Understanding Emotion Regulation in Children: Temperament and Adjustment

1. Lecture Outline • Emotion Regulation • Definition • Normative Development • Individual Differences in Emotion and Emotion Regulation • Temperament • Temperament Dimensions • Measurement of Temperament • Temperament and Later Adjustment

2. Emotion Regulation

3. Normative Development of ER • Role of Caregivers • Parents help infants and young children regulate negative emotions • Over time, infants and young children gradually become better able to regulate emotions independently

4. Use of cognitive strategies to regulate negative emotions increases with age • Ex: mental distraction; focus on positive aspects of a situation • Use of more effective/appropriate strategies to regulate emotions increases with age

5. Individual Differences in Emotion and ER • Temperament: Biologically based individual differences in emotional characteristics and other behaviors • Show consistency across situations • Relatively stable over time

6. Temperament Dimensions: • Fearful distress/Behavioral Inhibition • Irritable distress • Attention span/persistence • Activity level • Positive affect

7. Measurement of Temperament • Parent report • Structured Observation • Psychophysiological Methods

8. Temperament and Later Adjustment • “Difficult” temperament may include: • High irritable distress or fearful distress • Low attention span/persistence • High activity level • Low positive affect

9. Difficult temperament in infancy/preschool period is correlated with adjustment problems later in life (adolescence, adulthood)

10. Goodness-of-Fit • Degree to which a child’s temperament is compatible with the expectations of the social environment (including the family environment) • Poor goodness-of-fit likely to result in adjustment problems for children