From Toddler to Early Adolescent Emotion Regulation Strategies

Project Summary/Abstract Emotion regulation facilitates adaptive socioemotional functioning across the lifespan; ineffective emotion regulation underlies difficulties in intra- and interpersonal functioning, including mental health difficulties. Emotion regulation is typically assessed as behavioral regulation strategies in early childhood and as cognitive regulation strategies by middle childhood and adolescence. Despite being theoretically linked by cognitive capacities and emotion development, more broadly, there is virtually no knowledge about the link between behavioral emotion regulatory strategies in early childhood and cognitive emotion regulation strategies in early adolescence. Knowledge is particularly lacking for contexts of threat, which may highlight risk for adjustment problems related to avoidance and withdrawal. This project will contribute to the scientific knowledge base of emotion regulation development by leveraging existing data from an ongoing longitudinal, multimethod study to test two specific aims and explore one additional aim. These aims will be examined in light of other well- established correlates of emotion development (sociodemographic family characteristics, children’s verbal ability and executive functions, parent mental health difficulties). Aim 1 is to test whether behavioral (self- soothing, caregiver-focused, and distraction) emotion regulatory strategies at child age 3 predict avoidant and engaged cognitive emotion regulation strategies at a follow-up assessment to be completed when children are 10-14 years old. In a previous phase of our broader longitudinal study, children’s regulatory behaviors were elicited in laboratory tasks characterized by threat (novelty and uncertainty). Avoidant and engaged cognitive emotion regulatory strategies will be assessed by children’s self-report, parent-report, and interviews with children after they engage in laboratory tasks characterized by threat. To provide additional developmental information, Aim 2 is to test whether child age at the follow up assessment (ranging 10-14 years) moderates the relation between behavioral emotion regulatory strategies at age 3 and cognitive emotion regulatory strategies in early adolescence. Finally, the Exploratory Aim is to test theoretically-supported individual (i.e., temperament) and environmental (i.e., maternal emotional environment) variables as potential mediators or moderators of the relation between behavioral emotion regulatory behaviors at age 3 and cognitive emotion regulatory strategies in early adolescence. Understanding the relation between behavioral and cognitive emotion regulation across development will improve and expand current emotion regulation theory and inform targeted socioemotional interventions, aligning with the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development’s mission to ensure that all children reach their fullest potential.