 and symptom items receiving scores <3.00 were removed from the corresponding scales. Specific items dropped are discussed in the sections on each measure (see Eisenberg et al, 2004). …”